Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

What Are Standards?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) creates and oversees the development of web technologies, including XML, HTML, and their numerous applications. They also keep their eye on higher-level issues such as making content accessible to the greatest number of devices and users, as well as laying a common foundation for future development, thus making web content “forward compatible.”

The W3C is not an official standards body, but rather a joint effort by experts in web-related fields to bring order to the development of web technologies. The W3C releases its final word on how various tasks (such as HTML markup) should be handled in documents called “Recommendations.” Most of their recommendations become the de facto standards for web development. There are other standards bodies that also affect the Web and the Internet at large, including those described next.

ISO (International Organization for Standardization)

The ISO is a true standards organization that manages more than 10,000 standards, including everything from information systems and character sets to the dimensions of 220-size film and the grain size of coated adhesives. Their seal of approval helps keep commerce and information technologies compatible world wide.

IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force)

The IETF is an international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet as a whole. It publishes Request for Comments (RFCs) that define ...