Unicode Consortium: Difference between revisions

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The '''Unicode Consortium''' (legally '''Unicode, Inc.''') is a [[501(c)(3)]] non-profit organization incorporated and based in [[Mountain View, California|Mountain View]], [[California]], U.S.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/02/12/qa-mark-davis-president-of-the-unicode-consortium-on-the-rise-of-emojis/|title=Q&A: Mark Davis, president of the Unicode Consortium, on the rise of emojis|last=Wong|first=Queenie|date=February 12, 2016|work=The Mercury News|access-date=April 5, 2018|language=en-US}}</ref> Its primary purpose is to maintain and publish the [[Unicode Standard]] which was developed with the intention of replacing existing character encoding schemes that are limited in size and scope, and are incompatible with [[multilingualism|multilingual]] environments.

The consortium describes its overall purpose as: {{quote|...enabl[ing] people around the world to use computers in any language, by providing freely-available specifications and data to form the foundation for software internationalization in all major operating systems, search engines, applications, and the World Wide Web. An essential part of this purpose is to standardize, maintain, educate and engage academic and scientific communities, and the general public about, make publicly available, promote, and disseminate to the public a standard character encoding that provides for an allocation for more than a million characters.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.unicode.org/consortium/Unicode-Bylaws.pdf | title=The Unicode Consortium Bylaws | date= November 6, 2015 | access-date=6 December 2019}}</ref>}}

Unicode's success at unifying character sets has led to its widespread adoption in the [[internationalization and localization]] of [[software]].<ref>{{cite news|title=How will you type the new Rupee symbol?|url=http://ibnlive.in.com/news/how-will-you-type-the-new-rupee-symbol/126739-11.html|newspaper=IBNLive|date=July 15, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100718220112/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/how-will-you-type-the-new-rupee-symbol/126739-11.html|archive-date=July 18, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> The standard has been implemented in many technologies, including [[XML]], the [[Java (programming language)|Java programming language]], [[Swift (programming language)|Swift]], and modern [[operating system]]s.<ref>{{cite web|title=Strings and Characters|url=https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Swift/Conceptual/Swift_Programming_Language/StringsAndCharacters.html|website=The Swift Programming Language (Swift 4.1)|publisher=Apple|access-date=April 25, 2018}}</ref>

Members are usually but not limited to computer software and hardware companies with an interest in text-processing standards,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.vox.com/2018/10/5/17938428/bagel-emoji-apple-controversy|title=Tacos, dumplings, bagels: the complicated politics of food emoji|last=Sugar|first=Rachel|date=16 October 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250509161918/https://www.vox.com/2018/10/5/17938428/bagel-emoji-apple-controversy|archive-date=9 May 2025|work=Vox|access-date=October 27, 2018}}</ref> including [[Adobe Inc.|Adobe]], [[Apple Inc.|Apple]], the [[Bangladesh Computer Council]], [[Emojipedia]], [[Meta Platforms|Facebook]], [[Google]], [[IBM]], [[Microsoft]], the [[Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs (Oman)|Omani Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs]], [[Monotype Imaging]], [[Netflix]], [[Salesforce]], [[SAP|SAP SE]], [[Tamil Virtual Academy]], and the [[University of California, Berkeley]].<ref>{{cite web

| title = The Unicode Consortium Members

| url = https://www.unicode.org/consortium/members.html

| access-date =2021-10-23|publisher=Unicode, Inc.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.unicode.org/2015/09/facebook-joins-as-full-member-of.html|title=Facebook Joins as Full Member of the Unicode Consortium|date=September 15, 2015|author=Unicode, Inc.|website=The Unicode Blog|access-date=August 25, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Living/emoji-contenders-2019-include-mixed-race-couples-sloth/story?id=58741335|title=Emoji contenders for 2019 include mixed-race couples, a sloth and wheelchairs|last=Pelletiere|first=Nicole|date=October 25, 2018|website=ABC News|language=en|access-date=October 27, 2018}}</ref> Technical decisions relating to the [[Unicode Standard]] are made by the Unicode Technical Committee (UTC).<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3718|title=A Summary of Unicode Consortium Procedures, Policies, Stability, and Public Access|last=McGowan|first=R.|website=tools.ietf.org|date=February 2004|doi=10.17487/RFC3718 |language=en|access-date=April 5, 2018|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

== Founding ==

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The Unicode Consortium cooperates with many [[Standards organization|standards development organizations]], including [[ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2]] and [[W3C]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=UNICODE - The Unicode Consortium|url=https://www.iso.org/organization/342878.html|access-date=2020-07-11|website=[[International Standards Organization]]}}</ref> While Unicode is often considered equivalent to [[Universal Coded Character Set|ISO/IEC 10646]], and the character sets are essentially identical, the Unicode standard imposes additional restrictions on implementations that ISO/IEC 10646 does not.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Korpela|first=Jukka K.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lxndiWaFMvMC&q=unicode+ISO+cooperation&pg=PA165|title=Unicode Explained|date=2006-06-21|publisher=[[O'Reilly Media, Inc.]]|isbn=978-0-596-10121-3|language=en}}</ref> Apart from ''The Unicode Standard'' (TUS) and its [[addendum|annexes]] (UAX), the Unicode Consortium also maintains the [[Common Locale Data Repository|CLDR]], collaborated with the IETF on [[Internationalized ___domain name|IDNA]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sikos|first=Leslie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32UnCgAAQBAJ&q=unicode+consortium+IETF+cooperation&pg=PA8|title=Web Standards: Mastering HTML5, CSS3, and XML|date=2014-12-29|publisher=Apress|isbn=978-1-4842-0883-0|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Kühne|first=Mirjam|date=2007-05-07|title=Plenary Report|url=https://www.ietfjournal.org/plenary-report-7/|access-date=2020-07-11|website=IETF Journal|publisher=[[Internet Engineering Task Force]]|language=en-US}}</ref> and publishes related standards (UTS), reports (UTR), and utilities.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/reports/index.html#standards |title=Unicode Technical Reports |publisher=Unicode, Inc.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://unicode.org/cldr/utility/idna.jsp |title=Unicode Utilities: Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) |publisher=Unicode, Inc.}}</ref>

The group selects the [[emoji]] icons used by the world's smartphones, based on submissions from individuals and organizations who present their case with evidence for why each one is essentialneeded.<ref name="Who Decides">{{cite web | title=Who Decides Which Emojis Get The Thumbs Up? | date=October 25, 2015 | publisher=NPR | url=https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/10/25/451642332/who-decides-which-emojis-get-the-thumbs-up | author=NPR Staff | access-date=February 10, 2019}}</ref>

=== Unicode Technical Committee ===

The Unicode Technical Committee (UTC) meets quarterly to decide whether new characters will be encoded. A quorum of half of the Consortium's full members is required.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=2019-10-07|title=Approved Minutes of UTC Meeting 160|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2019/19270.htm|access-date=2020-07-11|website=Unicode Consortium|id=L2/19-270}}</ref>

As of MayJuly 20244, 2025, there are nine full members, all of which are tech companies: [[Adobe Inc.|Adobe]], [[Airbnb]], [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]], [[Apple Inc.|Apple]], [[Google]], [[Meta Platforms|Meta]], [[Microsoft]], [[Netflix]], [[Salesforce]], and Translated.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-0507-0408 |title=Members &ndash; Unicode |url=https://home.unicode.org/membership/members/ |access-date=2024-0507-0408 |website=Unicode Consortium}}</ref>

The UTC accepts documents from any organization or individual, whether they are members of the Unicode Consortium or not.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-04-01|title=Submitting Character Proposals|url=https://unicode.org/pending/proposals.html|access-date=2020-07-11|website=Unicode Consortium}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Berard|first=Bethany|date=2018-09-01|title=I second that emoji: The standards, structures, and social production of emoji|url=https://www.firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/9381|journal=First Monday|doi=10.5210/fm.v23i9.9381|s2cid=52157507|issn=1396-0466 |doi-access= free|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The UTC holds its meetings behind closed doors.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/Fr9L27V337E Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20200505235004/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr9L27V337E&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{Cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr9L27V337E|title=Beyond the emoji|date=2020-05-04|last=de Jong|first=Mea Dols|type=YouTube video|language=en|publisher=[[Deutsche Welle]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref> As of July 2020, the UTC rules on both emoji and script proposals at the same meeting.

Due to the [[Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism|COVID-19 pandemic's effect on travel]], the meetings, which used to be hosted on the campuses ofby various tech companies who would open their doors to the Consortium for free, were in 2020 held online via [[Zoom (software)|Zoom]],<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-04-24|title=UTC Meeting Information and Minutes|url=http://www.unicode.org/L2/meetings/utc-meetings.html|access-date=2020-07-11|website=Unicode Consortium|quote=Note: During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis, until further notice, all Unicode Technical Committee meetings are held via video conference. Details for joining the meeting hosted on the Unicode Zoom account are listed on the logistics page for each meeting.}}</ref> although the discussions remain confidential.

The UTC prefers to work by [[Consensus decision-making|consensus]], but on particularly contentious issues, votes may be necessary.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|date=2019-01-23|title=Technical Committee Procedures for the Unicode Consortium|url=https://unicode.org/consortium/tc-procedures.html|access-date=2020-07-11|website=Unicode Consortium}}</ref>{{Rp|§9}} After it meets, the UTC releases a public statement on each proposal it considered.<ref name=":0" /> Due to the volume of incoming proposals, various subcommittees, such as the Script Ad Hoc Group and Emoji Subcommittee, exist to submit recommendations to the full UTC ''[[en banc]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Script Ad Hoc Group|url=https://unicode.org/consortium/scriptadhoc.html|access-date=2020-07-11|website=Unicode Consortium}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> The UTC is under no obligation to heed these recommendations,<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|§1.7}} although in practice it usually does.

== Publications ==