Reflections on TPAC 2025

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of attending the W3C’s annual TPAC meeting.

TPAC?

TPAC is something I’ve heard about a lot through my time as a web developer as a place where folks gather to nerd out over web standards. It is a five day event, with a mix of detailed working/community/interest group meetings and breakout sessions for idea sharing.

TPAC 2025

TPAC 2025 was held in Kobe, Japan from November 10 - 14. It’s a short hop from Taiwan. Conveniently, lined up with the weekend of the Japan Touch Nationals in Tokyo, which I was able to referee at before making my way down to Kobe.

Also read You should also read these posts from Tess, Hidde, and Kazuhito reflecting on TPAC 2025.

I was attending TPAC as an Invited Expert and part of the Sustainable Web Interest Group (SWING). All my involvement with the group until this time has been asynchronous due to time differences. I’d had one off real-time conversations with people in the group, but never been involved in the more general group discussions or decision making. So TPAC 2025 was a great opportunity for me to meet some other SWIG members and be an active participant in the process of developing the Web Sustainability Guidelines.

I was also attending TPAC with my Green Web Foundation hat on. On this front I was keen to better understand how things get implemented in browsers, as well as better understand the topic of Verifiable Credentials and the role that might play in bringing greater transperancy and data access to the digital supply chain.

Highlights from TPAC 2025

Below is an unordered list of highlights from the week:

Spending the week chatting, hanging out, hunting for gifts, and sharing meals with the few Sustainable Web Interest Group members who were able to make their way to Kobe from all parts of the globe.

Chilling in the hallway and hearing all the different conversations going on about how certain features might be implemented in browsers, or written into standards, or other really nerdy stuff. All waaaay over my head, but cool to hear.

Finding out that there’s a project to introduce Digital ID Wallets in Taiwan based on the W3C Verifiable Credentials standard. It’s always nice to see Taiwan represented at large global events, and it was even better to be able to make a connection with Denken who’s working on the project. We’ve already caught up again now that we’re both home.

Conversations on the metro to the conference venue with Jake Archibald and Adam Argyle. These are two folks who’s work I’ve followed (and has helped me out) for as long as I’ve been in web development, and it was great to jsut have a casual chat and say thanks.

Getting a much better understanding of what it takes to get features into the browser. Thanks to Barry Pollard for taking the time to explain that process to me.

Being able to speak with folks from all the major browsers about the kinds of web sustainability features we might be able to build, and again getting ideas from them as to the best way to move things forwards.

Catching up with my mate Christian, who’s been living near Kobe for the past 7 years. We worked drank together in Taiwan, and it was great to reacquaint in Japan.

It was a fulfilling week, but an absolutely exhausting one too. I’m an introvert bro, and my battery was well and truly drained after it all (probably why it’s taken so long to get this post out). That said, I’d do it all again if the opportunity presents itself~ ✌️