W3C: new members extend Web standards work

W3C CEO Jeff Jaffe

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET )

The World Wide Web Consortium announced 35 new members, a move it says signals growing interest in HTML and other Web technologies it standardizes.

Among the new members are: China Unicom, Comcast, Facebook, LG Electronics, NEC Corporation, Netflix, SanDisk, Sony, and Zynga.

This "more diverse community at W3C" will help bring Web standards to industries including mobile devices, television, publishing, and advertising, W3C CEO Jeff Jaffe said in a statement. "The immediate impact of new Web standards will result in more innovation, more powerful Web-based products and services, and economic opportunities for businesses and consumers alike."

Jaffe, who's been at the organization's helm for just over a year, is hoping to raise the W3C's relevance after it lost touch with development of its core technology, Hypertext Markup Language, some years ago. To extend it, the W3C works in conjunction with another, less formal organization, the Web Hypertext Applications Technology Working Group (WHATWG), which had kept the HTML development alive when the W3C had been focusing instead on an incompatible and ultimately unsuccessful alternative, XHTML 2.0.

One major change at W3C is the attempt to form faster-moving, easy-to-start groups to tackle new ideas while they're young.