The W3C (world wide web consortium, http://www.W3c.Org) was created on the occasion of the first HTML standard: HTML 1.0. The W3C was created to develop common protocols for the evolution of the world wide web. It is an industrial consortium led by: mit/LCS (the computer science research laboratory of the Massachusetts institute of technology) in the United States, by Inria (the national research institute for computer science and automation) in France, and Keio University in Japan. It is an unofficial body. The W3C only issues recommendations: browser designers are free to comply with them. The history of HTML is summarized by the W3C on its site.