World Wide Web Consortium
Synonyms
W3 Consortium
W3C
(W3C) The main standards body for the web. W3C works with the global community to establish international standards for client and server protocols that enable on-line commerce and communications on the Internet. It also produces reference software.
W3C was created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on 25 October 1994. Netscape Communications Corporation was a founding member. The Consortium is run by MIT LCS and INRIA, in collaboration with CERN where the web originated. W3C is funded by industrial members but its products are freely available to all. The director is Tim Berners-Lee who invented the web at the Center for European Particle Research (CERN).