W3C Dials up mobile web improvements

The World Wide Web Consortium has introduced the first draft of its Device Independence Authoring Language (Dial) designed to improve mobile content authoring.

The organisation explained that with thousands of multifunction mobile devices in use today people have come to expect the same quality information available on the move that they find on desktop PCs.

This diversity poses "significant challenges" to web designers and mobile operators required to create content for upwards of 2,500 different kinds of mobile device.

To meet these challenges, Dial aims to make content more flexible and adaptable by independently describing data, styling, layout and interaction.

Dial is a language profile based on existing World Wide Web Consortium XML vocabularies and CSS modules. These provide standard mechanisms for representing web page structure, presentation and form interaction.

Dial also makes use of the DISelect metadata vocabulary for overcoming authoring challenges inherent in authoring for multiple delivery contexts.

"The Dial suite makes the most of existing, established web technologies and principles, and extends their reach with new features that better serve the needs of diverse devices," explained Rhys Lewis, working group chairman at Volantis.

"Born of expertise from device manufacturers, software vendors, mobile operators, content companies and the accessibility community, Dial has the potential to improve the quality of mobile life."

The work of the Device Independence Working Group serves as part of the technical foundation for the World Wide Web Consortium's Mobile Web Initiative.