World Wide Web Consortium

World Wide Web Consortium
On October 1st, 1994, Tim Berners-Lee founded an international standards organization that would oversee all standards regarding the World Wide Web. This organization came to be known as the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C.

The primary focus of the W3C is to set new, or revise old, standards of the web. An example is the iterations of the HTML standard, which is currently at its fifth version, HTML5. The WC3 is also an open forum for people to voice their opinions and suggestions about the Web. They also develop software and have sponsored education.

Currently, the W3C has 457 members from all across the globe, and are either organizations or companies dedicated to maintaining the Web and its openness.

Structure
W3C is comprised of administrative and process "terms"; it is done this way because W3C is not structured as a typical organization.

For the administrative term of the W3C, it is plainly administered by a joint group of bodies. These bodies include MIT, Beihang University and others. On behalf of this staff, a smaller team is tasked with managing resource allocation and planning.

The process term is responsible for the W3C standards. Roles are established via the W3C Process Document, Member Agreement and Patent Policy.

Revenue
W3C's revenue comes through three distinct sources:
 * Member dues and fees
 * Research Grants and both Private and public funding
 * Donations and scholarships

Patent Policy
The W3C adopted a patent policy to enable continued innovation and widespread adoption of standards developed by the W3C in February 2004. It is designed to facilitate recommendations of the W3C Working Groups; promote a royalty-free implementation of those recommendations and address patent-related issues during or after the development of any recommendations.

Later, in August of 2011, the Community Contributor License Agreement (CCLA) was adopted with royalty-free patent terms and permissive copyright for the W3C Community and Business Groups by the W3C.

More information about the patent policy can be found in the Patent Policy FAQ, Fact Sheet and Policy Summary

International Participation
W3C is manned by several organizational bodies distributed around the world, including MIT, Beihang University and AT&T. W3C also has a full-time staff. Internationally, efforts include liaisons, web standards translations and panels for discussions.