Unicode Consortium

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

{{Infobox organization

| logo = New Unicode logo.svg

| type = Non-profit consortium

| key_people = {{plain list|

Toral Cowieson (CEO)
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){{Cite web | title=Unicode Executive Officers | url=https://unicode.org/consortium/execofficers.html | publisher=Unicode Consortium | access-date=February 2, 2023 }}

}}

| name = Unicode Consortium

| native_name = Unicode, Inc.

| founders = {{flatlist|

}}

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

| founding_location = California, US

| logo_size = 200px

| location_city = Mountain View, California, US

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

| status = 501(c)(3){{cite web |url-status=dead |url=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 |archive-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 |archive-date=August 9, 2020 |title=Tax Exempt Organization Search |website=Internal Revenue Service |access-date=February 5, 2020 |date=Sep 6, 2019 }} California nonprofit benefit corporation

| tax_id = 77-0269756

| employees = 3"[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.

| employees_year = 2018

| volunteers = 10

| volunteers_year = 2018

| revenue = $467,576

| revenue_year = 2018

| expenses = $470,257

| 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[,] ... allowing data to be shared across multiple platforms, languages and countries without corruption"

| 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, U.S.{{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}} 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 multilingual environments.

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

Members are usually but not limited to computer software and hardware companies with an interest in text-processing standards,{{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}} including Adobe, Apple, the Bangladesh Computer Council, Emojipedia, 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.{{cite web

| title = The Unicode Consortium Members

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

| access-date =2021-10-23|publisher=Unicode, Inc.}}{{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}}{{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}} Technical decisions relating to the Unicode Standard are made by the Unicode Technical Committee (UTC).{{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}}

Founding

{{For|the history leading up to the Unicode Consortium's foundation|Unicode#History}}

The project to develop a universal character encoding scheme called Unicode was initiated in 1987 by Joe Becker, Lee Collins, and Mark Davis.{{Cite web | title=History of Unicode : Summary Narrative | url=https://www.unicode.org/history/summary.html | publisher=Unicode Consortium | access-date=April 25, 2018 }}{{Cite news|url=https://hyperallergic.com/311488/better-days/|title=Better Days|last=Yau|first=John|date=July 17, 2016|work=Hyperallergic|access-date=November 29, 2018|language=en-US}} The Unicode Consortium was incorporated in California on January 3, 1991,{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-pistol-squirt-gun-emoji-apple-20160802-snap-story.html|title=Apple is replacing the pistol emoji with a squirt gun|last=Roy|first=Jessica|website=Los Angeles Times|date=August 3, 2016|access-date=November 29, 2018}} with the stated aim to develop, extend, and promote the use of the Unicode Standard.{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/history/|title=Unicode History Corner|publisher=Unicode, Inc.|access-date=August 25, 2017}} Mark Davis was the president of the Unicode Consortium from when the Consortium was incorporated in 1991 until 2023, when he changed roles to CTO.{{Cite web | title=New Unicode Consortium CEO | url=https://blog.unicode.org/2023/01/new-unicode-consortium-ceo.html | publisher=Unicode Consortium | access-date=February 2, 2023 }}

Work

{{quote | text=Our goal is to make sure that all of the text on computers for every language in the world is represented but we get a lot more attention for emojis than for the fact that you can type Chinese on your phone and have it work with another phone. | author=Unicode Consortium co-founder and CTO, Mark Davis}}

File:Choijinzhab presentation.jpg and Nashunwuritu with copies of the Unicode Standard at a meeting of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, in 2017|alt=]]

The Unicode Consortium cooperates with many standards development organizations, including ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 and W3C.{{Cite web|title=UNICODE - The Unicode Consortium|url=https://www.iso.org/organization/342878.html|access-date=2020-07-11|website=International Standards Organization}} While Unicode is often considered equivalent to ISO/IEC 10646, and the character sets are essentially identical, the Unicode standard imposes additional restrictions on implementations that ISO/IEC 10646 does not.{{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}} Apart from The Unicode Standard (TUS) and its annexes (UAX), the Unicode Consortium also maintains the CLDR, collaborated with the IETF on IDNA,{{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}}{{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}} and publishes related standards (UTS), reports (UTR), and utilities.{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/reports/index.html#standards |title=Unicode Technical Reports |publisher=Unicode, Inc.}}{{cite web |url=http://unicode.org/cldr/utility/idna.jsp |title=Unicode Utilities: Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) |publisher=Unicode, Inc.}}

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 needed.{{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}}

= 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.{{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}}

As of May 2024, there are nine full members: Adobe, Airbnb, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Salesforce and Translated.{{Cite web|date=2024-05-04|title=Members – Unicode|url=https://home.unicode.org/membership/members/|access-date=2024-05-04|website=Unicode Consortium}}

The UTC accepts documents from any organization or individual, whether they are members of the Unicode Consortium or not.{{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}}{{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}} The UTC holds its meetings behind closed doors.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}} As of July 2020, the UTC rules on both emoji and script proposals at the same meeting.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on travel, the meetings, which used to be hosted on by various companies for free, were in 2020 held online via Zoom,{{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.}} although the discussions remain confidential.

The UTC prefers to work by consensus, but on particularly contentious issues, votes may be necessary.{{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}}{{Rp|§9}} After it meets, the UTC releases a public statement on each proposal it considered. Due to the volume of proposals, various subcommittees, such as the Script Ad Hoc Group and Emoji Subcommittee, exist to submit recommendations to the full UTC en banc.{{Cite web|title=Script Ad Hoc Group|url=https://unicode.org/consortium/scriptadhoc.html|access-date=2020-07-11|website=Unicode Consortium}} The UTC is under no obligation to heed these recommendations,{{Rp|§1.7}} although in practice it usually does.

Publications

The Unicode Consortium maintains a [http://www.unicode.org/history/publicationdates.html History of Unicode Release and Publication Dates].

Publications include:

{{cite book|title= The Unicode Standard, Version 12.0 |date=March 2019 |publisher= Web publication |isbn= 978-1-936213-22-1 }}
{{cite book|title= The Unicode Standard, Version 5.0 |edition= 5th |date=October 2006 |publisher= Addison-Wesley |isbn= 978-0-321-48091-0 }}
{{cite book|title= The Unicode Standard, Version 4.0 |date=August 2003 |publisher= Addison-Wesley |isbn= 978-0-321-18578-5 }}