The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international, public-interest, non-profit organization dedicated to developing web standards and guidelines. Its mission is to maximize the web’s potential by creating common protocols that foster its evolution and ensure interoperability. Founded by Tim Berners-Lee, the W3C is now led by a President and Chief Executive and governed by a Board of Directors.
The organization is supported by a staff of approximately 50 experts, who work under the direct leadership of the President and Chief Executive. Additionally, W3C Members—which include companies and organizations—collaborate in various capacities to develop common standards and guidelines, while individuals contribute through working groups and public discussions
For a brief history of the W3C, visit the organization’s website.
How Does it Work? W3C Activities and Groups#
When a relevant area in web development is identified, the W3C creates an activity, typically composed of working groups, interest groups, and other kinds of groups. For example, the Semantic Web Activity was launched in 2001 to focus on the development of the Semantic Web foundations, including RDF, OWL, and SPARQL. Since 2013, it has become part of the W3C Data Activity: the Semantic Web was about integrating data and improving interoperability, while the new Data Activity includes such concerns framing them in the Linked Open Data paradigm. The Semantic Web Activity included multiple Working and Interest Groups, most of which have closed after their charter periods expired (see below for more on charters). Many Semantic Web Standards and Recommendations have been drafted by these groups.
Each W3C activity consists of different kinds of groups that have their own specific duties and goals within the organization’s scope. For example, Working Groups practically develop the standards, enhance existing technologies, or maintain interoperability standards of existing ones. Interest Groups gather and organize ideas and foster discussion on specific topics, providing material foundations for the formalization of the Working Groups. Each working or interest group has to produce a charter outlining its mission and scope, goals, the expected deliverables, its members, and a timeline. Chartered Groups have a lifecycle of generally six months to two years, which can be extended if needed upon the W3C review for renewal. For example, the RDF Working Group Charter describes the scope and deliverables of the group, which was active from January 2011 until July 2014.
As of March 2025, the W3C no longer has an activity dedicated exclusively to Semantic Web technologies. However, Semantic web technologies are still being implemented as part of other activities, such as the W3C Data Activity, which includes the Dataset Exchange Working Group (DXWG), the JSON-LD Working Group, and the Spatio-temporal Data on the Web Working Group. Other relevant working groups include the RDF-star Working Group, the RDF Dataset Canonicalization and Hash Working Group, and the Data Shapes Working Group.
W3C Document Types and Versioning#
The W3C produces several kinds of documents and reports to detail its activities and achievements. It is important to recognize which documents serve which purpose, which are final, which are drafts, and to pay attention to versioned documents.
In software development, versioning is a common practice—a best practice that could benefit other fields as well. A version name or number is assigned to different stages of software development, ensuring that improvements, changes, and potential bugs are monitored. This helps maintain revision control and, if necessary, roll back changes.
Versioning is also applied to most documents produced by the W3C. For this reason, each document typically has a URI (often labeled latest version) that always redirects to the most recent version. Additionally, each version has its own specific URI. For example, the RDF 1.1 Concepts and Abstract Syntax W3C Recommendation has the latest version URI https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf11-concepts/, but also URIs for previous versions, such as http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/PR-rdf11-concepts-20140109/ or http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/CR-rdf11-concepts-20131105/. Generally, pop-ups will warn you if you land on an old version of a document that has since been updated.
Furthermore, it is important to distinguish between document types that are endorsed by the W3C and those that are not. The only document types that the W3C endorses are statements, registries, and recommendations.
Other document types, such as draft standards, standards, or notes, are not officially endorsed by the W3C. These documents may serve as working drafts, informative references, or exploratory materials, but they do not carry the same level of formal approval as W3C-endorsed documents. Non-endorsed documents can still be useful for exploring experimental technology or staying updated on ongoing discussions. However, they should not be used for official technology implementation or when strict adherence to formal web standards is required.
For example the Cool URIs for the Semantic Web is a W3C Interest Group Note, which means it is not an officially endorsed standard but rather a best-practice document. On the contrary, the OWL Web Ontology Language Reference is a W3C Recommendation, meaning it is officially endorsed by the W3C and should be considered a stable, authoritative source for OWL implementations.
Cite as:
Scarpa, E. (2025). RTFM: Understanding W3C’s Semantic Web Standards. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15168118