Today the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Joint Technical Committee JTC 1, Information Technology, of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) announced formal approval of a package of W3C Web Services technologies as ISO/IEC International Standards. As ISO/IEC JTC 1 Standards, these widely deployed technologies now benefit from formal recognition from national bodies, which will promote interoperability and reduce market fragmentation, thus benefiting all users.
“This is good news for ensuring that people can use the Web anywhere, on any device,” said Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. “The W3C Membership has demonstrated strong support for this collaboration with the JTC 1 community in order to enhance global ICT interoperability. W3C’s Open Web platform is poised to be the interoperable platform of choice for an expanding Web of services, devices, and people. As these technologies become stable standards, the recognition by national bodies of W3C’s community, process, and Royalty-Free patent policy will only grow in significance.”
The package of W3C Web Services technologies was first submitted to ISO/IEC JTC 1 Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) in January 2011. The package included eight specifications, including SOAP 1.2, MTOM, Addressing 1.0 and Policy 1.5, which are foundation specifications for message-based service technology that has been adopted by industry worldwide. W3C has been an approved JTC 1 PAS Submitter since November 2010, and is one of eight organizations that are currently approved. Under the Publicly Available Specification procedures, organizations accredited as valid PAS Submitters can send their specifications directly to JTC 1 for national body voting to become recognized International Standards.
“ISO/IEC JTC 1 is very pleased with this first and successful opportunity to take the important work of W3C and have it transposed into formally approved ISO/IEC Standards,” said Karen Higginbottom, ISO/IEC JTC 1 Chair. “We look forward to a strong and constructive relationship.”
The benefits of collaboration for interoperability
W3C has developed processes and other policies that promote the development of high-quality, consensus-driven standards, many of which power the Web and enterprise computing. The ISO and IEC imprimatur increases the avenues for adoption of W3C technology and guidelines. To many national bodies, the ISO and IEC brands will be more familiar than the W3C brand. In some cases, such as procurement, a country may be required to use ISO/IEC standards. For these reasons and others, W3C believes that formal approval by JTC 1 of W3C standards as International Standards will increase deployment, reduce fragmentation, and provide all users with greater interoperability.
“As Secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is very proud of the successful collaboration between ISO/IEC JTC 1 and W3C,” said Lisa Rajchel, ISO/IEC JTC 1 Secretary. “Approval of the W3C specifications once again demonstrates strong cooperation between the formal standards process and consortia.”
W3C anticipates that its next submission will be the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. To learn more about W3C and the ISO/IEC JTC1 PAS Submission process, see the W3C PAS FAQ.
