Gerald
_____
From: Jim Fruchterman [mailto:Jim.F@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2006 4:14 PM
To: Gerald Hovas
Cc: Janice Carter; Jennifer Sutton; Cindy Wentz
Subject: E-Book Standards
Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Gerald.
I'm not on this list, so
it would be great if you forwarded on my answer to
Cindy's question.
Jennifer Sutton is most on top of this specific
project, since she's been
part of it. And of course, George Kerscher of the
DAISY Consortium is part
of this work as well. Our main interest in being
involved is to ensure that
the next version of the Open ebook standard is more
accessible, since that
can only benefit Bookshare.org and our users. My
feeling is that if all
books were perfectly accessible electronically
through mainstream channels,
that would be absolutely the best thing for people
with print related
disabilities. However, I don't think this one
standard change is anything
more than a slight evolutionary step, and we're
trying to ensure it's
forward and not backward!
To go a little further, one additional thing that
tends to make ebooks
inaccessible is not so much the underlying format,
but the nature of the
digital rights management solution on the specific
platform. That's
especially true when the underlying format is an XML
text-based format,
which is quite accessible and which is the case in
the format being
discussed below, as opposed to a visual rendering
format like Adobe's PDF.
Of course, we're working on all of these things.
For example, we're
starting to work with Adobe to make it easier for
publishers to spit out
high quality accessible DAISY out of Adobe book
publishing products. Our
long range goal is to steadily increase the
percentage of our new books that
come directly from publishers, and the better they
can make the books, the
better the reading experience will be!
Jim Fruchterman
_____
From: Cindy Wentz [mailto:cindy2u@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 8:39 PM
To: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bookshare-discuss] E-Book Standards
Can anyone interpret the meaning of this article?
Would it make Bookshare
obsolete? Would it make many many more books
accessible through speech?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Nicholas Bogaty
Executive Director
International Digital Publishing Forum
212-924-9081
Industry Adopts eBook Standards
Wide Industry Implementation Planned for IDPF's New
Standards for
Digital Publications
New York, NY (June 20th, 2006) - Major software
companies and device
manufacturers have announced plans to support new
electronic book
standards developed within the International Digital
Publishing Forum
(IDPF). The companies will support these standards
in their next
generation software and devices, alleviating many of
the previous file
interoperability and production issues affecting the
eBook industry
and its customers.
The standards are created by two groups within the
International
Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), the trade and
standards organization
for the digital book industry. The IDPF has
previously developed the
already widely adopted Open eBook Publication
Structure (OEBPS)
standard. The two groups are the Unified OEBPS
Container Format
Working Group and the OEBPS Working Group.
Garth Conboy, President of eBook Technologies, Inc,
and co-Chair of
both working groups, commented, "This is a very
exciting time for the
industry - vigorous standards setting and adoption
efforts are under
way, new technologies, products and companies are
entering the market,
and these factors as well as innovative marketing
and searching will
drive increased digital content availability."
Emerging Digital Publication Standards
The Container Format working group is set to release
a container
format to allow publishers to release only a single
standard file into
their sales and distribution channels instead of the
multiple
proprietary files that they currently produce. The
new ZIP-based
proposed standard, OEBPS Container Format (OCF), is
an extension of
the packaging format defined by the OpenDocument
OASIS Standard
(ISO/IEC 26300).
"Adobe has been very pleased with the rapid
progress within IDPF
towards creating an open and neutral container
format", said Bill
McCoy, GM ePublishing, Adobe Systems, Inc. "An open
packaging
technology clearly has applicability across multiple
areas of our
solutions, including eReading systems, and we look
forward to working
with industry participants to finalize this
community-developed
standard in the coming months".
The container format is expected to be submitted to
the IDPF for
official approval in the next several weeks. A
draft specification is
publicly available at:
http://www.idpf.org/doc_library/informationaldocs/ocf10-20060612.pdf
In the second specification, the OEBPS Working Group
is developing the
next generation of OEBPS to improve this XML-based
standard as both a
production and a final delivery format for digital
publications. The
effort will focus on detailed control of content
rendering, navigation
and accessibility, and alignment with other
standards efforts.
Software & Device Implementation
At the IDPF Connected & Mobile 2006 conference in
May, Adobe Systems
demonstrated a forthcoming thin-client application
for reading-centric
secured content, codenamed "Twist", that will
support OEBPS-based and
PDF content. Also, eBook Technologies, Inc.
featured an application
built on the OEBPS Container Format (OCF) at the
conference.
Other reading application companies also voiced
support for the
upcoming specifications:
"Mobipocket has been a great supporter of open
standards in the eBook
world since the OEBPS creation. We are excited
about this new
initiative, which is the right way to go to make
this market
mainstream. We plan to fully support this new
standard in our product
line," said Thierry Brethes, CEO & co-founder of
Mobipocket.com, an
Amazon.com company.
"OSoft intends to support the new OEBPS standards
with the upcoming
release of dotReader," said Mark Carey, CEO of
OSoft.com, an open
source document company. "The enhancements to the
standards will
improve accessibility and be more publisher and
consumer friendly. Of
particular interest to publishers is the
standardization of a master
e-book format which will greatly improve document
workflow and reduce
e-book publishing costs."
"Motricity's vision is to increase the adoption and
consumption of
premium mobile data such as ebooks," said Elizabeth
Mackey (Vice
President and General Manager of eReader/Motricity).
"We fully
support open standards and access as the
cornerstones of IDPF's
efforts as we believe it's exemplary of the type of
collaborative
process that will build mainstream awareness and
further the
independence and productivity of the mobile
lifestyle."
Hardware companies also voiced implementation plans.
iRex
Technologies' VP Marketing and Business Development
Willem Endhoven
stated, "iRex Technologies will support the
development of these
standards as it will accelerate the momentum in
electronic reading.
We believe that consumers will benefit from a more
harmonized, open
system approach and simplicity of use. We expect to
support the IDPF
standards for use in the iLiad e-reader in the
future."
Cooperation with Other Information Technology
Standards Organizations
IDPF has begun working to formalize its cooperation
and collaboration
with other organizations. While the needs of the
digital publishing
industry may require specific technologies, IDPF
policy is to build on
broader information technology standards wherever
possible.
IDPF has recently joined the OASIS international
standards consortium,
and hopes that the IDPF OCF may be further advanced
within OASIS as a
general file containment technology standard.
"We are happy to have the IDPF join our organization
and pleased that
they plan to contribute proposed extensions to the
OpenDocument OASIS
Standard for their Open Container Format," said
James Bryce Clark,
director of standards development at OASIS. "We are
looking forward
to working with them on future standardization
efforts."
IDPF is also cooperating closely with DAISY, which
is a member of the
IDPF. The upcoming OEBPS revision is working to be
aligned with
requirements of the DAISY-based NIMAS initiative for
accessible K-12
textbooks.
"The disability community is looking forward to the
day when
commercial eBooks are usable by persons with
disabilities with their
Assistive Technologies," said George Kerscher,
Secretary General of
the DAISY Consortium.
The combined standards efforts will result in a
non-proprietary way
for publishers to deliver digital books through the
distribution chain
to consumers, similar to the MP3 format for digital
music. No patent
encumbrances are expected of either new
specification. Participation
in the Working Groups is open to all IDPF members
and documents
published by both groups are regularly posted on the
IDPF website at
www.idpf.org <http://www.idpf.org/> .
Additional Relevant Information
IDPF Specifications & Documents:
http://www.idpf.org/specs.htm
Open Container Format (OCF) 0.94 Working Draft
Specification:
http://www.idpf.org/doc_library/informationaldocs/ocf10-20060612.pdf
Open eBook Publication Structure Specification
Version 1.2:
http://www.idpf.org/oebps/oebps1.2/index.htm
Use Cases & Requirements for Next Version of the
Open eBook
Publication Structure:
http://www.idpf.org/doc_library/informationaldocs/oebps_requirements.h
tm
IDPF Working Groups:
http://www.idpf.org/idpf_groups.htm
IDPF meetings & teleconference schedule:
http://www.idpf.org/events.htm
IDPF membership information:
http://www.idpf.org/membership.htm
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. Further information
about the
organization and industry, including membership
information, can be
obtained by visiting www.idpf.org
<http://www.idpf.org/> .
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