Events: IDPF Voting: Board Nomination

I reviewed the self nomination statements that I made in 2004 and still stand behind everything that I have said in the past. From that perspective, I have not changed my position. However, the IDPF is clearly changing, growing, and the technology in the world today continues to evolve. Some additional principles need to be restated.

Digital Publishing is a Global Market for Everybody

The IDPF, the specifications, and the market must grow beyond our current thinking. The IDPF has a newly formed working group updating the publication structure specification. This is good news, but it cannot stop after a 6-8 month process; it must continue to expand. There are many organizations like DAISY, OASIS, Open Reader, and the W3C involved with digital publishing. I believe we need to collaborate with these organizations and find ways to harmonize the specifications to be able to address more kinds of publications. We do not need to recreate the wheel, but instead build on these organization's good work. Many of us are introducing these concepts in the publication structure working group and hope that it will come to fruition. We do not want a "war of formats;" instead we want to see the seamless presentation of ePublications from many (or even any) XML vocabulary. It should be made clear that I am completely behind XML, and open non-proprietary standards, and strongly support royalty free approaches to specifications and DRM systems.

Note: I hope the majority of the IDPF Members want somebody on the Board constantly promoting non-proprietary and royalty free standards.

I continue to support the concept of interoperable DRM. Still today we have individual companies proposing their proprietary DRM with their proprietary DRM supported reading system. As an end user, the last thing I want is to have ten different reading systems to read my digital books. I want to pick from the best user interfaces that provide the best reading experience. I don't believe we will have this option until we have interoperable DRM.

Accessibility of eBooks by Persons with Print Disabilities

I am blind and have advocated for access to eBooks by persons with disabilities. This should not be a burden on publishers; it should be a by-product of the correct application of the specification presented by a reading system that is well designed and compatible with current Assistive Technology (AT). Nobody in the disability community believes that every device should be accessible, but everybody does feel that the same content should be available on a device or a PC/MAC/LINUX reading system that works for them. This is where interoperability comes in.

Very few people consider persons who are blind a significant portion of the entire market; true. However, reading differences are required to grow the market. Look at the number of people who read for recreation today; it is appalling! Digital publishing, and many of the features and functions that are needed by persons with disabilities can help the market grow. For example, persons who are learning English as a second language can clearly benefit from a synchronized audio with text rendering of the content. A well designed reading system can serve both of these user groups equally well, and also meet accessibility requirements in education.

Please Vote for me, George Kerscher

I humbly ask for your vote again. I want to see the IDPF through to a place where rich XML content can be used by everybody in the global society through powerful, highly-functional reading systems. I want to see the publishing industry thrive in a global marketplace where hungry readers enjoy the new digital reading experience.