W3C Charters Pointer Events Working Group

Following Microsoft’s submission of the Pointer Events specification, the W3C announced Friday the launch of the Pointer Events Working Group. The group intends to use Microsoft's proposal, based on the APIs available today in IE10 on Windows 8, as the starting point for a Recommendation track specification, an important step towards interoperable support on the Web. In their announcement, the W3C said, “enabling content creators to use a single [pointer] model for different input types will make content creation more efficient and inclusive.”

Last week during the W3C’s annual Technical Plenary and Advisory Council (TPAC) meeting in Lyon, France, members of the W3C met informally to discuss Pointer Events. Present in the meeting were representatives of Google, Mozilla, Opera, Nokia, LG, Intel, Microsoft, and others. With the overwhelming support pointer events received from browser vendors and Web developers, consumers and developers benefit. We look forward to working together to bring the next generation of input to the interoperable Web through standards.

Jacob Rossi

Program Manager