International World Wide Web Conference

International World Wide Web Conference
Logo of the First International Conference on the World-Wide Web (1994)
Abbreviation	WWW
Discipline	World Wide Web
Publication details
Publisher	IW3C2
History	1994–present
Frequency	Annual

The International World Wide Web Conference (abbreviated as WWW) is a yearly international academic conference on the topic of the future direction of the World Wide Web. The WWW was first created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. The first conference of many was held and organized by Robert Cailliau in 1994, the conference has been organized by the International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee (IW3C2), also founded by Robert Cailliau and colleague Joseph Hardin, every year since. The conference’s location rotates among North America, Europe, and Asia and its events usually span a period of five days. The conference aims to provide a forum in which "key influencers, decision makers, technologists, businesses and standards bodies" can both present their ongoing work, research, and opinions as well as receive feedback from some of the most knowledgeable people in the field.

The conference series is aimed at providing a global forum for discussion and debate in regard to the standardization of its associated technologies and the impact of said technologies on society and culture. Developers, researchers, internet users as well as commercial ventures and organizations come together at the conference to discuss the latest advancements of the Web and its evolving uses and trends, such as the development and popularization of the eTV and eBusiness. The conferences usually include a variety of events, such as tutorials and workshops, as well as the main conference and special dedications of space in memory of the history of the Web and specific notable events. The conferences are organized by the IW3C2 in collaboration with Local Organizing Committees and Technical Program Committees.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is a partner to these conferences but does not organize them.

Robert Cailliau, a founder of the World Wide Web himself, lobbied inside CERN and at conferences like the Hypertext conference 1991 in San Antonio, Texas, and 1993 in Seattle, Washington. As he came back from the conference 1993 he announced a new conference called World Wide Web Conference 1 and was actually 23 hours faster than the NCSA announced Mosaic and the Web. After funding the IW3C2 with Joseph Hardin from the NCSA they decided the next Conferences in Geneva.