[accessibleimage] International Digital Publishing Forum Announces 2006 eBook Initiatives

A copy of the following release can be found at
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=106298.
 
Questions can be directed to Nick Bogaty, Executive Director
International Digital Publishing Forum www.idpf.org 
nbogaty@xxxxxxxx 

International Digital Publishing Forum Announces 2006 eBook
Initiatives

New Directors, technical standards, and educational conference to
address
growing digital content markets

New York, NY (January 17, 2006) - Will 2006 be the year of the eBook? 
Based
on the explosion of online users, growing popularity of downloadable
media,
and advances in mobile reading devices the International Digital
Publishing
Forum (IDPF, www.idpf.org <http://www.idpf.org/> ) is announcing
several
changes to its organizational structure as well as the election of a
new
Board of Directors.

 

The new Directors include Garth Conboy, President of eBook
Technologies;
Claire Israel, Director of ePublishing & eCommerce at Simon & Schuster;
and
Bill McCoy, General Manager, ePublishing Business at Adobe Systems
Incorporated.  Directors re-elected include Steve Potash, CEO of
OverDrive,
Inc. and Rick Weingarten, Director, Office for Information Technology
Policy
at the American Library Association.  Continuing Directors include
IDPF
Board Chairperson, George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY
Consortium and Keith Titan, Vice President of New Media for Random
House
Inc.

 

The Board of Directors were elected by the membership of the
International
Digital Publishing Forum, a trade and standards organization for the
digital
publishing industry, whose members consist of trade and textbook
publishers,
hardware and software companies, retailers, libraries, accessibility
advocates and others involved in the digital publishing and eBook
industries.

 

Nick Bogaty, Executive Director of the IDPF, said "with our name change
in
2005 came a new mission to represent a broader spectrum of the digital
publishing industry and, with the added energy and enthusiasm of many
new
members, we are well-positioned to achieve our goals."


The IDPF also introduced a series of organizational reforms to expand
the
rights and privileges of IDPF members.  The reforms have sparked the
resurgence of standards activity in the industry with the formation of
a new
group called the Unified Container Format Working Group.  The group
was
created to solve the problem of publishers having to generate multiple
formats when providing content to multiple digital publishing
platforms.
When implemented, a resulting standard would allow publishers to
produce
only one format for entry into their distribution channels.  Further
information can be found at
http://www.idpf.org/idpf_groups/content.htm.
The group regularly meets and will convene in a face to face meeting in
New
York on February 7th and 8th to complete the majority of the
specification.


"The IDPF has reinvigorated itself and is aggressively leading the
digital
content industry's efforts in technical standards development and
research,"
said Garth Conboy, President of eBook Technologies, Inc. and Co-Chair
of the
Unified Container Format Working Group.  "Both organizationally, as a
new
board member, and technically, as co-chair of the container format
working
group, I look forward to playing a role in the IDPF's continued success
in
driving content delivery technical standards."

 

The IDPF also will host its annual conference at the McGraw-Hill
Auditorium
on May 24th.  The subject of the conference will be mobile reading. 
Details
on the conference will be released shortly.  Check www.idpf.org 
<http://www.idpf.org/>  for updates.

 

About the International Digital Publishing Forum

The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), formerly the Open
eBook
Forum (OeBF), is the trade and standards association for the digital
publishing industry and is supported by its members.  Further
information
about the organization and industry, including membership information,
can
be obtained by visiting http://www.idpf.org <http://www.idpf.org/> .


###

--
Nick Bogaty
Executive Director
International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)
nbogaty@xxxxxxxx 
www.idpf.org 
(212) 924-9081 direct
(212) 208-0978 fax

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