The Mobile Web Initiative (MWI)

The Mobile Web Initiative was launched by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in May 2005, to look at improving the performance and usability of the web on mobile phones.

It's by developers for developers, and will shape the future of mobile web content. Orange Partner is working with France Telecom Group Orange Labs to make sure that our members can get involved in influencing this important process.

find out more about:
 the Mobile Web Initiative
 the MWI working groups
 Orange Partner, France Telecom Group Orange Labs and the MWI

Orange Partner members, get involved wiht the MWI!

Access...

discussion forum
 We've set up an Orange Partner MWI discussion forum, so you can post your MWI related questions and comments to Orange Partner and France Telecom Group.
access the forum

whitepapers
 To give you more detail and background about the MWI's purpose, read the whitepapers on the MWI and understanding mobile browsers.
access the whitepapers in the updates section

updates and latest news
 Updates and analysis of MWI work
access the latest updates

email alerts
 We'll send you an email alert to let you know what's new!
Email us at developers@orange.com with 'MWI_enthusiast' in the subject line.
Please include your Orange Partner username in the email.

"make web access from a mobile device, as simple, easy and convenient as from a desktop"

"help improve the performance and usability of today's web on mobile devices"

The MWI aims to develop a set of technical best practices and associated materials in support of development of Web sites that provide an appropriate user experience on mobile devices.  It's set up two working groups to create best practice guidelines and a certification stamp to show these have been adhered to, and also to look at standardising communication of device capability.

The W3C's 'One Web' vision, pursued via the MWI, means that any web site in the future should be equally accessible from a huge range of devices, including both the traditional PC, mobile phones, PDAs – and perhaps, one day, even from your i-Pod.

In addition to developers, key players from the mobile value chain are also involved in the MWI, including authoring tool vendors, content providers, handset manufacturers, browser vendors and mobile operators. The founding sponsors of the MWI include France Telecom Group, Ericsson, HP, mTLD Consortium, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, TIM Italia, Vodafone as well as Afilias, Argogroup, Bango.net, Drutt, Jataayu Software, Mobileaware, Opera, RuleSpace, Segala M Test, Sevenval and Volantis.

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the MWI working groups

Best Practices Working Group

This working group aims to produce both guidelines, and a certification process.

 Guidelines

The MWI will create a set of best practices and associated techniques. These will help content authors and providers deliver an appropriate mobile user experience and form a style-guide of recommendations that a savvy content developer can follow to ensure that they create good, mobile-accessible content.

 'MobileOK' Certification

In conjunction with these guidelines, the MWI are also creating a certification process for determining whether content does, or does not, meet the best practices recommendations.

Sites that meet the MWBP recommendations will earn what the W3C is currently calling the 'MobileOK' trust mark. The MobileOK mark will be promoted as an indication that a good mobile experience is to be had on the site or service.  
(Please note, this is still in its infancy but the principle still stands).

Device Descriptions Working Group

Through this working group, the MWI will examine and investigate information about mobile devices of importance to the mobile developer.

As you develop your site, the chances are that you will design it to adapt the content to support the needs of the requesting mobile device – but how do you know what those capabilities are?

The MWI is concerned with answering the question of not only which mobile device information is important but also what is the best way to capture, store, and used this valuable information for the purposes of content adaptation.

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France Telecom Group Orange Labs are working with Orange Partner ensure that our members are part of and have an input into the developing MWI standards.

Taking an active part in any stardardisation activities can be a time-consuming process – and it can sometimes feel like you're just not getting your point across. By combining resources, France Telecom Group Orange Labs and Orange Partner can give our members a platform to voice ideas, concerns and opinions about how you want the standards to evolve.

We think it's important for our members to be able to contribute to this process. So tell us what you think, and we'll ensure your views are put forward to the MWI.

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Find out more about the W3C, and the MWI

We also encourage you to participate in the existing public MWI mailing list

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