TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘IDPF’ Category

By Paul Biba

Excerpt from Bill McCoy’s blog appears below. Also see earlier TeleRead post.

Adobe has just released, under BSD license, EPUBGen, a Java library that generates EPUB.

To quote from our digital publishing developer blog:

EPUBGen is a Java library that demonstrates EPUB generation from a variety of document formats, and which may be a useful starting point or reference code for other EPUB generation needs. That is to say, it’s an effort to promote the development of a variety of tools and workflows.

EPUBGen has both a set of back-end code generation modules and front end format importer modules. The back-end modules generate EPUB and illustrate more advanced functionality, including font subset embedding with obfuscation

The code itself can be found on the epub-tools Google Code site, which includes other sub-projects witg Python/XSLT scripts for generating EPUB from DocBook and TEI XML. For more of the gory details on font embedding with obfuscation (aka "mangling"), which illustrates the recently published IDPF Tech Note about same, see this related blog post.

By Paul Biba

I notice that the Conference, like last year, is sold out. I’ll be covering it for TeleRead. Yes, I’ll get up at an ungodly hour and slog through the volcanos, wild animals and swamps just for our readers. I’ll bring my snowshoes and a bow and arrow along as well - you never know.

My plan is to cover the conference by doing a series of Twitter posts (connectivity permitting) on the interesting points of the talks, and then collect the posts and publish them as an article here. I also have a couple of interviews lined up which will be the subject of individual articles.

By Paul Biba

Even though I spend a lot of time fussing about with this blog, in the end I’m just an average consumer when it comes to ebooks. I like to read classics, best sellers, history, science fiction, literature in other languages (translated), etc. Luckily I am a very fast reader, so a copious supply of books is necessary to meet my addiction. Now here’s the simple truth, I don’t give a damn what format they are in, and EPUB doesn’t help matters much, despite all the hype.

Why is this? Well, take classics. Who cares what the format is. I can get classics that will work on my Kindle, my broken Sony Reader, my Palm, my iPhone, my Nokia phone, etc. from many sources. I don’t care if they are in azw, lit, mobi, ereader, etc. as long as I can read them, which I can. Since they come in many formats I can keep one version on my Kindle and then follow up reading it on my iPhone with eReader. To the consumer the format, then, is irrelevant. Does EPUB do anything for me here, no.

Now let’s go to current publications. As long as they are not DRMed I can read them the same way I can with the classics. So EPUB isn’t relevant to me there. However, if they are DRMed then I am stuck. I’m on the second volume of Stephenson’s System of the World and I can only get it in a DRMed version. DRMed in Sony format, in Kindle format, or from Fictionwise in DRMed eReader, Mobi, Microsoft Reader or Adobe. This limits my reading potential. I can only read it on the platform that will support the particular DRMed format I am forced to buy. As a consumer this drives me straight to Amazon. Why? Because I can read the book on a large reader, which is my preference, but still keep a copy with me to read on my iPhone when I’m out and about. Why would I ever buy a Sony Reader in the future if Sony doesn’t have an iPhone (or a Nokia or Windows Mobile) solution.
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By Paul Biba

Here is the agenda for the Conference in New York.  I will be covering the main Tuesday session for TeleRead.  You can get more details here.

8:00 - 8:45 am. Registration and Free Continental Breakfast

8:45 - 9:00 am. Greetings & Opening Remarks
Michael Smith: IDPF, Executive Director
Steve Potash: IDPF, President; OverDrive, CEO

9:00 - 10:00 am. EPUB Update: Best Practices and Case Studies for Publishers and Service Bureaus Utilizing XML Workflows
Dave Cramer: TexTech, Inc., Technical Lead
Lisa McCloy-Kelley: Random House, VP Director, Content Management Group
Bob Carlton: LibreDigital, Vice President Marketing

10:00 - 11:00 am.  Panel: Channels for EPUB eBook Sales and Distribution
Bob LiVolsi: BooksOnBoard, President & CEO
Erica Lazarro: OverDrive, Inc, General Counsel
Andrew Weinstein: Ingram Digital , VP and General Manager, Retail Solutions

11:00 - 11:30 am.  Networking Break & Exhibits

11:30 am - 11:45 pm.  Update on IDPF Standards
Garth Conboy: eBook Technologies Inc., President

11:45 am - 12:15 pm Featured Presentation:  Adam Smith, Director Product Management,  Google Book Search

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By Paul Biba

This is a day and a half conference on Monday May 11 and Tuesday May 12. As of right now I’ll be attending the Tuesday session for TeleRead. I’m unsure as to whether I’ll be able to make the Monday half day session or not. I’ll probably do the same thing as I did with the Writers Conference; do Twitter posts of the interesting points and then collect them and publish them on the site (provided, of course, that I can get connectivity).

Here is the Conference description:

An eBook Stimulus Plan for Publishing is the theme for Digital Book 2009. This conference focuses on the eBook Business, Successful Business Models and Connecting with the Consumer. This one-day conference plus 1/2 day Workshop is part of the IDPF’s acclaimed spring educational series. In prior years this event has been consistently sold-out as it presents the year’s best opportunities to network with global publishing and online technology leaders in the digital book world.

Click here to see Draft Conference and Workshop Agendas
Speakers and Presenters yet to be finalized .