Segala News & Events - Press Releases

Segala presents at the W3C Mobile Web Initiative's first European event

Released: 21 November 2005

The Challenges and Opportunities for the mobile web

The challenges and opportunities facing the Mobile Web were debated during the first European event held by the Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) in London last week.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the MWI sponsors - key players in the mobile production chain, including authoring tool vendors, content providers, adaptation providers, handset manufacturers, browser vendors and mobile operators - organised a morning of presentations related to the vision and ambition for the Mobile Web, the challenges and potential, and the way in which the vision can be put into practice.

One key issue debated was the technological progress that has been made since the early days of WAP 1.0. There is now an impressive installed base of over 1.1 billion web capable handsets in use worldwide - a staggering 63% of total handsets. However, the more disappointing statistic is that 50% of these web capable phones have not actually been set up to use the Web.

One of the event sponsors - and also a member of the steering council - was Segala, the Dublin based certification authority for Web accessibility and mobile content. Segala provides a branded and searchable Trustmark that demonstrates compliance with industry standards that enables search engines and browsers to filter content contains this Trustmark, helping to make the concept of personalised search a reality.

Speaking at the event, Segala's CEO Paul Walsh said: There are now more phones in the UK than there are people. But to encourage greater usage of the Web from these phones and other devices, we need to make mobile web access as easy to use as access from a desktop - this is the driving force of the MWI.

Standards are crucial to this, as are the guidelines and best practice. The work of the Web Accessibility Initiative is relevant here because designing a site with its guidelines in mind automatically optimizes it for other platforms and devices. This means that it is more likely to work on mobile devices. This really is access to the Web by anyone, anytime, anywhere.

– Paul Walsh.

The event was a positive step forward in raising awareness of the initiative whilst providing those who are going to use such standards with some useful guidance. It also provided an opportunity to share the vision of where the Web on mobile devices is now heading.

Note to editors

About Segala

Segala is a worldwide independent authority and provider of web accessibility and mobile content auditing, testing, certification and Trustmark services. Segala provides accessibility conformance evaluations, audits and certification for web and mobile publishers, developers and agencies to satisfy usability and accessibility guidelines and legislation.

Segala is a sponsor member of the W3C Content Label Incubator Group (XG-CL), a worldwide initiative to develop content labelling standards for the web. As an Associate member of the W3C, Segala also participates in the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and is a Founding Sponsor of the Mobile Web Initiative (MWI). Segala is the first testing and compliance specialist worldwide to become an associate member of the GSMA. Segala has global headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. For further information visit www.segala.com.

About the Segala-Certified™ Trustmark

Segala is the first company worldwide to make a machine-readable content label available for web accessibility and mobile content by providing a visible Trustmark that is detectable by search engines and browsers. The Segala-Certified Trustmark provides a branded, certified and verifiable method that enables search engines and browsers to develop systems for users to filter and trust content that contain this Trustmark. It is the first Trustmark worldwide to be based on the method proposed by members of the W3C XG-CL activity and which is expected to exceed the previous content label standard, PICS, currently used by Microsoft Internet Explorer. O2 is the first major organization worldwide to adopt the Segala Trustmark as standard throughout its online content.

Full list of press releases