The W3C is not sleeping. A few weeks ago, the first working draft of the The XMLHttpRequest Object specification was published. The beginnings of this standard may have huge implications for AJAX and Atlas programmers. This is an important step for highly interactive Web applications to become mainstream, and it's part of a wider W3C initiative to standardize Web APIs.

The XMLHttpRequest object is an interface exposed by web browser's scripting engine to perform HTTP client functionality. It is the cornerstone of AJAX architecture (which has nothing to do with the great football team, Ajax Amsterdam). AJAX is shorthand for "Asynchronous JavaScript + XML," and it represents a fundamental shift in what's possible on the Web. The term was coined in the article Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications, written in February 2005 by Jesse James Garrett.

The W3C, or the World Wide Web Consortium, was founded by Tim Berners-Lee in 1994 at MIT. The W3C develops open technical specifications that can be used for free by anyone. These specifications are reached by a democratic process and any member can suggest a new project. If there is sufficient support within the consortium, the project proceeds. When it is finished, it is released by the consortium as a "recommendation." The W3C does not enforce its recommendations; it simply encourages everyone to adopt them.

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