|
Dear IDPF Members,
I would like to submit my name for one of the IDPF Board of Director
positions.
My Bio
I’ve been in the publishing business for almost 20 years, as an author—I’ve
written around 50 books, including the Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Internet—and
as a publisher (I was the founder of a computer-book publishing company, Top
Floor Publishing). I’m currently working for DNAML, Pty, Limited, an
ebook-technology company, as Sr. VP of U.S. Operations. DNAML has been building
e-publishing software for over nine years…I’ve been involved in ebooks myself
for around five years, first as an “interested observer,” and then working with
DNAML over the last three years or so introducing the technology to major
publishers, advising DNAML on document conversion, and helping to shape some new
ground within in the ebook space; DNAML’s books are multimedia and interaction
capable, with embedded video, sound, and Flash, built-in self assessments,
book-to-server test submissions, updateable books, and so on. (I also have a
strong technical background going back to the early 80s, having worked at all
levels in software-development teams, in particular in user-interface and
program design.) With 50 books to my name, I’ve written for many different
publishers—Wiley, McGraw-Hill, Random House, SYBEX, Pearson, Sterling, ARCO, and
more—and have friends and colleagues spread throughout the business.
General Vision for the IDPF
It’s clear to me that the world’s publishers really don’t want to “compete on
the platform”…they all used the same platform for 550 years, and everything was
fine, and now, moving into the digital age, they’re told they have to “pick” a
platform! Publishers want a common digital solution that everyone can work with,
so they can go back to competing on content and marketing. Thus the IDPF needs
to do two things…to bring all parties within publishing and
publishing-infrastructure together to create common tools that can work
together…but just as importantly, to ensure those tools are the right tools,
that they work from the “end user’s” perspective…that is, they can’t just be the
right tools for publishers, they have to be the right tools for readers. I also
think that most publishers are still stuck in the rut of thinking of ebooks as
being mere screen representations of paper books. Many of us in the publishing
business, though, realize that the future of ebooks is not merely in the printed
word on a black and white screen, but that ebooks will become true multimedia
publications. I believe my background in user-interface design and technology
development gives me a perspective on these issues that can be useful.
Reason for Being on the Board
I’d like to be right up at the front of what is really a historic moment, the
biggest change in publishing in half a millennia. I’d like to be part of that
movement, to have a say in how the first days of popular digital publishing
actually take form. I come from a “book family.” My mother had a couple of books
published, my sister works as an editor for major publishers, all my life I’ve
been a reader, half my life I’ve been an author and publisher…so this is where I
should be!
Regards,
Peter Kent
Sr. VP for US Operations
DNAML, Pty Limited
|
