About W3C web standards | Web Standards

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clean-list" role="list"> <li><a href="/">Home</a></li> <li><a href="/standards/">Web Standards</a></li> <li><a href="/standards/about/" aria-current="page">About W3C web standards</a></li> </ol> </div> </div> </nav> <main id="main" > <div class="content"> <article> <h1>About W3C web standards</h1> <nav class="l-box l-box--no-border translations" aria-label="Translations"> <div class="l-sidebar"> <div> <div class="sidebar"> <span lang="en">Read this page in:</span> </div> <div class="not-sidebar"> <div class="l-cluster"> <ul class="clean-list translation-list"> <li> <a href="/zh-hans/standards/about/" hreflang="zh-Hans" lang="zh-Hans" dir="auto" > 中文（简体） </a> </li> <li> <a href="/ja/standards/about/" hreflang="ja" lang="ja" dir="auto" > 日本語 </a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <nav class="toc" aria-labelledby="toc-label"> <h2 id="toc-label">Page contents</h2> <ul><li><a href="#what-are-web-standards">What are Web standards?</a></li><li><a href="#funnel">W3C documents and future web standards</a></li><li><a href="#referring-to-w3c-specifications">Referring to W3C specifications</a></li><li><a href="#w3c-persistence-policy">W3C persistence policy</a></li><li><a href="#comments-on-w3c-specifications">Comments on W3C specifications</a></li><li><a href="#re-using-a-standard-or-part-thereof-for-a-book-or-other-purpose">Re-using a Standard or part thereof for a book (or other purpose)</a></li></ul></nav> <div class="component component--text"> <p>Web standards are the building blocks of the web. They are the blue prints of how to implement browsers, blogs, graphic editors, search engines, and many more software that power our experience on the web.</p> <p>They enable developers to build rich interactive experiences that can be available on any device.</p> </div> <div class="component component--text"> <h2 id="what-are-web-standards">What are Web standards?</h2><p>W3C Recommendations are standards.</p><p>W3C publishes documents that define Web technologies. These documents follow a <a href="/policies/process/">process</a> designed to promote consensus, fairness, public accountability, and quality. At the end of this process, W3C publishes <a href="/TR/">Recommendations</a>, which are considered Web standards.</p> </div> <div class="component component--text"> <h2 id="funnel">W3C documents and future web standards</h2><p>W3C publishes several types of documents that are not standards.</p><p><a class="button" href="https://www.w3.org/standards/types/">Discover the types of documents W3C publishes</a></p><p>Input to the W3C standards process may come from a variety of places, including:</p><ul><li>Conversations with W3C Members, including <a href="/Submission/">Member submissions</a></li><li><a href="/events/workshops/">W3C Workshops</a></li><li><a href="https://www.w3.org/liaisons/">Liaisons</a> with other standards bodies</li><li>Tracking the activity in hundreds of public <a href="/community/groups/">W3C Community Groups</a></li></ul><p>The <a href="/Strategy/Funnel">Strategy incubation pipeline</a> documents the exploration of potential new work in phases of Incubation and Evaluation, and eventually in the chartering stages of new standards groups.</p><p><strong>Public input is welcome at any stage</strong> but particularly once Incubation has begun. This helps W3C identify work that is sufficiently incubated to warrant standardization, to review the ecosystem around the work and indicate interest in participating in its standardization, and then to draft a charter that reflects an appropriate scope. Ongoing feedback can speed up the overall standardization process.</p> </div> <div class="component component--text"> <h2 id="referring-to-w3c-specifications">Referring to W3C specifications</h2><p>Each W3C Technical Report has several URIs associated with it, located at the beginning of the document:</p><ol><li>A <strong>"this version" URI</strong>, which identifies the specific document. </li><li>A <strong>"latest published version" URI</strong>, which identifies the most recently published draft in a document series.</li><li>An <strong>"Editor's Draft" URI,</strong> which may or may not have review from the Working Group.</li></ol><p>If you mean to refer to a specific version of a document, please use the "this version" URI. If you need to refer to "the most up-to-date version", please use the "latest published version" URI. If you need to refer to the version of the document which the group is currently iterating on, please use the "Editor's Draft" URI. For more information, see <a href="https://www.w3.org/2005/05/tr-versions">Version Management in W3C Technical Reports</a>. </p> </div> <div class="component component--text"> <h2 id="w3c-persistence-policy">W3C persistence policy</h2><p>According to <a href="https://www.w3.org/policies/uri-persistence/">W3C persistence policy</a>, W3C will make every effort to make a given document indefinitely available, in its original form, at its "this version" URI.</p><p>W3C may correct broken markup and broken links in place (per the <a href="https://www.w3.org/2003/01/republishing/">in-place modification policy</a>) but otherwise will make every effort not to change content after publication of a document.</p> </div> <div class="component component--text"> <h2 id="comments-on-w3c-specifications">Comments on W3C specifications</h2><p>Each W3C Technical Report includes a "Status of this document" section near the front. In this section, you will find information about where to send comments.</p> </div> <div class="component component--text"> <h2 id="re-using-a-standard-or-part-thereof-for-a-book-or-other-purpose">Re-using a Standard or part thereof for a book (or other purpose)</h2><p>See the W3C <a href="https://www.w3.org/copyright/document-license/">Document license</a> for answers to questions about <a href="https://www.w3.org/copyright/">copyright</a>.</p> </div> </article> <div class="related"> <nav class="related__inner" aria-labelledby="related-label"> <h2 id="related-label" class="txt-jupiter">In this section</h2> <ul class="clean-list" role="list"> <li><a href="/standards/about/" aria-current="page">About W3C web standards</a></li> <li><a href="/standards/licensing/">Licensing information</a></li> <li><a href="/standards/review/">Reviews and public feedback</a></li> <li><a href="/standards/types/">Types of documents W3C publishes</a></li> </ul> </nav> </div> </div> </main> <aside class="crosslinks"> <div class="l-center"> <div class="component component--columns component--columns--images"> <div class="component--columns__intro"> <h2>See also</h2> <p></p> </div> <ul class="clean-list" role="presentation"> <li> <div class="card" data-component="card"> <div class="card__text"> <h3 class="card__heading"> <a href="/TR/" class="card__link">All W3C standards and drafts</a> </h3> <p> This page lists all W3C standards and specifications at any maturity level and by any W3C Working Groups. </p> <p class="txt-pluto"> Directory list </p> </div> </div> </li> <li> <div class="card" data-component="card"> <div class="card__text"> <h3 class="card__heading"> <a href="/standards/types/" class="card__link">Types of documents W3C publishes</a> </h3> <p> Understand the differences between the various types of documents published at W3C and what each stage of maturity implies. </p> <p class="txt-pluto"> Page </p> </div> </div> </li> <li> <div class="card" data-component="card"> <div class="card__text"> <h3 class="card__heading"> <a href="/translations/" class="card__link">Translations of W3C standards</a> </h3> <p> This page lists translations of current W3C standards and drafts </p> <p class="txt-pluto"> Page </p> </div> </div> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </aside> </div> <footer class="global-footer"> <div class="l-center"> <div class="global-footer__links"> <div class="l-cluster"> <ul class="clean-list" role="list"> <li><a href="https://www.w3.org/" hreflang="en"><span lang="en" dir="ltr">Home</span></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.w3.org/contact/" hreflang="en"><span lang="en" dir="ltr">Contact</span></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.w3.org/help/" hreflang="en"><span lang="en" dir="ltr">Help</span></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.w3.org/donate/" hreflang="en"><span lang="en" dir="ltr">Donate</span></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.w3.org/policies/" hreflang="en"><span lang="en" dir="ltr">Legal & Policies</span></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.w3.org/about/corporation/" hreflang="en"><span lang="en" dir="ltr">Corporation</span></a></li> <li><a href="https://status.w3.org/" hreflang="en"><span lang="en" dir="ltr">System Status</span></a></li> </ul> </div> <ul class="clean-list" role="list"> <li> <a class="with-icon--larger" href="https://w3c.social/@w3c" hreflang="en"> <img class="icon icon--larger" src="https://www.w3.org/assets/website-2021/svg/mastodon.svg" width="20" height="20" alt aria-hidden="true" loading="lazy"/> <span class="visuallyhidden"><span lang="en" dir="ltr">W3C on Mastodon</span></span> </a> </li> <li> <a class="with-icon--larger" href="https://github.com/w3c/" hreflang="en"> <img class="icon icon--larger" src="https://www.w3.org/assets/website-2021/svg/github.svg" width="20" height="20" alt aria-hidden="true" loading="lazy"/> <span class="visuallyhidden"><span lang="en" dir="ltr">W3C on GitHub</span></span> </a> </li> </ul> </div> <p class="copyright"><span lang="en" dir="ltr">Copyright © 2025 <a href="https://www.w3.org/">World Wide Web Consortium</a>.<br> <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr><sup>®</sup> <a href="https://www.w3.org/policies/#disclaimers">liability</a>, <a href="https://www.w3.org/policies/#trademarks">trademark</a> and <a rel="license" href="https://www.w3.org/copyright/document-license/" title="W3C Document License">permissive license</a> rules apply.</span></p> </div> </footer> </div> <script src="/assets/website-2021/js/translations-sorting.js"></script> </body> </html>

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