Media kit
W3C in a few words
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international multi-stakeholder community where member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop open web standards.
W3C well-known standards HTML and CSS are the foundational technologies upon which websites are built. The Web Consortium also provides the standards that undergird modern businesses on the web, in areas such as entertainment, communications, digital publishing, and financial services.
W3C specifications are created in the open, provided for free under the groundbreaking W3C Patent Policy and meet the needs of civil society in terms of accessibility, internationalization, security, and privacy.
Value of web standards About W3C standards
Mission & story
The mission of the Web Consortium is to lead the Web to its full potential by creating technical standards and guidelines to ensure that the Web remains open, accessible, and interoperable for everyone around the globe.
W3C's vision for "One Web" brings together thousands of dedicated technologists representing more than 350 member organizations and dozens of industry sectors. W3C is a public-interest non-profit organization incorporated in the United States of America, led by a Board of Directors and employing a global staff across the globe.
Founded in 1994 as a global consortium by Web Inventor Tim Berners-Lee to foster a consistent architecture accommodating progress in web standards, the World Wide Web Consortium relaunched in 2023 by forming an independent organization preserving the member-oriented approach, existing worldwide outreach and cooperation, as well as the core process and mission to shepherd the Web by developing open web standards as a single global organization with contributions from W3C Members, staff, and the international community.
Read about W3C history Learn more on W3C mission
Awards & recognition
In 2011, the World Wide Web Consortium was ranked number one in the Top 50 achievements associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in its first 150 years.
For its work to make online videos more accessible with captions and subtitles, W3C received a 2016 Emmy Award. For its work to standardize a Full TV Experience on the Web, W3C received a 2019 Emmy Award. And for its work standardizing font technology for custom downloadable fonts and typography for web and TV devices, W3C received a 2021 Emmy Award.
There are over 2 billion websites on the Web today and a significant number of these, whether large or small, use HTML, CSS and other Web Consortium technologies. From technology powering search engines and blogs, to videoconferencing, W3C standards have been in use since 1996 and are mapping out the future.
Our reach even extends beyond this planet: NASA has used our technologies in the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers.
Get news & press releases
News media, Analysts and Friends of W3C interested in receiving press releases, media advisories, social media and other news announcements may subscribe to various lists and feeds:
- News (news feed)
- W3C Blog (blog feed)
- press releases (releases feed, subscribe to our press mailing-list)
- Social media: mastodon, LinkedIn
W3C brand
Refer to us
You may refer to us as "the World Wide Web Consortium", "the Web Consortium" or "W3C", but not "the W3C".
When using the acronym, please treat it as a proper noun, unless the acronym is used as a singular adjective (e.g., "The W3C Team is small but mighty.")
The corporate form "World Wide Web Consortium, Inc.” or "W3C Inc." are to be used only when referring to the legal entity structure.
Logo
For the W3C icon or any of the many other logos made available by W3C; please see the W3C logo usage policy.
Interviews
W3C Staff and Working Group participants are among the world's experts in Web technologies and their impacts. The Marketing & Communications Team will help put you in touch with these experts to answer questions on Web technologies, Web standards, and the way W3C does its work.
W3C experts are pleased to be resources to news media and analysts and are happy to schedule interviews or briefings whenever possible. Please send all requests to w3t-pr@w3.org.
Be mindful that interview and briefing requests are currently reviewed in US Eastern timezone. Due to the nature of W3C's distributed global team, request for interviews with short lead times may be challenging for us to accommodate.
Note: w3t-pr@w3.org is a moderated internal mailing-list.
CEO Interviews
The W3C CEO is responsible for all of W3C's global operations, for maintaining the interests of all of W3C's stakeholders, and for sustaining a culture of cooperation and transparency, so that W3C continues to be the leading forum for the technical development and stewardship of the Web. Together with Tim Berners-Lee, staff, members and other public stakeholders, the W3C CEO develops and communicates the strategic vision and mission of W3C.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee Interviews
Due to the volume of requests for Sir Tim Berners-Lee, we cannot guarantee a prompt reply to your request. We will do our best to reply within a reasonable time.
In your request, include your name, your publication, the purpose and format of the interview, the language in which it will be published, your deadline, and your contact information.
We also suggest that you read the Tim Berners-Lee FAQ, which may answer some of your questions.
Speaker requests
If you wish for someone from W3C to speak at an event, please write to w3t-pr@w3.org unless the request is for Sir Tim Berners-Lee, in which case, please refer to Tim Berners-Lee speaking engagements.
Media contacts
To reach a W3C media contacts directly: