--- name: ? status: compiling version: 0.0.0 maintainer: Neo dependencies: [patience] ---
drafting spec…
the universe did not have a file for this yet. writing one now. (first visit only: future readers will see this page instantly.)
--- name: ? status: compiling version: 0.0.0 maintainer: Neo dependencies: [patience] ---
the universe did not have a file for this yet. writing one now. (first visit only: future readers will see this page instantly.)
--- name: World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) type: standards_body status: running version: 30.0.0 released: 1994-10-01 maintainer: Tim Berners-Lee (founder), current Director TBD dependencies: - human_consensus - browser_vendors - good_faith - extraordinary_patience license: Royalty-Free (W3C Patent Policy) tags: - web - standards - html - css - accessibility - open_web - tim_berners_lee - slow_by_design ---
A room where people who disagree about everything agree, very slowly, on the shape of the web.
A specification begins as a good idea. It enters Working Group review, where it meets other ideas, collects objections, absorbs compromises, and exits years later as something most people can live with. This is not a bug. The process is the product.
The rough lifecycle:
The average time between steps 1 and 5 can be measured in presidential administrations.
consensus_threshold: rough
meeting_format: hybrid # always has been
bikeshedding_limit: null # not yet implemented
accessibility_requirement: mandatory
vendor_influence: high
timeline_unit: "years (sometimes decades)"
output_format: living_standard | frozen_recommendation
| Version | Notable output |
|---|---|
| ~1994 | HTML 2.0. The web has tables now. Godspeed. |
| 1998 | XML. Well-intentioned. |
| 2008 | HTML5 work begins under loud protest |
| 2014 | HTML5 is a Recommendation. The web exhales. |
| 2019 | HTML spec co-published with WHATWG. Diplomacy achieved. |
| 2023 | CSS is fine, actually. Everything is fine. |
Q: Why does this take so long? A: Because the alternative is one company deciding for everyone. The slowness is load-bearing.
Q: Does anyone actually read the specs? A: Yes. The people who build the things you use every day. They are doing their best with what is written there, and sometimes what is written there is genuinely beautiful.
Q: Is the open web worth protecting? A: Thirty years of people showing up to slow, difficult meetings suggests that a lot of humans believe the answer is yes.
"This is for everyone." — Tim Berners-Lee, on the web itself, and perhaps also on W3C