News and Events

The IDPF Board recently approved working group recommendations to advance the specifications of EPUB 3.1 to Proposed Specification status. A final member and public review and comment period for these specifications will be open through 7 November, after which the final step according to IDPF policies is a member vote to approve as Recommended Specifications.

The first Editors Draft of EPUB Accessibility 1.0 has been published at http://www.idpf.org/epub/a11y/, making available a conformance and discovery specification for accessiblility within the EPUB standard. While accessibility has always been a requirement of EPUB 3, this new specification&

As previously announced, all IDPF members are invited to attend a Publishing Community Meeting on September 22 during W3C TPAC 2016 (Lisbon), co-sponsored by W3C and IDPF, as well as to attend other meetings throughout TPAC week, the flagship annual event for the global community developing Open Standards for the Web.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), are organizing a one-day Publishing Community Meeting during W3C’s largest annual event,

IDPF DigiCon @BEA (fka Digital Book) has been hailed as the absolutely critical, best value and most informative conference in the industry, attracting an audience of nearly 1,000 professionals annually, of which 60% are C-Suite executives, senior directors, or above.

IDPF and EDRLab are pleased to announce that the 2016 EPUB Summit will take place during the Bordeaux Digital Week at Librairie Mollat. Over the course of two days, the digital publishing community will focus on analysis, demonstrations, workshops and collaborative work to share best practices and learn about the latest developments surrounding EPUB.

The theme for our 2016 conference will explore all things Digital: The Channels, The Formats and The Opportunities and will take place in Chicago at the McCormick Center from May 10-11, 2016.

June 29 sees the gathering of of a broad range of institutions at this one day conference in Brussels. IDPF are delighted to be co-organizers of this event alongside the Interinstitutional Digital Publishing Committee of the EU where delegates can look forward to an intensive day discussing challenges and opportunities that today's dynamic publishing ecosystem presents.

Voting has begun in the annual election process for the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) Board of Directors. This year, six directors will be elected, including the elected President position. Eight candidates are standing for election, affiliated with IDPF member organizations from Asia, Europe and North America.  Each IDPF member organization's primary representative is eligible to vote, and has been sent an online ballot link via email. The election will be open through Friday, February 6, 2015. 

The next gathering of the EDUPUB community will take place in Phoenix, Arizona (USA) on February 26 and 27, 2015. A preliminary program is now available,  and registration is open.  The summit will launch the implementation phase of EDUPUB, a cross-organizational initiative to develop  a comprehensive open platform for next-generation learning content based on EPUB 3, IMS standards for learning environment integration, and the overall Open Web Platform.

A self-nomination period is now open for an election to fill seven positions on the IDPF Board of Directors. Every primary representative of an IDPF member is eligible to be a candidate to serve on the board. Four incumbent directors have expressed an intention to run for re-election, so it is anticipated that the organization will elect at least three new directors during this cycle. The nomination period will be from October 5 through October 26, 2012. After the nomination period has closed, all nominations will be posted on the IDPF website.

IDPF Executive Director Bill McCoy will lead the "Platforms and Standards" session at the LBF Digital Minds Conference (Sunday, 15 April). There's still time to register.  IDPF will have a stand during the London Book Fair Exposition (April 16-18). Members and others are cordially invited to visit booth T755 in the digital zone to learn more about EPUB 3, and other IDPF activities.

SPi Global, a Gold Sponsor for Digital Book 2011, has upgraded to a Platinum level sponsorship for the 2012 Digital Book conference.

Member consent voting is open through Jan. 29 for working group charter proposals to add dictionaries and indexes support to EPUB, following member comment periods during December, 2011 and subsequent approval of both draft charters by the IDPF Board of DIrectors.

On October 25, the IDPF held a workshop on fixed-layout EPUB in Taipei. Over 50 people attended physically, with 20+ more participating remotely. Preliminary meetings notes are now available at http://code.google.com/p/epub-revision/wiki/TaipeiMeetingNotes . Several action items were taken including formation of two ad hoc groups to propose rendition metadata and a rendition mapping data structure; one or both of these efforts could lead to charter proposals for a new Working Group.

The nomination period for the upcoming election for seven positions on the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) Board of Directors will close on Friday, October 28, 2011.  

O'Reilly Media, in collaboration with the IDPF, have just released a free (registration required) white paper "What is EPUB 3?", authored by EPUB 3 spec editor Matt Garrish. Per the catalog description: "This article walks you through the format and puts it in its place in the digital landscape, explaining why EPUB 3 is set to become the new global standard for ebooks as it also becomes the new accessible standard for ebooks".

The open source XSL stylesheets for DocBook have been updated to support EPUB 3 by Bob Stayton (author of DocBook XSL: The Complete Guide). The EPUB produced validates against the new EPUBCheck 3.0 b2 and supports advanced EPUB 3 features including audio, video, and MathML.

On July 20, 2011 the IDPF held a workshop on Advanced Adaptive Layout for High-Design Publications, in Mountain View, CA USA and via Web conference. Total attendance was over 60 (over 30 in person)  from over 25 different organizations including Adobe, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Cengage Learning, Google, IDEAlliance, Inkling, John Wiley, Libre Digital, Pearson, Rodale, Safari Books Online, and others.

RSVPs are requested by today (July 12) for physical attendance at the IDPF Workshop on Advanced Page Layout for High-Design Publications which will be held on July 20 at the Google campus in Mountain View, CA.

IDPF Executive Director Bill McCoy will present on IDPF, EPUB, and the current situation and trends for global digital publishing during the Fourth Chinese Digital Publishing Exposition in Beijing (taking place July 5-9). More information: http://china-media-news.org/2011/05/16/chinas-4th-digital-publishing-exp... , http://www.chuban.cc/ggl/201103/t20110309_84837.html [in Chinese].

The IDPF EPUB Working Group today published a second Public Draft of specifications for EPUB 3. This work-in-progress revision reflects feedback received during the Public and Member comment period that commenced with the publication of the first Public Draft on Feb 15, 2011, as well as other Working Group decisions, review and editorial improvements.

The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), the international trade and standards association for the eBook and digital publishing industry has named Michael Smith its new executive director. As executive director Michael Smith is responsible for leading the operational and strategic efforts of the IDPF and reports to its nine member Board of Directors. The IDPF (www.IDPF.org) is comprised of approximately 100 leading publishing, technology, and non-profit companies and organizations.

The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), the standards and trade association for digital publishing, announced today the release of a new technical standard to facilitate digital content creation, distribution and use by consumers. In addition to the Open eBook Publication Structure (OEBPS), an XML standard for authoring digital books, the IDPF has now released a new standard for packaging a digital publication, including the contents of the publication, metadata, signatures, encryption, rights and other information into one standard file.

Digital technology leaders that scan, search, narrate, link and electronically deliver millions of books will be addressing publishers and technologists on Wednesday, May 24th, 2006 at the International Digital Publishing Forum's Connected & Mobile 2006 Conference. IDPF is hosting this one-day event at the McGraw-Hill Auditorium in New York City as part of its acclaimed educational event series. Information and registration for the conference is available at www.idpf.org/mobile.

eBook publishers reported increases in revenue and unit sales over the same quarter the previous year (Q2 2004) with a 36% increase in eBook units sold and a 69% increase in eBook revenues. Also, publishers reported a 24% increase in titles published over Q2 2004.

Publishers reported 484,933 eBook units sold and $3,182,499 in revenues for the second quarter of 2005. They also reported 1024 eBooks published during this time.

Will digital textbooks replace print? Do eBooks offer improvements in learning? These questions and presentations on the advantages of using digital media to deliver educational content will be center stage at the eBooks in Education Conference, Thursday, April 14th, 2005 at the McGraw-Hill Auditorium in midtown Manhattan.

Among the 2,000 exhibitors at Book Expo America in Chicago this week, publishers, retailers and technologists are celebrating a new quarterly record for eBook retail sales. eBook units sold for the first quarter 2004 were up 46% and eBook revenues were up 28% over the same quarter in 2003. These and other figures charting the eBook industry are reported in the quarterly Open eBook Forum (OeBF) eBook Statistics Report.