The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) is an international consortium which develops the standards and guidelines of the World Wide Web, helping to ensure that the technologies of the world wide web are interoperable with one another.

For example, the languages used to create websites include HTML, XHTML and CSS. The way these languages should be interpreted are defined by the W3C's open standards.

The mission statement of the W3C is;

To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web.

The W3C was founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web project, with the goal of maintaining that vision as the World Wide Web grows and develops.

We believe that supporting the W3C standards by making our sites as standards-compliant as possible is the best way to ensure that this goal is realised.