The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has completed its transformation into a not-for-profit, non-profit organization. Previously, the consortium was purely a merger of educational and research institutions. The W3C standardizes web technologies such as HTML and CSS and is therefore jointly responsible for the technical architecture of the World Wide Web.
The W3C had already announced this step in June 2022. One of the goals of the restart is to be able to work more easily with organizations outside of the US, Europe and Asia. To this end, a new board of directors, consisting of a majority of W3C members, will lead the strategic direction of the organization. The focus should be on more transparency and more global cooperation.
Members should continue to be the focus
At the same time, the new non-profit organization intends to remain true to the “member-driven” approach of the previous W3C: decisions should be made by consensus among the organizations represented. The work on standards should also remain transparent and license-free.
W3C founder Tim Berners-Lee, considered the father of the modern WWW, was proud of the consortium’s achievements to date. At the same time, he looks forward to further improvements that the W3C, with its 28 years of experience as an independent, non-profit public interest organization, will make possible.
Berners-Lee is barely involved in the operational business of the W3C, but is a member of the newly formed board of directors. The web father “actively accompanied and supported the development of the organization he founded”, it says in the press release.
However, the restructuring also entails new obligations. For example, US law requires nonprofit organizations to publish articles of incorporation and a variety of documents, such as tax records and financial reports, that describe the W3C’s operations, balance sheets, cash flow statements, financial statements and reports.
(jvo)
