Great expectations – the sequel: Updates from the digital standards front lines

Although the Web has, since its inception, been a medium for publishing content, in February of 2013, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) dipped its toes into the waters of the commercial publishing industry with its first community workshop in New York City titled, “eBooks: Great Expectations for Web Standards.” Five years later, and with the combined IDPF and W3C marking its one-year anniversary, some people still think that the W3C works only on HTML, CSS, and what comes after EPUB. However, W3C is actively working on many new standards that will impact publishers in all segments. There is a family of groups at W3C dedicated to accessibility, including web accessibility education and outreach; groups work on security, data, real-time communication, and permissions; designers contribute to cutting-edge CSS and fonts. So much of the publishing workflow is touched by standards. In this talk, Tzviya Siegman (Wiley) will offer an in-depth overview of the publishing activity at W3C, including the documents planned for publication in 2018 and beyond. Karen Myers (W3C) will highlight several standards and areas of interest that affect publishing, such as web payments, credentials, and virtual reality, while explaining how everyone can get involved as the community strives toward the fulfillment of “great expectations” for a new future of publishing on the Web.