Events: IDPF Voting: Board Nomination

Dear IDPF Members:

We are in a time of disruption for the publishing industry, as successful digital strategies are beginning to emerge - strategies that will define the leaders of all publishing categories including books, newspapers, magazines, and new media. The ability to assimilate valuable content for the “digirati generation” will be solely dependent on the publishing industry’s ability to adopt standards that help us finally all "speak the same language".

I seek a position on the IDPF Board to help the organization lead industry-wide acceptance of digital content and e-book standards that will benefit publishers of all types. In addition, I am dedicated to helping determine the best way for the industry to optimize its approach to semantic tagging, which will be vital for enabling all of us to finally reach the full revenue potential of copyrighted content and for helping consumers purchase the published materials how, when, and where they most prefer.

For more than 17 years, I have been involved in the engineering, development, and deployment of multi-media, graphics, and digital delivery technologies for media companies and publishers. My work has spanned industries, giving me an understanding of how standards can enhance the evolution of markets – from radio and video to security and publishing. I have had the opportunity to work on developing such standards as USB and MPEG video – both widely adopted standards today. Further, I’ve managed businesses that leveraged those standards to engineer leading, profitable products –it takes more than documentation to result in a "living" standard.

For the past decade, I’ve worked to create advancements in the publishing industry by developing technologies that significantly improve the capture, storage, delivery, and consumption of key content assets. Currently, I serve as General Manager of LibreDigital, where I’ve lead the creation and delivery of the book publishing industry’s most advanced Internet digital warehouse solution – supporting all relevant standards. Prior to that, I was the Director of Business Development for NewsStand, Inc., the world leader in Internet digital edition services to newspaper and magazine publishers. In both of these roles, I have had the privilege of working with the world’s foremost publishers to understand their challenges as they advance in the digital arena, and I am proud to say that we have contributed to their knowledge and successes in the space. I believe that I can add considerable value on behalf of the members of the IDPF based on my constant breadth of market exposure, combined with my excitement and commitment to driving stabilization and adoption of digital book publishing technologies through interface standardization.

In past roles, I drove adoption of motion-enabled MPEG4 technology as U.S. Director of DynaPel, a Munich-based leader in the video and graphics industry, I helped develop the first broadcast-quality MPEG2 digitization board as the Head of Engineering for STB Systems – the US leader in PC graphics boards, I led key marketing initiatives for the PC graphics chip teams at digital processing powerhouse Analog Devices, and prior to these roles I drove strategic technology development for Compaq Computer. I currently hold 6 U.S. and several international patents, with another 17 pending.

I believe that my vision for the industry, combined with my experience with the key technologies, will enable me to successfully provide value to the IDPF and its members as a member of the board. I thank you for your consideration and hope to have the opportunity to serve with this critically important organization.

Respectfully,
Craig A. Miller, General Manager
LibreDigital, a division of NewsStand, Inc.