Linux
W3C stands for:
World Wide Web Consortium. They make guidelines for the internet and the way it works.
In 1994, five years after inventing the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee founded the
World Wide Web Consortium(
W3C) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
The mission of W3C is: "To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web." Note, these are "guidelines" not rules - yet.
Check your website to see if you pass or fail . Enter your URL :
http://validator.w3.org/Being W3C compliant helps ensure that the look and feel of your website remains very similar when accessed from any browser from different platforms like Mac or Unix/
Linux or even when accessed from handheld devices like PDAs or cell phones.
In addition, compliance ensures accessibility for the disabled. More and more countries are adopting this as law. Recently damages were awarded to a blind user when he filed a lawsuit against the owners of a website he found to be inaccessible. This will become commonplace.
So after checking your website did you pass or fail ? Most likely you didn't pass, less than 7% of all websites are W3C compliant. Go back to your developer and ask him to code to the guidelines and don't accept anything less.
The take away: The guidelines will become rules. The rules will become law. Whether you have a website now or are planning on getting one soon, make W3C compliance a must.
To learn more reach out to jeff@cookee.biz or check on
http://www.cookee.biz
