World Wide Web Consortium
Also known as: W3C
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main organization responsible for developing and setting Web standards such as HTML, CSS and XML. Lesser-known standards such as CGI, RDF, SVG and XSLT are also managed by the W3C. In addition to scripting and markup languages, the W3C also deals with guidelines for Web accessibility such as the WCAG, for example.
The organization has existed since 1994 and is led by Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web and developer of the HTTP protocol and HTML. The consortium has hundreds of members from around the world, including companies (including browser makers and Internet service providers), nonprofits, governments, educational institutions and developers.
The World Wide Web Consortium is centrally organized but relies heavily on the contributions of working groups and discussions among affiliated members and other stakeholders.
WHATWG
Since 2004, the W3C has been joined in its development (or competition) by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG). This working group was formed by employees of Mozilla, Opera and Apple to give browser makers and Web developers more influence over the definition and development of Web technologies.
Specifically, the initiators of WHATWG disagreed with the W3C's intention to exchange the HTML standard for XML-based alternatives. The working group was instrumental in the development of HTML5, one of the standards that has since been adopted by the W3C.
