Industry specifications created by standards organizations, such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), are critical to the VoiceXML Forum’s work. The VoiceXML Forum references industry specifications in nearly every publication it produces.

W3C Specifications

The W3C and the VoiceXML Forum have maintained a close working relationship since 1999. The W3C sought a method for extending the visual Web by introducing speech capabilities, and the VoiceXML Forum responded by contributing its newly created VoiceXML 1.0 specification to the W3C for further development. This action set the W3C’s Voice Browser Working Group on a course that has generated VoiceXML 2.0 and related fundamental specifications. The two organizations have maintained an ongoing liaison relationship, collaborating on requirements, conformance, and errata, which continue to shape the development of VoiceXML 3.0 and other ongoing efforts. Below is a list of voice-related specifications produced by the W3C:

IETF Specifications

The IETF has developed many of the specifications intrinsic to speech platforms, such as HTTP, SIP, and MRCP. The VoiceXML Forum has worked with IETF to define and evolve these specifications. The now concluded VoiceXML Forum MRCP Liaison Committee, for instance, detailed the capabilities and implementation choices necessary to build a compliant VoiceXML platform using MRCP. Below is a list of voice-related specifications produced by the IETF:

INCITS Specifications

Since 2006, the VoiceXML Forum and INCITS’ M1 biometrics committee have worked together to define a speaker biometrics data interchange file format. Below is a list of voice-related specifications produced by INCITS: