Publishing Business Group Telecon — Minutes

Date: 12/13 November 2019

See also the Agenda and the IRC Log

Attendees

Present: Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平), Liisa McCloy-Kelley, Murata Makoto, Junko Kamata, Jun’Ichi Yoshii, Shinya Takami

Regrets:

Guests:

Chair: Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平)

Scribe(s): Liisa McCloy-Kelley

Content:

1. EPUBCheck funding

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): EPUBcheck fundraising is needed to move things forward
… there needs to be about $50K more for after Jan

Jun’Ichi Yoshii: $10K forthcoming from APL after board meeting

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): other parties we need to get in touch with
… maybe the task force and Bill, Daihei, yoshii-san to get in touch with all parties globally
… see if there are any other chances to make fund investment

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: this next phase is a technical restabilization that is very important

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): critical to get funds from all over the world

2. EPUB 3.2 and EPUBcheck 4.2 adoption

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): ask Japanese members how the adoption is happening

Murata Makoto: I believe that EPUB 3.2 is everywhere.

Junko Kamata: certified that adoption in Japan of epub 3.2 and epubcheck 4.2 have been working find
… error message issues is going ok

Murata Makoto: says EPUB 3.2 is everywhere now

Jun’Ichi Yoshii: says that MDJ, the ebook distributor, says there is no problem with EPUB 3.2
… major publishers, the 4 majors, have no problem with EPUB 3.2
… epubcheck is working fine

Murata Makoto: We need more bugs in epubcheck for fundraising :-)

Murata Makoto: No problems, no budget.

Junko Kamata: pointed out the comments from call that people think things are working well and they don’t see an issue to solve with the validation
… making funds available seems difficult to understand without an explanation of why it makes sense for Japan

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: understand the issues with needing to understand why the tech changes make sense
… congratulations to Japanese market for adopting so quickly
… US and Europe reports were that adoption is going well, but is not done everywhere yet
… may be the end of year

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): encouraging people to stay engaged and want to find out from Taiwan
… encourage also involvement in EPUB roadmap, which we will discuss in a bit

3. Accessibility

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: for the European market there is a lot of interest in accessibility coming from new EU laws
… in EU need to get books and websites done by 2025

Murata Makoto: new laws in Japan is not as strong as Europe, there will be meetings very soon
… we’ll see what happens from that meeting
… summary from what Italian publishers are doing and looked at ACE and SMART

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): ask if received white paper from Italy

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: in the US there are fewer legal requirements, but there is starting to be more interest
… the publishers are looking at what the Europe laws mean

Murata Makoto: things are moving slowly in Japan, but steadily
… things are changing

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: accessibility in Canada is still moving slowly though their laws require it

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): two subjects becoming sensitive to privacy - GDPR compliance and privacy issues are serious in Europe
… Jan 2020 California will require strict privacy compliance
… attention to internet privacy and accessibility will become larger

4. After EPUB 3.2, What Next?

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): EPUB 3.2 make a sizable market for manga
… EPUB 3 and 3.x specs and ebook ecosystems are compatible and no issues for the business
… industry and publishers are basically interested in maintaining the compatibility to EPUB 3
… parts of the online business is being changed and publishing cannot be left behind
… we need to discuss where we are going to
… sent link to the CG roadmap document

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mAqdj2HTN7p8cgncToA7yRCKmz5trLTZ4ATI7trl7KM/edit#heading=h.eszf0tmwgc6u

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): new features like: forms of content, navigation for large complex docs, dynamic advertising, non-linear content, improve css support
… what has more needs in the publishing industry?
… would like to hear thoughts about how we make progress from here to the future
… comments?

Murata Makoto: what is current plan for EPUB accessibility techniques?
… current spec is from IDPF and is required

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): accessibility is an issue in the roadmap

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: movement from IDPF accessibility to WCAG/ARIA evolution and Luc working to get to ISO approval

5. Survey

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: Publishing@W3C and SC want outreach to people in our communities and broadly beyond to discuss the future needs for publishers
… survey draft working on now, but hope the survey would help us get to conversations with people about what we all need
… survey to go out in 2020

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): conversations with the media and entertainment groups at W3C and discuss sharing thoughts between publishing and media
… going to have co-chairs call to get discussion started and share info
… the Internet of Things WG also has interest in working together
… want to see where there are future issues and intersections

Shinya Takami: he already explained his plan for maintenance of EPUB 3.2 at TPAC
… different type of media content like video and new revenue for advertising could be areas where business needs may arise

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): haven’t approached immersive web WG in the W3C, maybe that is interesting
… crossover for publishing for VR and AR seems something that will happen
… would like to talk to them about collaboration as well
… new year we will have draft of survey and will distribute around the world

6. Next Steps

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): approach organizations about EPUBcheck fundraising
… will come back with info about the meetings with other WGs

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): Thank you, Liisa