Unicode Consortium

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox organization

The Unicode Consortium (legally Unicode, Inc.) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated and based in Mountain View, California, U.S.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Its primary purpose is to maintain and publish the Unicode Standard which was developed with the intention of replacing existing character encoding schemes that are limited in size and scope, and are incompatible with multilingual environments.

Unicode's success at unifying character sets has led to its widespread adoption in the internationalization and localization of software.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The standard has been implemented in many technologies, including XML, the Java programming language, Swift, and modern operating systems.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Members are usually but not limited to computer software and hardware companies with an interest in text-processing standards,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> including Adobe, Apple, the Bangladesh Computer Council, Emojipedia, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, the Omani Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, Monotype Imaging, Netflix, Salesforce, SAP SE, Tamil Virtual Academy, and the University of California, Berkeley.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Technical decisions relating to the Unicode Standard are made by the Unicode Technical Committee (UTC).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

FoundingEdit

Template:For The project to develop a universal character encoding scheme called Unicode was initiated in 1987 by Joe Becker, Lee Collins, and Mark Davis.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Unicode Consortium was incorporated in California on January 3, 1991,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with the stated aim to develop, extend, and promote the use of the Unicode Standard.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Mark Davis was the president of the Unicode Consortium from when the Consortium was incorporated in 1991 until 2023, when he changed roles to CTO.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

WorkEdit

Template:Quote

File:Choijinzhab presentation.jpg

Lisa Moore, vice president of the Unicode Consortium, presenting Choijinzhab and Nashunwuritu with copies of the Unicode Standard at a meeting of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, in 2017

The Unicode Consortium cooperates with many standards development organizations, including ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 and W3C.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> While Unicode is often considered equivalent to ISO/IEC 10646, and the character sets are essentially identical, the Unicode standard imposes additional restrictions on implementations that ISO/IEC 10646 does not.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Apart from The Unicode Standard (TUS) and its annexes (UAX), the Unicode Consortium also maintains the CLDR, collaborated with the IETF on IDNA,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and publishes related standards (UTS), reports (UTR), and utilities.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The group selects the emoji icons used by the world's smartphones, based on submissions from individuals and organizations who present their case with evidence for why each one is needed.<ref name="Who Decides">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Unicode Technical CommitteeEdit

The Unicode Technical Committee (UTC) meets quarterly to decide whether new characters will be encoded. A quorum of half of the Consortium's full members is required.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

As of May 2024, there are nine full members: Adobe, Airbnb, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Salesforce and Translated.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The UTC accepts documents from any organization or individual, whether they are members of the Unicode Consortium or not.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> The UTC holds its meetings behind closed doors.<ref>Archived at Ghostarchive Template:Cbignore and the Wayback Machine Template:Cbignore: Template:Cite AV media Template:Cbignore</ref> As of July 2020, the UTC rules on both emoji and script proposals at the same meeting.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on travel, the meetings, which used to be hosted on by various companies for free, were in 2020 held online via Zoom,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> although the discussions remain confidential.

The UTC prefers to work by consensus, but on particularly contentious issues, votes may be necessary.<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Rp After it meets, the UTC releases a public statement on each proposal it considered.<ref name=":0" /> Due to the volume of proposals, various subcommittees, such as the Script Ad Hoc Group and Emoji Subcommittee, exist to submit recommendations to the full UTC en banc.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":1" /> The UTC is under no obligation to heed these recommendations,<ref name=":2" />Template:Rp although in practice it usually does.