[Athen] FW: New Digital Book Standard Released (press release)

Berkowitz, Daniel J djbrky at bu.edu
Mon Oct 30 10:51:35 PST 2006

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Any chance one or more of us can get our hands on some early releases
and try them out? I have any number of faculty who mix 'trade
publications' in with the traditional textbooks and it would be very
beneficial if we knew:

1) What is/will be available in this format

2) Whether this format works with the DAISY software/hardware we
presently use

3) Whether they have the same markups as DTB (pagination, headers,
etc.)

=========================
Daniel Berkowitz - Assistant Director
Boston University Office of Disability Services
19 Deerfield Street, 2nd floor
Boston, MA 02215

(617) 353-3658 (office)
(617) 353-9646 (fax)
djbrky at bu.edu <mailto:djbrky at bu.edu> (eMail)
www.bu.edu/disability <http://www.bu.edu/disability>

________________________________

From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Ron Stewart
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 1:22 PM
To: 'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'
Subject: Re: [Athen] FW: New Digital Book Standard Released (press
release)

Here's my take, I monitored the process but did not actively engage in
it, perhaps someone from Bookshare who is on the list wants to give
their perspective.

It means that an updated standard has been adopted for e-books or
electronic versions of trade pubs. Several folks from the access
community have been involved with the process, and the effort was to get
them to adopt the same structure in this format as is used in the DAISY
format. Not 100% success was achieved but I think most can live with
the final results. Since the publishers use their own proprietary
formats, we shall see what these will look like once they start hitting
the streets.

Ron

________________________________

From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Berkowitz, Daniel J
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 12:47 PM
To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network
Subject: [Athen] FW: New Digital Book Standard Released (press release)

OK El Presidente Ron -

What does this mean (if anything) for us?

=========================
Daniel Berkowitz - Assistant Director
Boston University Office of Disability Services
19 Deerfield Street, 2nd floor
Boston, MA 02215

(617) 353-3658 (office)
(617) 353-9646 (fax)
djbrky at bu.edu <mailto:djbrky at bu.edu> (eMail)
www.bu.edu/disability <http://www.bu.edu/disability>

________________________________

From: Nick Bogaty [mailto:nbogaty at idpf.org]
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 10:40 AM
To: library at openebook.org; conferences at openebook.org
Subject: New Digital Book Standard Released (press release)

Dear IDPF Newsletter Subscribers,

I am very pleased to announce that the IDPF membership has elected to
elevate the status of the Open eBook Publication Structure Container
Format 1.0 (OCF 1.0) to a Recommended Specification, an official IDPF
industry standard. A press release announcing approval of the
specification as well as publisher adoption and software implementations
of the standard was released this morning at
http://www.idpf.org/pressroom/pressreleases/ocf1.0.htm.

Please contact me with any questions.

--
Nick Bogaty
Executive Director
International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)
nbogaty at idpf.org
(212) 924-9081 direct

New Digital Book Standard Released

Software Companies and Publishers Announce Implementation Plans

New York, NY (October 30th, 2006) - The International Digital Publishing
Forum (IDPF), the standards and trade association for digital
publishing, announced today the release of a new technical standard to
facilitate digital content creation, distribution and use by consumers.
In addition to the Open eBook Publication Structure (OEBPS), an XML
standard for authoring digital books, the IDPF has now released a new
standard for packaging a digital publication, including the contents of
the publication, metadata, signatures, encryption, rights and other
information into one standard file. Entitled the Open eBook Publication
Structure Container Format (OCF), the new IDPF standard will allow
publishers to release a single standard file into their sales and
distribution channels and will also enable consumers to exchange
unencrypted eBooks and other digital publications between reading
systems that support the new standard.

"The new container format provides a simplified method of packaging a
digital publication into a single file, thereby making it easier for
publishers, resellers and others to deliver and utilize digital reading
materials," stated Nick Bogaty, IDPF Executive Director. "The OCF
specification has widespread support from all sectors of our industry
including publishers and software companies."

The standard specifies a ZIP-based packaging format that is an extension
of OASIS' Open Document Format Standard (ISO/IEC 26300). The OCF
specification and additional information can be found at
http://www.idpf.org/ocf/ocf1.0
<http://www.idpf.org/ocf/ocf1.0/index.htm> . OCF files can easily be
identified by the file extension ".epub".

"Today's announcement heralds the beginning of increased title
availability and lower costs for publishers entering the eBook and
digital reading market," stated Neil de Young, Hachette Book Group USA.
"Over the coming months we will be working with our vendors and partners
to transition our entire eBook publishing program to the OCF standard,"
he added.

Over forty publishers, technology companies and organizations were
involved in the OCF Working Group, the committee responsible for the
creation of the standard, including Adobe Systems Inc., Benetech, DAISY
Consortium, eBook Technologies Inc., Hachette Book Group, Harlequin,
iRex Technologies, Mobipocket (An amazon.com company), netLibrary,
OverDrive Inc., Random House, Simon & Schuster, WGBH and many others.

Publisher Adoption

Both trade and academic publishers plan to use the OCF standard to
deliver files through their distribution channels using the standard
file. The OCF will be used in workflows where an electronic publication
is sent from a publisher to a distributor or retailer and when an
electronic publication is delivered to a consumer using software or
hardware which has implemented the standard.

"Defining a single delivery format is a huge achievement for the
industry. It simplifies production processes and promotes distribution
of many more titles than are currently available," said Ken Brooks, VP,
Global Production and Manufacturing Services, Thomson Learning.

Many IDPF member companies have announced service offerings to produce
digital publications using the OCF standard including codeMantra, Green
Point Technology Services, Publishing Dimensions, Rosetta Solutions,
Inc. and techbooks.

Software Implementation

Numerous software and hardware companies have also announced
implementation plans for the new standard. Software implementations
will allow publishers to save considerable time and expense in
delivering digital content, enhancing the flow of content to consumers.
Also, implementations of OCF will increase interoperability between
software. Announced implementations are:

Adobe Implementation - http://www.adobe.com <http://www.adobe.com/>

Product name: Adobe(r) Digital Editions
Implementation Time Frame: Public beta available now
Product Details/Features: Natively supports PDF and OCF-packaged OEBPS
content, based on in-preparation next-generation OEBPS specification.
Product URL: http://www.adobe.com/go/getdigitaleditions
<http://www.adobe.com/go/getdigitaleditions>

eBook Technologies, Inc. Implementation -
http://www.ebooktechnologies.com <http://www.ebooktechnologies.com/>

Product Name: eBook Publisher
Implementation Time Frame: Public Beta Mac Tools supporting OCF
available now; Windows and Server OCF support coming in Q4 2006
Product Details/Features: eBook production tools supporting processing
of OEBPS, Word, PowerPoint, text and HTML into eBooks for desktop
preview and delivery into the ETI Reading System
Product URL:
http://www.ebooktechnologies.com/support_publisher_download.htm
<http://www.ebooktechnologies.com/support_publisher_download.htm>

Mobipocket (An amazon.com company) Implementation -
http://www.mobipocket.com <http://www.mobipocket.com/>

Product name: Mobipocket Reader / Mobipocket Creator
Implementation Time Frame: Q1 2007
Product Details/Features: Mobipocket Reader brings rich eBook content to
all mobile platforms (Windows Mobile, Symbian smartphones, Blackberry,
Palm) as well as desktops and laptops (MS Windows).
Product URL: http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/default.asp
<http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/default.asp>

OSoft Implementation - http://www.dotreader.com
<http://www.dotreader.com/>

Product name: dotReader with OCF plug-in
Implementation Time Frame: Jan 2007
Product Details/Features: The dotReader is a cross-platform, open source
documentation platform that renders multiple XML and other formats and
will support the OCF format for the dotReader. The OCF format will take
advantage of all of dotReader's capabilities including advanced search
and public, private, and group annotations.
Product URL: http://www.dotreader.com <http://www.dotreader.com/>

OCF and the Open eBook Publication Structure

OCF requires inclusion of an OEBPS version of the publication, an XML
standard for digital books maintained by the IDPF
(http://www.idpf.org/oebps/oebps1.2 <http://www.idpf.org/oebps/oebps1.2>
). For reading systems that can display OEBPS files, publishers will be
able to simply allow for the sale of the OCF. Platform-targeting or the
application of digital rights management (DRM) will be the
responsibility of the target software. For content that is not secured
by DRM, digital publications in OCF will be able to be exchanged between
conformant software, improving content interoperability for the
consumer.

In addition to the OEBPS version of the publication, OCF will also allow
for the transport of alternate renditions of the publication, including
PDF and other targeted eBook formats.

The OEBPS standard is currently being updated in the IDPF. A draft of
the next version of OEBPS will be released by the end of the year. The
draft updates the standard to include better control of content
rendering, navigation, accessibility and alignment with other standards
efforts. OEBPS content is expected to offer publishers National
Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) compliance. It
is the production and consumer standard for reflowable digital content.

AAP/IDPF Meeting

On November 29th, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the
IDPF will hold a joint meeting to help educate publishers on the use of
OCF and the next version of OEBPS in their production and distribution
workflows.

The meeting will be held at the AAP New York office. Registration for
the event is limited to 50, please visit the AAP website at
http://www.publishers.org/conference/index.cfm
<http://www.publishers.org/conference/index.cfm> for registration
details.

Additional Relevant Information

Open eBook Publication Structure Container Format (OCF) Version 1.0:
http://www.idpf.org/ocf/ocf1.0 <http://www.idpf.org/ocf/ocf1.0>

Open eBook Publication Structure (OEBPS) Specification Version 1.2:
http://www.idpf.org/oebps/oebps1.2 <http://www.idpf.org/oebps/oebps1.2>

OCF Working Group:
http://www.idpf.org/idpf_groups/oebpscontainerwg.htm
<http://www.idpf.org/idpf_groups/oebpscontainerwg.htm>

OEBPS Working Group:
http://www.idpf.org/idpf_groups/oebpswg.htm
<http://www.idpf.org/idpf_groups/oebpswg.htm>

IDPF Specifications & Documents:
http://www.idpf.org/specs.htm <http://www.idpf.org/specs.htm>

IDPF Working Groups:
http://www.idpf.org/idpf_groups.htm
<http://www.idpf.org/idpf_groups.htm>

IDPF meetings & teleconference schedule:
http://www.idpf.org/events.htm <http://www.idpf.org/events.htm>

IDPF membership information:
http://www.idpf.org/membership.htm <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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