Mobile Industry Leaders Agree on Best Practices for Mobile Web Content; W3C Invites Review of Guidelines for Improved Mobile Browsing.

http://www.w3.org/ -- Key players in the mobile industry have reached a preliminary agreement on best practices for mobile Web content, an important step in W3C's project to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy, and convenient as Web access from a desktop device. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 provides guidelines for creating a consistent and positive user experience across the rapidly growing number of Web-enabled mobile devices. The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group invites review from the broader community of this Last Call Working Draft; see the draft for details about sending review comments before 17 February 2006.

W3C urges all attendees of the upcoming 3GSM World Congress (in Barcelona, 13-16 February 2006) to visit the W3C booth at 3GSM06, located in Hall 2, stand G78, to learn more about the latest mobile Web advances from W3C.

Mobile Web Design Guidelines Capture Experience, Common Sense

"Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0" condenses the experience of many mobile Web stakeholders into practical advice on creating content that will work well on mobile devices. Authors and other content producers will value the shared experience of how to create content that makes browsing convenient on mobile devices and to avoid known pitfalls on those devices (such as pop-ups and page-scrolling).

Broad Industry Support

"Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0" was developed by a Working Group that included representatives from 30 organizations: Afilias Limited, America Online, Inc. (AOL), ANEC European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation, Argo Interactive Ltd, AT&T, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), elmundo.es, ERICSSON, France Telecom, Fundacion CTIC (Centro Tecnologico para el Desarrollo en Asturias de las Tecnologias de la Informacion y la Comunicacion), Fundacion ONCE, Go Daddy.com, Google, Inc., Indus Net Technologies, International Webmasters Association / HTML Writers Guild (IWA-HWG), Internet Content Rating Association, mTLD Top Level Domain Limited, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Openwave Systems Inc., Opera Software, Segala, Sevenval AG, T-Online International AG, The Boeing Company, TIM Italia SpA, University of Helsinki, Vodafone and Volantis Systems Ltd.

This work is part of the W3C Mobile Web Initiative, which is supported by nineteen MWI sponsors, including key players in the mobile production chain: Afilias, Argogroup, Bango.net, Drutt Corporation, Ericsson, France Telecom, HP, Jataayu Software, mTLD, MobileAware, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Opera Software, TIM Italia, RuleSpace, Segala M Test, Sevenval, Vodafone, and Volantis.

MWI Sponsors enjoy unique benefits, including a seat on the MWI Steering Committee, the group that sets the direction of the MWI. For example, the MWI Steering Committee is considering such opportunities as test suite development and training programs. W3C invites new MWI Sponsors to help shape current and future W3C activities in the mobile area.

About W3C's Mobile Web Initiative (W3C-MWI)

The mission of W3C's Mobile Web Initiative (W3C MWI) is to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy, and convenient as Web access from a desktop device. Through the MWI Sponsorship Program, key players in the mobile production chain, including authoring tool vendors, content providers, adaptation providers, handset manufacturers, browser vendors and mobile operators lead the Initiative. MWI participants develop authoring guidelines, checklists and best practices, as well as a database of descriptions that can be used by content authors to adapt their content to a particular device. For more information see http://www.w3.org/Mobile/

About the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth for the Web. Over 400 organizations are Members of the Consortium. W3C is jointly run by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France, Keio University in Japan, and has additional Offices worldwide. For more information see http://www.w3.org/