Unicode Consortium: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:37, 24 September 2023

Revision as of 21:29, 20 October 2023

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{{Short description|Nonprofit organization that coordinates the development of the Unicode Standard}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2021}}

{{Infobox organization

| logo = New Unicode logo.svg

| type = Non-profit [[consortium]]

| key_people = {{plain list|

* Toral Cowieson (CEO)

* [[Mark Davis (Unicode)|Mark Davis]] (CTO & Cofounder; CLDR-TC Chair)

* Anne Gundelfinger (Vice President and General Counsel)

* Greg Welch (Vice President of Marketing)

* Iris Orriss (Treasurer)

* Ayman Aldahleh (Secretary)<ref>{{Cite web | title=Unicode Executive Officers | url=https://unicode.org/consortium/execofficers.html | publisher=Unicode Consortium | access-date=February 2, 2023 }}</ref>

}}

| name = Unicode, Inc.

| founders = {{flatlist|

* [[Joe Becker (Unicode)|Joe Becker]]

* [[Lee Collins (Unicode)|Lee Collins]]

* [[Mark Davis (Unicode)|Mark Davis]]

}}

| formation={{start date and age|1991|01|03}}

| founding_location = [[California]], US

| logo_size = 200px

| location_city = [[Mountain View, California|Mountain View]], [[California]], US

| coordinates = {{coords|37.411759|-122.070958|display=inline, title}}

| status = [[501(c)(3) organization|501(c)(3)]]<ref name= irseos>"[https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/displayAll.do?dispatchMethod=displayAllInfo&Id=824279&ein=770269756&country=US&deductibility=all&dispatchMethod=searchAll&isDescending=false&city=&ein1=&postDateFrom=&exemptTypeCode=al&submitName=&sortColumn=orgName&totalResults=2&names=Unicode&resultsPerPage=25&indexOfFirstRow=0&postDateTo=&state=All+States Unicode Consortium] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809131147/https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/displayAll.do?dispatchMethod=displayAllInfo&Id=824279&ein=770269756&country=US&deductibility=all&dispatchMethod=searchAll&isDescending=false&city=&ein1=&postDateFrom=&exemptTypeCode=al&submitName=&sortColumn=orgName&totalResults=2&names=Unicode&resultsPerPage=25&indexOfFirstRow=0&postDateTo=&state=All+States |date=August 9, 2020 }}". ''Tax Exempt Organization Search''. [[Internal Revenue Service]]. Retrieved February 5, 2020.</ref> California [[nonprofit organization|nonprofit]] [[benefit corporation]]

| tax_id = 77-0269756<ref name= irseos/>

| employees = 3<ref name= 990-2018>"[https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/cor/770269756_201812_990_2019080516545314.pdf Form 990: Return of Organization Exempt from Tax] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205213711/https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/cor/770269756_201812_990_2019080516545314.pdf |date=February 5, 2020 }}". ''Unicode, Inc.'' [[Internal Revenue Service]]. December 31, 2018.</ref>

| employees_year = 2018

| volunteers = 10<ref name= 990-2018/>

| volunteers_year = 2018

| revenue = $467,576<ref name= 990-2018/>

| revenue_year = 2018

| expenses = $470,257<ref name= 990-2018/>

| expenses_year = 2018

| purpose = "To develop, extend and promote use of various standards, data, and open source software libraries which specify the representation of text in modern software[,]&nbsp;... allowing data to be shared across multiple platforms, languages and countries without corruption"<ref name= 990-2018/>

| website = {{official URL}}

| sec_gen =

}}

The '''Unicode Consortium''' (legally '''Unicode, Inc.''') is a [[501(c)(3)]] non-profit organization incorporated and based in [[Mountain View, California|Mountain View]], [[California]].<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 which are limited in size and scope, and are incompatible with [[multilingualism|multilingual]]9.30a 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>

The consortium describes its overall purpose as:

Voting members include 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|work=Vox|access-date=October 27, 2018}}</ref> including [[Adobe Inc.|Adobe]], [[Apple Inc.|Apple]], the [[Bangladesh Computer Council]], [[Emojipedia]], [[Facebook, Inc.|Facebook]], [[Google]], [[IBM]], [[Microsoft]], the [[Omani Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs]], [[Monotype Imaging]], [[Netflix]], [[Salesforce]], [[SAP SE]], [[Tamil Virtual Academy]], and the [[University of California, Berkeley]].<ref>{{cite web

| title = The Unicode Consortium Members

Unicode's success at unifying character sets has led to its widespread adoption in the internationalization and localization of software. The standard has been implemented in many technologies, including XML, the Java programming language, Swift, and modern operating systems.

| 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}}</ref>

Voting members include 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|work=Vox|access-date=October 27, 2018}}</ref> including [[Adobe Inc.|Adobe]], [[Apple Inc.|Apple]], the [[Bangladesh Computer Council]], [[Emojipedia]], [[Facebook, Inc.|Facebook]], [[Google]], [[IBM]], [[Microsoft]], the [[Omani Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs]], [[Monotype Imaging]], [[Netflix]], [[Salesforce]], [[SAP SE]], [[Tamil Virtual Academy]], and the [[University of California, Berkeley]].<ref>{{cite webTechnical decisions relating to the Unicode Standard are made by the Unicode Technical Committee (UTC).

== Founding ==