At no time in history has a technology so quickly captured people's imagination and interest as the Internet's World Wide Web. Without its historic cooperative, open systems development process, the Internet would not have grown and flourished. Now, the mad rush to use the Web for commerce is on, and the standards process is more important than ever, if the Web is to fulfill its vision of a universe of network-accessible information available to everyone.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), led by Tim Berners Lee, the original visionary for the Web, spearheads standards research and development for the Web, and the World Wide Journal (W3J) is your direct connection to its work. W3J is chartered to help people implement open systems on the Web. Thematically based, the Web Journal explores a broad range of Web activities. Each issue provides a balance of state-of-the-art technology and specifications from W3C with O'Reilly-style implementation guides that explain how to use the technology. Also included are independent technical papers from around the world, interviews with Web luminaries, and news about people and projects in the W3C and beyond.

The papers in the "W3C Reports" section -- Working Drafts, recommendations, notes, and documents from W3C workshops -- bear a "W3C" logo. The papers in the "Technical Papers" section is a forum for contributors from the wider Web community. Each selected paper is reviewed by experts and bears a "W3J" logo in addition to conference logos, if applicable.

The complete contents of each issue will be available at W3C's Web site 90 days after print publication: see www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Journal/. Also see the "Call for Papers" at www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Journal/call_papers.html for information about submitting articles. Single issues of the World Wide Web Journal are available in bookstores or from O'Reilly; subscriptions are available through O'Reilly.

Whether you follow Web developments for strategic planning, application programming, or Web page authoring and designing, you'll find the in-depth information you need in the World Wide Web Journal.