Open Media Web

W3C has begun to organize a series of workshops to bring the Web community, the television industry and other producers of consumer electronics together.  Participants in these workshops will have the opportunity to share their own perspectives, requirements, and ideas to ensure that emerging global standards meet their needs.

Evolution of Web technologies

The explosion of the mobile device market demonstrates how consumers have come to expect and rely on access to the network from anywhere, at any time, including from mobile computers, phones, automobiles, and more.  Though consumers do not yet have the same expectations about their televisions, this will surely change in the near future given the importance of television in people’s lives, ongoing display and feature improvements, and the opportunity for new services created by increased connectivity, such as:

• the ability to immediately purchase through the Internet items advertised during a commercial
• using applications running in a browser on the television to dim lighting in the home, program a DVR, or control other consumer electronics
• automatically pausing a program when receiving a videoconference request (through VoIP) on the screen
• watching Internet TV on a television set

There are significant business opportunities in rising to the challenge of satisfying this desire for connectivity and ensuring that people have access to the Web from their televisions.

The demand for access to applications, video, and other network services continues to grow.  The Web platform itself continues its expansion to support mobile devices, television, home appliances, in-car systems, and more consumer electronics.  To meet the growing demand, the Web platform of the future will require smarter integration of non-PC devices with Web technology so that both hardware and software vendors can provide richer Web applications on various devices at lower costs.

First W3C workshop in Tokyo, Japan ; 2-3 Sept. 2010

Participants in this first Workshop will share insights on topics such as the advantages of supporting HTML5 (such as its rich feature set, global language support, and support for accessibility), compatibility with existing television technology, performance issues, the transition from existing approaches to Web-based ones, digital rights management, nomadic user interfaces (where users change devices without losing the flow of their activity), and more.

Web on TV
2-3 September 2010
Mita, Tokyo, Japan
http://www.w3.org/2010/09/web-on-tv/

Plans for a Second W3C workshop in Europe ; beg. 2011

The OMWeb team plans for a second Workshop, in Europe, likely during the first quarter of 2011.  If you are interested in early involvement in the Workshop in Europe  (such as joining the program committee), please contact us!