Host
W3C gratefully acknowledges O'Reilly for hosting this workshop.
Workshop Sponsor
W3C organizational sponsors
If you're interested in being a sponsor, please contact J. Alan Bird at abird@w3.org or +1 617 253 7823. For additional information, please visit the Sponsorship program.
Important Dates
10 December 2012:
Deadline for Position Papers
(EasyChair submission)
15 January 2013:
Acceptance notification and registration instructions sent.
20 January 2013:
Program and position papers posted on the workshop website.
01 February 2013:
Deadline for registration
(invitation required, no participation fee)
11 February 2013, 1PM
Workshop begins
12 February 2013, 5 PM
Workshop ends
The goal of this W3C Workshop, organized in partnership with IDPF and BISG, is to bring together major players of the eBooks market, including publishers, standardization organizations, booksellers, accessibility organizations, etc, to bring eBook publishing to its full potential through standardization.
Today’s eBook market is dynamic, fast-changing and strong. eBooks compete with printed versions, and there is a wide choice of hardware and software available for eBook readers. Nevertheless, publishers face major business and technical challenges in this market, some of which could be reduced or removed by standardization. Among these challenges, questions arise such as:
- How should we deal with format version and fragmentation concerns?
- Should we standardize a way for screen size, orientation, resolution, color, etc. to adapt logically to different e-reader specifications?
- How should we address the challenge of producing and displaying eBooks whose ergonomy would compete with traditional books?
- How should authorship, ethical and legal rights be described and handled?
- How should eBooks, Web sites, and native applications built with Web technologies inter-relate in terms of links, interactivity, etc.?
The Open Web Platform, which includes core W3C technologies such as HTML, CSS, SVG, XML, XSLT, XSL-FO, PNG, RDF, and many more, are already extensively in eBooks and eBook production. The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) has defined the EPUB standard (latest version 3.0)that largely builds on these technologies. The Open Web Platform is also increasingly being used at the core of standalone desktop and mobile applications. However, more can and should be done to address the specific issues and requirements of the publishing industry for web standards for web sites, eBooks, and content applications.
Participants in this workshop will have the opportunity to share their own perspectives, requirements, and ideas to ensure that emerging global technology standards meet the needs of the eBook industry.
The Workshop will be a success if participants will walk away knowing:
- the current and future standards driving eBook publishing;
- how to become directly involved in developing eBook standards;
- how best to promote eBook standards within their organization and the industry at-large;
- clear guidelines for documenting technical use cases and requirements for eBook standards to current W3C Working Groups;
- details about future standardization work to be done by W3C either jointly, or in strong cooperation with other standards setting organizations.
Workshop topics
Learn more about possible Workshop topics on the separate page.
Participate in the Workshop
The Program Committee is chaired by Angela Bole; BISG, Markus Gylling; IDPF and the Daisy Consortium and Thierry Michel; W3C.
Learn more about how to participate and who should participate.