Editing Technology governance (section)

=== World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) ===
[https://www.w3.org/ W3C] is a global organization that allows groups and individuals to come together and advance Web standards.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Overview.html|title=About W3C|website=www.w3.org|access-date=2019-11-11}}</ref> The organization is led by Director, [https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/ Tim Berners-Lee], and the CEO, [https://www.w3.org/People/Jeff/ Jeffrey Jaffe] and they achieve their goals by developing the protocols and guidelines pertaining to the Web to make sure that it is successful in the long-term. In addition, there is also a W3C team called [https://www.w3.org/Consortium/evangelists/ W3C Evangelists], which serves like a Business Development team by helping with identification and recruitment of new members to W3C as well as operating events in their geographical location, promoting W3C, and helping connect donors and sponsorships. The organization is mainly funded through W3C membership dues, research grants, donations, and sponsorships. The W3C also has a free service for validating web pages, which although not mandatory, is helpful in having better quality pages.

According to its website, W3C was founded in October 1984 by Tim Berners-Lee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer science lab. W3C collaborated with CERN and was supported by DRNA and the European Commission, hosting its first conference in April 1995.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/Consortium/facts.html|title=Facts About W3C|website=www.w3.org|access-date=2019-11-20}}</ref> Since its beginnings, there has now been four major conferences held. The second conference was hosted at Keio University of Japan in 1996 and in 2003, the third ERCIM (European Research Consortium in Informatics and Mathematics) hosted the third conference in Europe, replacing the previous European W3C host, [https://www.inria.fr/ INRIA]. The fourth host was in 2013, and hosted by Beihang University in China.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/Consortium/facts.html|title=Facts About W3C|website=www.w3.org|access-date=2019-11-20}}</ref>