The IW3C2 was formed in August 1994 as a body of people closely involved in the Web technology and interested in continuing a series of academic level conferences. The IW3C2 formally incorporated in May 1996 as a non-profit Association under Swiss law.

Purposes

The purposes of the IW3C2 are reproduced here from the By-Laws:

The purposes of the IW3C2 are:

• to set up the organisation of international technical and scientific conferences of excellence regarding the World-Wide Web in order to maintain and extend research and collaboration in the development and evolution of an open World-Wide Web
• to ensure a balance of conference sites over the world
• to make information arising from these conferences and forums permanently and openly available on the widest possible scale
• to preserve the history of the conferences
• to encourage the global development of the World-Wide Web
• to provide a permanent, broad-based international body to achieve these purposes

Legal Status and By-Laws

The IW3C2 is governed by the Laws of the Swiss Confederation (article 60ff of the Swiss Civil Code) and the By-Laws. See details as registered at the Registre de Commerce (the official Geneva/Swiss Registry of Associations)

Functioning

The IW3C2 selects academic institutes to host the Conferences. This is done by examining proposals made by institutes, with concern for reasonable representation of all areas on the globe.

Currently, we hold one conference per year.

We hold regular meetings in which we determine the direction of the conference contents. Since the organisers of a conference are ex-officio members of the Committee, they have full influence on this process.