W3C

The Web Platform Working Group has published a W3C Recommendation of HTML 5.1. This specification defines the 5th major version, first minor revision of the core language of the World Wide Web: the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In this version, new features continue to be introduced to help Web application authors, new elements continue to be introduced based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention continues to be given to defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability.

The W3C Social Web Working Group is calling for review of Webmention, which is now a Proposed Recommendation. Webmention provides a mechanism for a webpage to notify another webpage when it mentions its URL, and when the content around the mention changes or is deleted. From the receiver’s perspective, it’s a way to request notifications when other sites mention it. This mechanism is a core building block for a decentralized (social) Web, because it allows sites to automatically learn about connected content, without any prior setup or agreement. For users, an immediate benefit is cross-site comments. Comments on the PR are welcome until 30 November.

The W3C Social Web Working Group is calling for implementations of Linked Data Notifications (LDN), which is now a Candidate Recommendation. LDN describes how servers (receivers) can have messages pushed to them by applications (senders), as well as how other applications (consumers) may retrieve those messages for use, for example in a user interface, or an automated process. Any resource (like a blog post, or a user profile) can advertise a receiving endpoint (Inbox) for the messages targeted to that resource. The messages themselves are expressed in RDF, and can contain any data. Implementations can be any or all of senders, recievers or consumers. Existing Linked Data Platform implementations are already LDN conformant receivers – an LDN Inbox is just an LDP Container – so we particularly encourage testing and reports from previous implementors of LDP.

The Web Performance Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of High Resolution Time Level 2. This specification defines an API that provides the current time in sub-millisecond resolution and such that it is not subject to system clock skew or adjustments.

The Web Performance Working Group has published two Working Drafts:

• User Timing Level 2: This specification defines an interface to help web developers measure the performance of their applications by giving them access to high precision timestamps.
• High Resolution Time Level 3: This specification defines an API that provides the current time in sub-millisecond resolution and such that it is not subject to system clock skew or adjustments.

Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.1 has been published as a Candidate Recommendation and is now undergoing implementation finalization and testing. WAI-ARIA recommends approaches for developers to make widgets, navigation, and behaviors accessible to people with disabilities. WAI-ARIA 1.1 adds features new since WAI-ARIA 1.0 to complete the HTML + ARIA accessibility model and supports additional modules for digital publishing and graphics. The draft implementation report shows the progress of testing. Please send implementation information or comments by 16 December 2016. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

The Web Platform Working Group has published a W3C Recommendation of Pointer Lock. This specification defines an API that provides scripted access to raw mouse movement data while locking the target of mouse events to a single element and removing the cursor from view. This is an essential input mode for certain classes of applications, especially first person perspective 3D applications and 3D modeling software.