GEIE ERCIM W3C

ERCIM, The European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics, will ensure the financial management of the project. ERCIM is a European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG), comprised of a network of research institutes from twenty European countries, embodying more than 12,000 researchers and engineers. ERCIM's mission is to: foster collaborative work within the European research community in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Applied Mathematics; advise the European Commission and national governments; and increase co-operation with European industry. As a consortium of members from many European countries, ERCIM creates a balance between European diversity and necessary homogeneity by building bridges between different cultures and facilitating the movement of technical ideas within academia and across borders.

GEIE ERCIM is the European host of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). W3C is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C's mission is: To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web.

Tim Berners-Lee and others created W3C as an industry consortium dedicated to building consensus around Web technologies. W3C employs technical staff fully committed to working on W3C tasks through three hosts: ERCIM (for Europe), MIT (for the Americas) and Keio University (for Asia).

W3C has a proven track record of success, and has contributed to what may be some of the most important developments in the IT and Internet industry in the last ten years, including the development of XML and, of course, the development of the Web itself.

W3C has 2 roles in the project, one in the management part, one in the technical part. As part of the management activities, W3C is the financial manager of the project. As part of the technical activities, W3C will mainly be involved in the standardization activities and international community building. It will participate in WP3 work to ensure that results and specific African languages requirements are transferred to international group working on speech technologies such as the W3C Voice Browser Group. W3C through its network of offices, notably in Africa, will also serve as a local relay to disseminate the results of the project locally, and ensure a greater involvement of local partners.