Publishing Steering Committee Telco — Minutes

Date: 2018-06-15

See also the Agenda and the IRC Log

Attendees

Present: Luc Audrain, Rick Johnson, Tzviya Siegman, Ivan Herman, Daihei Shiohama, Jun-ichi Yoshii, Karen Myers, Garth Conboy, Rachel Comerford, Bill McCoy, Bill Kasdorf

Regrets: George Kerscher, Liisa McCloy-Kelley

Guests:

Chair: Luc Audrain

Scribe(s): Karen Myers

Content:

• 1. epubcheck fundraising
  • 1.1. RFP
• 2. Tokyo workshop
• 3. Fundraising text (for epubcheck)

Karen Myers: test

Luc Audrain: we have several things to discuss

Karen Myers: Tzviya, fund raising for EPUB Checker

1. epubcheck fundraising

Tzviya Siegman: Liisa, Rachel and I talked about having tiered funding
… we can discuss titles and levels

Karen Myers: [names levels]

Tzviya Siegman: We need to write some copy for the web site
… generally, we need to agree on these tiers

Tzviya Siegman: https://github.com/IDPF/epubcheck/wiki/Epubcheck-Development-Update-and-Maintenance-Request-for-Proposal

Tzviya Siegman: and I do have the RFP ready to go
… Today is the day we are supposed to send it out

Luc Audrain: Any question on the tiers?

Rick Johnson: What are we thinking are the differences between the tiers in terms of messages to the sponsors
… Generosity of sponsors, or specific benefit differences based on the levels, or ‘go for it’ if you can?

Tzviya Siegman: Good question

Karen Myers: Typically sponsorship levels imply overt benefits; benefactors like philharmonic for example, are just designated formally, but may have other benefits

Rick: where does that list go, what are we thinking?

Bill: I agree with Rick that leveling the promotional benefits, such as gold sponsors is one way
… or people who step up to higher level of sponsorships are included in the oversight of the project plan
… but the lower contributors implement but are not at the oversight table
… we could also include someone in the SC if they did not step up to higher level of donation
… or automatically put you on the SC if you are at the higher sponsor levels; could be one way

Tzviya Siegman: https://www.mathjax.org/#sponsors

Tzviya Siegman: We looked at one way to do it with MathJax
… big logos, small logos and names
… Bill, model you describe, the AB has been talking about this
… the pay to play model with something that is open source becomes a real concern
… may be a real problem if someone is offered a seat at the table

Bill: It worked for LCP
… but if you are interested in DRM, then you are not an open source purist
… W3C would be independent of the fundraising, but agree with you and AB we need to be careful

Rachel Comerford: I would echo objection to allow prioritization of participation based on financial contributions

Luc Audrain: +1

Rachel Comerford: it under values the contributions of those high value contributors whose orgs cannot afford to pay
… if they only have a seat for $10K then they cannot be at table
… we introduce a whole series of issues in terms of prioritization of work and EPUB check overall
… I will be donating on behalf of Macmillan
… but as future donor, I don’t feel obligation to have a seat on the board
… or set aside employee on board
… setting aside a level of support is fine for me; we know it’s an industry contribution

Tzviya Siegman: +1 to Rachel’s comments

Luc Audrain: to insist on this simple list of contributors
… to have only the name of the company is a good thing and we should not do more; I see it this way

Rick Johnson: Given that, I would like to make a suggested resolution to tier sponsorship level and provide a public page to acknowledge those levels by what they donated
… that is what we are saying

Luc Audrain: I agree with you, Rick

Tzviya Siegman: +1 to RickJ

Garth Conboy: +1

Luc Audrain: We have just solved this question
… Any more comment on the different tiers and how they will be presented?
… There is also the RFP

1.1. RFP

Tzviya Siegman: https://github.com/IDPF/epubcheck/wiki/Epubcheck-Development-Update-and-Maintenance-Request-for-Proposal

Luc Audrain: Tzviya, is the RFP ok for you and the people to review it?

Tzviya Siegman: It has already been reviewed and transferred to the wiki
… we will send it out today
… People have offered to publicize it on their own sites
… BISG for example
… Today is the day we are announcing it

Luc Audrain: Good; let’s send it

Tzviya Siegman: Other issue is for the fundraising; we need someone to write text for the web site

Rick Johnson: although we make it visible, suggest we start the PR on Monday
… even if we make it public today

Luc Audrain: yes, that’s fine

Garth Conboy: There is a list. up to $20K
… Liisa’s email…
… If I am going to hunt for some money

Luc Audrain: you mean we should open the list up

Garth Conboy: the levels?
… I wanted to know how solid that is

Garth Conboy: EPUBcheck Sponsor Funding

Garth Conboy: ◦ $20K – Sponsor (or is there a better word?)

Garth Conboy: ◦ $10K – Partner

Garth Conboy: ◦ $5K – Supporter

Garth Conboy: ◦ $2K – Friend

Garth Conboy: ◦ donate what you want

Rick Johnson: This is a great place to start and see if people fall into those categories

Tzviya Siegman: There is also donate what you want

Garth Conboy: I will see what I can do with Google
… and I will personally donate $3.14

Bill McCoy: is that Pi?

Luc Audrain: Highest tier could be $20K+

Garth Conboy: sounds good, thank you

2. Tokyo workshop

Bill McCoy: We are anticipating to get W3M formal approval next Wednesday morning
… Mukata was out
… He had some comments and wanted to respect his input
… Important we do this next week
… Also had a lengthy discussion with Wendy Seltzer, head of strategy
… she oversees workshops; she is supportive and wants to see if move forward

Bill McCoy: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wExl8Cxh8kMhzZu5UrWLhspMU2ZmGA6Wz3pmjtWQ5eY/edit#heading=h.6pcetlq699m3

Bill McCoy: Text for call for proposal
… You were previously copied and commented
… It is possible to volunteer to PC even if you do not plan to travel
… You can help craft program
… Up to co-chairs to figure out who should be on PC
… and does not matter if you cannot attend or not
… Tzviya, for example, you can consider volunteering
… Expect a couple more committee members next week
… Expect CfP to go out end of next week or early week of 25 June
… then we will promote on W3C site and Japan [Keio] will promote as well
… there is also going to be a half-day symposium
… targeted at Japanese pub industry folks
… more informational, what is going on in the web platform
… that will primarily be in Japanese; will be translated
… Symposium targeted for Japanese audience
… and planning Japanese layout and CSS stuff that Makoto is organizing
… and lastly going to be an executive breakfast with heads of Japanese publishing companies, likely the first day
… So a packed series of activities to increase the impact of this workshop
… On way to W3C management approval
… we are poised to transfer from Google doc to the Workshop format
… Please get your comments into the Google doc now; after that I will transfer into HTML skeleton

Luc Audrain: what about @ to be a member of committee from EDRLab?

Bill McCoy: Laurent is ok and I will extend an invitation to her shortly
… assume our diversity level will increase

Bill McCoy: not on this topic
… any other questions on this topic?
… if you have questions, please consider volunteering for PC
… thank you

Luc Audrain: for next PBG call on Tuesday, you will do a call for PC

Bill McCoy: there seems to be some debate about how many people are on PC, meet diversity goals, and respect wishes of co-chairs
… within 24 hours of W3M go-ahead
… certainly we can informally ask for more PC volunteers as long as you are ok

Luc Audrain: We have 12-13 members
… if we have 1-2 women, it would be a large PC
… we should close it soon and begin to work

Bill McCoy: we can also kick off some people…[laughs]

Luc Audrain: Not what I said! :)
… we should finish and publish start of the week after [25 June]
… Ok, Bill, do you think you will make some publicity about the other three events?

Bill McCoy: the symposium for sure
… Japan Electronic Publishing Association and maybe one or two other groups will sponsor
… that will be publicly advertised and will have larger capacity than workshop which is about 90 people
… want SC to know about these other activities
… don’t think other events will be publicized; not sure so will ask Makoto

Luc Audrain: I will be at the symposium for sure
… others it depends
… I will discuss those subjects with Makoto
… and discuss European standards items

Rachel Comerford: I have two comments relevant to this conversation, the other relevant to EPUB Check conversation
… It does make me mildly uncomfortable that we need to find women and 1-2 are ok
… surely there is a better way to handle this
… and EPUB Check we need copy for the web site
… Tzviya brought this up a couple of times

Luc Audrain: apologize

Rachel Comerford: and we need to address it, get it committed to so we can push it forward

Bill McCoy: Rachel, I do want to respond
… It was Tzviya who increased us to improve diversity
… Tell us a better way
… we can do whatever makes sense

Rachel Comerford: There are so many women who are active in this field
… seems strange that we look for women after we already have 12 men participating

Bill McCoy: committed is too strong; suggestions were made
… Make other suggestions
… give us some counsel
… want to make sure we are doing it constructively

Tzviya Siegman: The objectionable phrase was “we need to find 1-2 women”

Bill McCoy: Correct
… I think you suggested we make sure we include women for the remaining slots
… sorry if I did not do that respectfully

Bill Kasdorf: I have recruited volunteers
… it is necessary to actually recruit or draft volunteers
… the process has to be pro-active from the get-go
… that is the best way to avoid this male dominated body

Tzviya Siegman: or contact the https://www.w3.org/community/w3c-women/

Bill McCoy: +1 I would happy to invite Junko

Karen Myers: Junko Kamata, President and CEO of Voyager Japan

Bill McCoy: Kamata-san is not super technical so it’s up to co-chairs if they are OK with that

Luc Audrain: Thank you, Bill to invite Junko Kamata
… anything more on this topic?

3. Fundraising text (for epubcheck)

Tzviya Siegman: Does anyone have experience writing fundraising copy?

Luc Audrain: Bill?

Bill McCoy: I am going to be busy getting the Tokyo workshop publicized
… unless timing can sequence after the Tokyo workshop
… it needs to sequence itself

Luc Audrain: I see you had a question on EPUB Check?

Rachel Comerford: yes, someone to write copy for EPUB CHeck

Luc Audrain: How do we address this question?

Karen Myers: BillM, did you approach the W3C Comm team for EPUB Check?

Bill McCoy: Goal is to make it an outreach of PBG
… and not make it a request of W3C itself
… we can certainly use W3C web page area and blog, but we don’t want it to be a W3C press release and blog
… main concern is it’s not to be a W3C driven effort

Tzviya Siegman: Karen, I was in touch with Ralph about this
… Jeff said that once we have a draft, he will put us in touch with Veronica, Comm team, to put on site
… but we need to put something together first
… in our RFP we said we would work on it in Sept.
… If we want to work on it for BillM to write this for ten days
… and we are confident we can meet our goals
… Since Bill has experience writing something like this, maybe we target first week of July

Bill McCoy: maybe someone else could draft something roughly and I could volunteeer to be editor?

Bill McCoy: and to get it on website / blog etc

Luc Audrain: good idea

Luc Audrain: RFP will be sent soon
… and fundraising soon, too
… not sure how people will react

Bill Kasdorf: we do tend to be US centric
… when we are talking about this fund-raising we need to think internationally
… there are many int’l companies that depend upon EPUB Check
… one pet peeve
… is that putting something up on web site is not sufficient, you have to actively approach people
… it will succeed if we have emissaries to XYZ

Luc Audrain: yes, you are right
… I think it is international and we have to push info to newsletters to Europe and Japan and Korea and elsewhere
… this is one of items of EPUB Roadmap TF
… we should maintain at least some kind of lists of news channels that are good to push information and news and that kind of solicitation all over the world
… you have also seen that I have sent an invitation to a next call for the EPUB Roadmap TF
… and one of the ideas is to publish anywhere in any language when we are ready with EPUB2->EPUB3 white paper, EPUB Check
… should we set up a wiki or Google doc about all those newsletters and channels?

Karen Myers: +1

Tzviya Siegman: +1

Ivan Herman: +1

Bill Kasdorf: I have not been able to address this yet on external comms TF
… that TF has already drawn up a list
… and coordination on roadmap is on our list
… and the fundraising is a better prioritiy
… we have a good group that have contacts in many parts of the world

Luc Audrain: so you will set up wiki with this list?
… would you mind to set up the wiki with the list you mentioned?

Ivan Herman: -> https://github.com/w3c/publ-bg/wiki can be used for wiki

Bill Kasdorf: I need to get back to that group to make sure the list is complete and can be made public; yes, I will do as soon as I can

Luc Audrain: there is a link from Ivan to put this
… we have all access to add anything we can gather in the different Task Forces
… ivan, can you check whether we can all write on that wiki?

Ivan Herman: yes, I will have to check
… I think the answer is yes
… will make a note to check

Ivan Herman: about the targets for sponsors, we targeted on publishers
… others are also interested in having EPUB Check properly done
… Google is one of those and Garth will do what he can
… but contacting the Kobos, Apples, and Amazons of this World would be interesting

Rachel Comerford: and maybe a company called Vital Source?

Rick Johnson: that’s ok [laughs]

Ivan Herman: let’s be optimistic

Luc Audrain: Not sure if this list is sufficient to contact the list of those named
… we may know direct channels
… ok, more on this topic?
… We will set up a wiki with a list of all the newsletters and channels
… I already spoke about the next call for the EPUB Roadmap; we have an offer to translate into Portuguese and to publicize it in Brazil
… when all the members of the BG relay information in other languages, that is positive

Ivan Herman: I just checked
… All members of SC have the right to do anything with that repository, including writing on the wiki page

Luc Audrain: good news
… we can maintain this page

Ivan Herman: you can change the whole repository:-)

Luc Audrain: for this wiki with list of channels, we should have a link to the newsletter, website
… and describe the language
… and add a contact name and email
… or just email if we don’t know contact name
… can you think of other things?
… let’s start with that
… Ok, any other business for today?

Luc Audrain: Thank you everybody
… I will not be there next Tuesday
… Would like to ask Rick to prepare agenda for next week’s BG call?

Tzviya Siegman: I will not be there on tuesday either

Bill Kasdorf: I won’t be on the call Tuesday either

Bill McCoy: thanks Rick LMK if I can help