Dear IDPF Members,

I am updating my nomination statement to include running for President of the IDPF. I would be delighted to serve as President, but would also accept a position on the Board.

I am proud to be one of the founding members of the IDPF. I have served on the IDPF Board for a total of eight years. The DAISY Consortium, with membership in more than 35 countries, who I represent, has solidly been behind the IDPF since its inception, and the DAISY leadership has encouraged me to run for a leadership position in the IDPF. I am also responding to those people in the IDPF who have encouraged me to run for President.

If elected President, I would faithfully represent the views of all stakeholders in the evolving digital publishing ecosystem.
 

EPUB Is Enjoying Great Success

We have seen the uptake of EPUB in the market, which has been terrific news. However, as a standard, EPUB must continue to evolve to meet the growing demand for digital content by a broad range of user groups.

I drove forward the formation of the EPUB Maintenance activity, and currently chair that working group. We will release a minor update in early 2010. This will clear the decks for a major upgrade to the EPUB specification, which I hope can be completed under an aggressive schedule.

Standards harmonization is essential. Under the EPUB's next major revision, I believe we can achieve much more in how broadly EPUB can be used in publishing, government, and in the delivery of all types of information. We also need to innovate, bringing more features, functions, and presentation options to the public. I believe that we must go beyond print books in functionality, using rich media, interactivity, and annotation capabilities in the products. I envision annotations to become independent products moving forward, i.e. selling of annotations to existing EPUBlications, which will be powerful tools in education and business.

Is EPUBlications a new marketing term?

A few other points:

§     I have been encouraging the IDPF to be globally focused. I have always brought a global perspective to the IDPF Board and will continue to do so. I would love to see Board representation from outside the USA.

§     I think it is too early to consider going to ISO with the EPUB standard. This should be considered after the next major revision. We should also ensure that future innovation is not hampered by ISO restrictions.

§     EPUB is taking off in the UK and Europe, but we should also be paying close attention to the needs for our standards and their promotion in Asia as well as the growing demand for reading systems in those areas.

 

Access by Persons with Disabilities

The United Nations "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" came into effect in May 2008. Recently President Obama has signed the treaty firmly establishing that access to information is a fundamental human right. I am blind and will work to ensure that EPUB specifications continue to meet the needs of everybody. I am in an excellent position to assist in the development and promotion of reading systems in the market that are effective for persons with disabilities.

Currently the EPUB specification is fully accessible, but popular mainstream reading systems are not. This can be fixed. We do not want to be in a position where products are banned from our schools, colleges, or libraries because they do not meet legal accessibility requirements. Quite the opposite, we want to bring more people to use EPUB technologies, because it makes them independent and enthusiastic readers.

 

Please Vote for me, George Kerscher

I humbly ask for your vote. I want to see the IDPF through to a place where rich XML content can be used by everybody in the global society through powerful, highly-functional reading systems. I want to see the publishing industry thrive in a global marketplace where hungry readers enjoy the new digital reading experience.

Professional Vita For George