World Wide Web Consortium

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the principal agency responsible for developing standards for the Internet, including guidelines, specifications, software, and tools. It consists of a series of organizations (as of 2017, 461 organizations) that work together to advance standards in order to improve the web’s functionality, security, and transparency and to promote interoperability among its members. Its charter states that its mission is to “lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability.” For example, it ensures that compatible versions of HTML (hypertext markup language) are widely used so that all webpages are readable. It promotes best practices and web access by many different devices. It also liaisons with other organizations ...