New Fee Structure for W3C Membership

In keeping with its international mission to lead the Web to its full potential, W3C announced a new fee structure designed to reduce the barrier of entry for organizations in developing countries. The goal is to make it easier for small companies and not-for-profit organizations to become W3C Members and become engaged in the development of foundation technologies for the World Wide Web.

Standardized technologies built in a flexible manner, with attention to internationalization needs (languages and/or infrastructure) can have dramatic impact on life, education and commerce in a given region.

However, one of the greatest obstacles for participation in large consortia is the cost of entry. What appears to be a reasonable membership fee in Western Europe, Japan or North America is prohibitive in other parts of the world. While W3C does embrace participation from individuals as invited experts, the consortium realized that more was necessary to engage organizations around the globe.

W3C is all about building Web technologies that can be of service to the world. This new fee structure for organizations from the developing world affirms the value W3C places on their participation in, contribution to and use of the standards and guidelines developped to drive the future of the World Wide Web.

This initiative, focused on regions of the world beginning to discover Web technologies, is only the most recent in W3C's international commitments. Through its technical Internationalization Activity, volunteer-based translation program, its fourteen Offices around the globe, as well as its Patent Policy, W3C can better meet the needs and requirements of diverse populations, and can help those regions develop sound, standards-based Web infrastructure.

Links:
New fee structure: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/fees
Join W3C documentation: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/join