W3C 30th anniversary & impressions on my first TPAC

I returned from my first W3C TPAC week energized and thoroughly impressed by the drive and the strong sense of community.

TPAC is our annual, now-hybrid meeting, where most W3C work groups meet amongst themselves or jointly, to coordinate solutions and resolve challenging technical and social issues that the Web faces. TPAC 2024 was the 24th edition of that popular and well-attended yearly event. 845 attended in total, with 549 at the in-person hub in Anaheim, California (USA) and 296 remotely. We used 15 to 17 separate meeting rooms each day at once and held a total of 191 meetings that week. 87 of them were part of the Breakouts day on Wednesday, dedicated to sessions organized by TPAC participants themselves.

I wish to come back to the incredible spirit of community that I felt throughout the week but one moment stood out. Our event was disrupted on day 2 by a two-hour power outage that affected the entire block. Rather than being upset, one of several paths were followed - some people in our group helped ensure others were safe and accounted for (in particular those in wheelchairs), some found spaces to continue working, some took it as a salutary break. One of our attendees who had arrived that day saw the room he was in get dark just as he plugged his computer and thought he had caused it. Others joked that the power cut was a radical way to pause the jack-hammering that was taking place as part of the hotel renovation - another unfortunate source of disruption in some meeting rooms.

I had a lot of conversations with members via zoom and in person, in the hallways, during breaks and meals. While some concerns about our future and the future of the web were voiced, there is a clear expression of optimism across our community, and genuine commitment to making the web work for everyone.

Another highlight of the week was the celebration of the 30th anniversary of W3C (the actual anniversary falls on the first day of October). We carved out time at the end of Wednesday for inspirational talks and a gala. It was a great celebration. After kick-starting the Talks with a short anniversary video spanning 1989-2024 with milestones for W3C and the Internet, I spoke about the challenges we’ve overcome to bring the web to where it is today and the challenges in front of us. We’ve changed the world and will continue to.

I really enjoyed the other speakers covering the past, present, and future. We focused on celebrating our community, and on our impact on humanity.

The gala dinner gave members an opportunity to make a toast, or share their gratitude to the community. Food and company was excellent and the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed. The cake arrived. It was splendid and delicious, it turned out. I asked to be joined for the cutting by Tatsuya Igarashi, the representative from Sony (one of the few organizations to be a Member since W3C’s founding in 1994), and by David Singer of Apple, the outgoing Chair of the W3C Board of Directors whose last W3C event it was now that he is retiring. And like any good party, most stayed late and the hotel staff had to kick us out of the veranda lest we kept the hotel guests from sleeping.

The week also saw us have our first W3C Team Day in over a decade. We used the opportunity that so many of our staff were present for TPAC to spend an extra day with each other. And we were able to include during most of our activities and via video conferencing all the Team members who had not been able to attend in person. For many of us, not just new folks like myself, this was the first time that people were meeting each other in person. It was a great opportunity to connect / reconnect and build the bonds needed to do the challenging but captivating work that we’re involved in.

All in all I returned home exhausted but energized and confident in our consortium’s collective ability to face whatever comes next.