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Subject: Direct Marketing Association Joins Web Consortium 01/24/97
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1997 JAN 24 (NB) -- REPEAT/By Bill Pietrucha. The
Direct
Marketing Association (DMA) has become the first trade association to
join the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an industry organization
founded in 1994 to develop common standards for the evolution of the
World Wide Web.
The DMA's membership, formalized during the W3C's semi-annual meeting in
London last January 18-19, 1997, was announced today by DMA president
and chief executive officer H. Robert Wientzen.
The DMA is the largest trade association for businesses interested in
database and interactive marketing, with more than 3,600 member
companies from the United States and 49 other nations, officials said.
"As an organization, we have set our sights on working to fulfill the
promise that the Web offers the world's citizens," Wientzen said. "We
want to join with all the W3C members to assure that the World Wide
Web reaches its potential."
Wientzen said, "we all have to play in protecting the right of marketers
to conduct business in cyberspace, and, at the same time, protecting
consumers, giving them choices, and strengthening their confidence in
using the online medium to meet their needs."
The DMA joins 23 of its member companies that are already among W3C's
participants, including AT&T, America Online, Eastman Kodak, IBM,
and Microsoft Corp., along with other telecommunications companies,
computer hardware manufacturers and software publishers, online service
providers, and other interactive companies -- all of which have an
online marketing presence.
Hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Laboratory for
Computer Science; the Keio University of Tokyo; and INRIA, the
French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and
Control; W3C engages in projects that involve user-to-machine
interface, technology and society issues, and machine-to-machine
architecture.
Among its projects is Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS), a
program that will enable Web site content labeling and rating.