Candidate Statement - Brett Sandusky

 

Nomination for IDPF Board of Directors, November 2011 election

Brett Sandusky - Kaplan Publishing
 
Brett Sandusky is currently Director of Product Innovation for Kaplan Publishing where he focuses on digital product development, eBook strategy, UX and usability, mobile applications, and content integration across platforms. Formerly, he was Director of Marketing during which time he developed data-driven marketing strategies that
capitalized on strategic use of metadata, Web 2.0 functionality, and direct-to-consumer outreach.
 
Being involved heavily, from a product development standpoint, in eBook production, I feel that I have an important perspective on the role of eBooks within our industry and for the types of things consumers demand from such retail products. In addition, my expertise in User Experience (UX) and usability research are essential keys to the future of eBook growth as consumer demand in the arena of digital products grow. Finally, I feel that I can bring passion and enthusiasm to the board as I would be a new member who is very motivated to work on EPUB in its current and future iterations.
 
My vision for EPUB is that of a format with a strong role for long form content in a web browser or enhanced eReader environment. I feel that the eBook as it stands is a retail product that exists as an offshoot of printed book materials, but that EPUB has the potential to be the framework within which long form content will reside within a larger context of the browser. This is essentially that which we have today with heightened capability, since all eReaders are browser based software; however, I think that many content providers would like to incorporate more functionality and interactivity, that which is already offered via the web, in eBooks. As EPUB evolves as a format it seems clear that it would allow for more and more interactivity, more and more functionality, and still work within a broad range of web browsers and/or web-based renders and readers. It is clear that eventually, content providers are going to need to rely on the ability to create one content file and use that file within some context, some framework, as it monetizes this content. I feel that EPUB is the means to offering the content, while other adjacent technologies, HTML5, CSS3, Javascript should be integrated fully into EPUB and used in the frameworks displaying EPUB to offer a superior experience to the reader.
 

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