Publishing Steering Committee Telco — Minutes

Date: 2019-03-21

Attendees

Present: Rachel Comerford, Ivan Herman, George Kerscher, Liisa McCloy-Kelley, Luc Audrain, Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平), Garth Conboy, Jun-ichi Yoshii, Karen Myers, Jeff Jaffe, Bill Kasdorf

Regrets: Dave Cramer, Tzviya Siegman, Wendy Reid

Guests:

Chair: Luc Audrain

Scribe(s): Garth Conboy, George Kerscher

1. epubcheck 4.2.0

Luc Audrain: RC made available by DAISY. Testing discussion starting.
… Kobo will process a bunch of EPUBs
… Hopefully Google will get on it too.
… Issues to Github.

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: Apple has likely started testing too (backlist issues).
… Can we send messages to all of our lists to start testing and filing feedback?

Luc Audrain: Should do so worldwide.
… Our responsibility in the publishing industry.
… Final version scheduled for end of March; will really be in April (mid?).

Bill Kasdorf: +1 to Ivan

Ivan Herman: Is it better if the release of epubheck coincident with EPUB 3.2 release?

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: +1 to releasing 3.2 and epubcheck 4.2 at the same time

Bill Kasdorf: +1 to Ivan

Luc Audrain: Yes previously discussed.

Daihei Shiohama: +1 to lisamk

Luc Audrain: Yes, they should be synchronized.

Ivan Herman: talking about public presentation.

Luc Audrain: Yes, we should do together.

Rachel Comerford: Do we have the funds to get there?

Luc Audrain: next on the agenda.

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): Question from Japan… what’s the time period?
… Mid-April?
… The timing of end-of-testing should be announced.

Luc Audrain: Yes, but also ASAP.

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: +1 to announcing that we allow for testing until mid-April

Luc Audrain: we will discuss and announcement makes sense too.
… results should be sent back to DAISY (positive too), so that we can know the amount of testing.

Bill Kasdorf: Intention to complete asap, but shouldn’t do anything formal until we know results of testing.
… and can we fund it? So hold off a bit on public announcement.

George Kerscher: complains about scribe typing loudly. :-)

Ivan Herman: +1 to george

Luc Audrain: +1 to George’s BIG BAND

Bill Kasdorf: +1 to George

George Kerscher: One big bang announcement — epubcheck & EPUB 3.2 concurrently.
… Hopefully some time in April.

Daihei Shiohama: +1 to Liisa

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: And announcement saying “you should be testing, this is coming, feedback needed by early/mid April. Then do Big Bang.”

Luc Audrain: Yes, that should be the plan.

Daihei Shiohama: +1 to Garth

Luc Audrain: Announcements from DAISY and W3C blog.
… should be pushed by all of us too.

2. epubcheck funding

Luc Audrain: Have 2/3 of needed funds for full 18mo development. Have funds to get 4.2 out.
… But need more for next phases.
… see small but regular contributions coming.
… We should all continue to grovel.
… Daihei_Shiohama did much in Japan.

Daihei Shiohama: Yoshii-san helped a lot, working on big contributions.
… more in process.
… Kadokawa was presenting epubcheck tee-shirts… buy to contribute.
… TDPF will reach out to Taiwaneese publishing industry to raise funds there.
… will work outside W3C to raise funds.

Bill Kasdorf: Draft of letter from External Coordination Task Force.
… Provided starter text to use — modify or translate as needed.
… Fundraising for completion and continued maintenance of epubcheck.

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: Need to stress the continued maintenance part.
… Multi-language tee-shirts?

Luc Audrain: Tee-shirts will be at digital publishing summit in Paris.
… Good point for pushing continued maintenance of epubhceck.
… Starting to modify fund-raising page to bring it up-to-date.
… need to add next steps.

Rachel Comerford: I guess we don’t have all needed funds.
… do we have a $$’s number?

Luc Audrain: 2/3 done. Total needed is $136K. Today at $86K.
… Pledged. $78K actually received.
… no real collection problems.

Rachel Comerford: Thank you.

Luc Audrain: Cash balance is positive. 4.2 can be paid in time.

Rachel Comerford: $550 raised so far with tee-shirts.
… it’s a non-trival effort to do this sort of fund raising.
… multiples for different languages.
… Need 50 for each.
… not the best fund raising source.

Ivan Herman: George stated what I wanted to say.

3. Epub 3.2

Luc Audrain: what about remaining issues?
… The issues would not prevent the launch.

4. Audiobooks

Luc Audrain: Wendy sent us a status this morning.

Luc Audrain: From Wendy: Audiobooks – the APA were presented the Explainer doc at their meeting this week, they’re consulting with a lawyer to ensure there’s no anti-trust concern in meeting with me to discuss the spec together. I’ve already been contacted by Audible so I’m hoping that continues. George has also provided 2 contacts for me!

Luc Audrain:

Ivan Herman: -> Wendy’s mail: https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-publishing-sc/2019Mar/0012.html

Jeff Jaffe: Good that Audible were contacted.

Luc Audrain: Good progress in reaching out to the audio arena.
… The audio book is present for the Boston F2F in early May.

Ivan Herman: We are still in process of developing the agenda, but Audio books will be there.

5. Digital publishing summit

George Kerscher: Dates June 25 and 26.

Luc Audrain: Program is not final and is being developed.

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): There will be important representation from Japan.
… Representatives will present and talk about the digital publishing in Japan.
… We will promote EPUB 3.2

Ivan Herman: I advise you to make hotel reservations, because this is a big time for tourists. It took a lot to get a hotel.

Bill Kasdorf: It is a digital publishing summit (not only ebooks).

Luc Audrain: We expect innovations to be presented along with practical items.
… The summit will be a great opportunity to promote EPUB 3.2, epubcheck, and fund raising to continue epubcheck development and maintenance.

Luc Audrain: We want testimonials from W3C members endorsing EPUB 3.2
… We do not know where these testimonials should be placed?

Ivan Herman: what is the question?

Luc Audrain: Where should testamonials for EPUB 3.2.

Karen Myers: I talked with Corelie Mercier (head of W3C marcomm) The business group can post, and we can link from publishing pages. We need to work out the details.

Luc Audrain: It could be Rachel and Dave as chairs or it could be chairs of PBG.

Bill Kasdorf: If we are posting to the W3C lists, that hits the W3C members. We need to broadcast further outside the W3C:

Rachel Comerford: +1 to PBG

Bill Kasdorf: +1 to PBG

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: we should add a discussion to the agenda for next week!

Liisa McCloy-Kelley: The PBG should take point on on the collection of testimonials. This should go broader than W3C members.

Bill Kasdorf: That will be another opportunity for the External Coordination TF to distribute a press release with testimonials

6. TPAC questions

Luc Audrain: PBG and PWG discussions are being planned.
… There will be a PBG short event.

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): PGG conference on Thursday and this is the date when dr. Jun Murai will be able to present.
… We want to have other publishers to participate in our meetings.
… We want to make time available for publishers to come and bring the business point of view.
… We will do our best to raise attendance. We will be submitting the dates to W3C for the OK to have this publishing meeting.

Ivan Herman: This event will be an integral part of TPAC week. It will be open to all TPAC attendees? My feeling is that it should be open to all at TPAC.
… The only problematic is that Thursday and Friday are days where we have other WG meetings.
… This means that the two day publishing will conflict in some cases with these WG meetings.
… We should be aware of these overlaps; it is impossible to avoid.

Luc Audrain: It should be open. The publishers do not participate int hese kinds of meetings. In terms of timing, this is the only time we have been able to get key people to attend.

Daihei Shiohama: Yes to Luc

Luc Audrain: the meeting will be only a half day. If we do something on the 19th and depends on other working groups.

George Kerscher: T… his will be a short event inside TPAC.

Rachel Comerford: +1 to Ivan’s concerns

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): I was trying to avoid conflicts, but this is difficult.

Ivan Herman: I have a WG call on those 2 days (JSON-LD)

Daihei Shiohama (塩濱大平): On Thursday there are no major conflicts as of yet. We will look if it is a half day in morning or in the afternoon.
… are better with a morning or afternoon on the 19? Should we doodle that publishing members that attend TPAC

Jeff Jaffe: Typically an AC meeting on Thursday afternoon. If we want AC reps there, morning would be better.