W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)

W3C works with the global community to produce Web-related specifications and reference software. W3C is funded by industrial members but its products are freely available to everyone. The Consortium is run by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, and by INRIA, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (The French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control), in collaboration with CERN, Centre European Researche Nucleare (the European Centre for Particle Physics), where the Web originated.

Under the auspices of a team of high-powered professionals that includes Dan Connolly (the coordinator of the HTML 2.0 specification) and Dave Raggett (the coordinator for follow-on specifications formerly known as HTML 3.0), W3C drives the development and evolution of standards, test suites, and specifications for Web-related technologies.

URLs:

W3C homepage

The W3C's home page, this location is a great pointer to information about the organization itself, plus all kinds of other cool Web-related information. Now that W3C has taken over the custodial role for the Web originally played by CERN, you could consider this the "mother of all home pages."

W3C FAQ

The list of frequently asked questions about the W3C, along with answers and contact information of all kinds.

INRIA

INRIA's home page, which describes the goals and role of this important French government-sponsored information standards agency.

CS at MIT

The MIT Laboratory for Computer Science's home page, which describes the history, mission, and activities of this dynamic research and development institution at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

CERN

The home page for CERN, which describes its activities and mission. This used to be "the" place to go for Web information, but it has now been supplanted by the W3C home page mentioned above.

W3E References:

World Wide Web