Meeting minutes
The Publishing@W3C blog post
tzviya: welcome everyone, to our slightly redesigned steering committee... we haven't kicked anybody off. rachel is not here with us because macmillan is leaving w3c... but we have a slightly different structure.
tzviya: first item on the
agenda is the publishing blog post... thank you everyone (esp dauwhe)
for contributions! please broadcast widely and let people know about
our new direction
… this has publicized the charter for the EPUB 3 WG...
and already saw some mild comments on the charter... the news is out
there, but it's a weird time to publicize this because people are
focused on other things right now
… any thoughts on this?
liisamk: i'll promote this in the bg, and expect to see comments from japan on the charter... makoto was very anxious to see what the charter looks like, and to envision how this will be in the w3c framework
tzviya: i see he started to
add issues to epub 3.2
… it's certainly helpful to have comments to get us
started
ivan: makoto put issues on
the charter as well
… and we also have a comment on edupub... those of you
who were involved with edupub should look at the issues because we
are not the ones who should really react on it
<Ralph> Issues on draft EPUB3 WG charter
tzviya: switching kids! ... welcome to life as we know it
Ralph: we'll all have to acknowledge each other's personal challenges in this new environment :)
George: the edupub thing... epub for education... i think with the accessibility spec and the work we've done on that arena... unless there are some semantics that are needed, i think i should just be replying to those issues that we don't know that it's needed
wendyreid: it's worth responding... not sure where he's coming from re his interest... but it seems his involvement is quite advanced
<ivan> Edupub related issue
wendyreid: the reason we
weren't focused on edupub was lack of implementation... but it seems
like there might even be a separate reading system model for
edupub-based documents
… i pointed him in the direction of the CG, and
proposed that we start a TF to focus on edupub and related docs
… sounds like we have a lead for a TF... sounds like
he's going in the right direction
ivan: i'm a little bit
worried because that issue and the discussions there should be related
to the epub wg charter... and we can agree or disagree with this, but
it's not something for the charter, but something that the cg should
pick up
… this is typically the kind of thing we discussed the
cg should work with
<Ralph> [Adam has joined 16 CGs across a variety of areas]
ivan: if we agree with this,
i propose we transfer the issue to the cg list rather than keep it in
this one, because we should concentrate on the wg charter
… and not get in the habit of having all kinds of
other distracting discussions
Mateus: I was (briefly) involved in EDUPUB 5 years ago and saw limited uptake
tzviya: most of us who tried
to implement it, most of the bells and whistles were not necessary
… the only thing that was useful were structural
semantics
… that's something we need to solve in the wg, edupub
aside
+100
<liisamk> it's a bad week to stop sniffing glue...
ivan: related to this, but
on a very practical level, in the blog, the way we stated the epub
cg... saying it would happily continue and renamed as publishing cg,
let by mateus and jeff xu
… how can we make the transition administratively and
practically? and where do i put this issue? not in the epub cg, but
in the publishing cg?
Ralph: we can take an action
to figure that out offline
… there's some team admin stuff that we'll need to
redo, like renaming a cg...
Action: Ivan work with Ralph to rename epub cg and move repo issues to new cg repos
Ralph: anyone care to comment how frequently you'll be looking at issues? ivan and i will have a substantial role there, as will dauwhe and wendyreid
wendyreid: i'm getting all the emails directly to my inbox, so i'm trying to keep on top of them and am happy to continue
<ivan> EPUB 3 EG Charter proposal repo
Ralph: if there's an answer you're confident on giving, do so; if there's discussion, we can use this meeting or ad-hoc conversations to figure out an authoritative answer to those things
ivan: maybe not everyone
realizes that we're talking about the charter proposal, which is now
in public
… this is now in a repo, and there's also a
human-readable version
<ivan> charter proposal
ivan: an official
notification about the fact we're working on this has already gone to
the AC... so the whole of the AC should now know about it and will
hopefully give us comments
… unless a thorny issue comes out in the discussion,
we've given ourselves about a month before going to the AC vote
… we'd need to find consensus if any major issues come
out first, otherwise we'd put it up for a vote early may or late
april
Ralph: thanks for
summarizing the next steps about the charter and wg itself... there's
nothing magic about "a month"... we have discussions until they taper
off, and this group can decide on the milestone, but obviously one
question will be continuity from the current wg into the next phase,
but we'll continue discussion as long as there's still productive
discussion
… given that we all have other things on our minds, it
might be longer than a month
… anything more about the blog post?
Bill Kasdorf's new role in Publishing@W3C
Ralph: next item proposed in the agenda, is for Bill_Kasdorf to introduce his new role
W3C Evangelists (what they are, how to become one)
Bill_Kasdorf: i have now
agreed to take on the title of global publishing evangelist for the
w3c... i've been a cheerleader for publishing and w3c for as long as
i've been involved, but informally... jeff approached me about this
new initiative for evangelists, and to spread the word to encourage
more people to join, etc.
… i had a good discussion with Alan Bird, and it seems
to be a good role for me, formalizing it a bit... having some tools
for outreach and processes for reaching out on behalf of w3c
officially
… something i've been passionate about is involving
other sectors that haven't been involved...
… macmillan leaving is a major loss... but i've
reached out to Rick Johnson (VitalSource) because we've been wanting
to get him back
… they're hugely influential in educational publishing
and a11y, why aren't they members? i think i need to approach it on
the Ingram level instead, and see where that goes
… i would love to get them signed up because they're
hugely important in the book industry in general
… there's a monthly call with evangelists, which i
attended, and one of the others was talking about payments... and i
think that's really of potential interest to publishers, but it's a
side of w3c that they might not be tuned into at all
… what else in the scope of w3c might be really
important to publishers? and i can put folks in touch so they can be
part of the conversation, and part of the publishing conversation
Ralph: thank you very much,
Bill_Kasdorf... tzviya made a comment to reach out to Firebrand as
well
… welcome, Bill_Kasdorf, it's great to have you in
this slightly more formal role in w3c
… this does come under our business development
function, and it clearly has that orientation, so i'm pleased to
have Bill_Kasdorf to help with that
… Karen is general bizdev, and Bill_Kasdorf is focused
in particular sector
George: Daisy has a really good communications network with inclusivepublishing.org newsletter, and another newsletter geared more for our partners... and we'll help in any way we can, if there's communication you want to get out in those vehicles... we're happy to have you participate
Bill_Kasdorf: i'll take you up on that... one of the things that's particularly important about that is that a11y and i18n are fundamentally important to everybody
<Ralph> i/Ralph: anyone care to comment/subtopic: EPUB3 WG charter
Ralph: tzviya and i also
agreed to be the regular chairs of this SC meeting, for all the chairs
of our adopted communities...
… in conversation with jeff, we've been talking about
how to get a publishing champion for w3c... the sense is that that
role is distributed among the 3-4 (3.5, including jeff's
involvement) of us... between the evangelist activities and the
coordination of the CGs and future WG, collectively we make up most
of the role of the champion
… we'll put on hold the idea of formally recruiting a
publishing champion... we're collectively the champions for the
communities, with some specific roles for me, tzviya, Bill_Kasdorf,
and jeff
… any additional comments?
… Bill_Kasdorf, please share with us any updates you
want, whether you want a regular agenda item on this call, or only
on news-to-share basis
Bill_Kasdorf: certainly, and i'll work with you to talk to candidates as well
Ralph: one thing to be a little sensitive about is outreach to specific individuals or companies, and Bill_Kasdorf can guide us on that
Bill_Kasdorf: one thing that
might be beyond the scope of what we've been talking about is IPTC, a
technical organization in news orgs, and i always thought they should
be involved; epub specifically may not be super relevant, but the web
in general is
… i'll be chatting with them and attending meetings to
see where we can go with that
tzviya: i think news orgs are probably joining for privacy, credible web, advertising, maybe a11y, but not publishing
Bill_Kasdorf: yes, that was
one of my first insights... the approach is not necessarily what we're
trying to sell them, but asking what issues are of concern and where
in w3c there are activities relevant to that, then making the
connections
… the difficulty in recruiting people outside of book
industry, is most people assume publishing means books
… that approach doesn't work all that well, and
instead go the route tzviya is suggesting
… focusing on the issues, rather than industries
Ralph: and let's not be too
discouraged... many organizations have one or two individuals who
would really like to be in w3c but haven't persuaded their
organization to join yet
… the impetus might not be publishing, but some, e.g.,
in Washington Post, could be
… advertising in particular is getting a lot of
attention
EPUB Survey results thus far
Ralph: i think we're ready
to move on to the next topic
… EPUB survey results
<wendyreid> 2q+
lissamk: haven't had much chance to look
dauwhe: was out most of this week and didn't have access to internet or running water, so didn't have a chance to look at results, but we should think about when to close the survey... if we are getting more input from japan after translation, we might wait... but all of this is because BISG has been generous about lending their surveymonkey account... and i don't want to impose indefinitely
Mateus: Wendy and I
discussed going through the issues after the Hoboken F2F
… I have focused on the open-ended responses
… categorizing them
… still in progress
wendyreid: been putting together slides of the issues that are more quantifiable into things like graphs, not in a place to share yet, but i will as soon as it is... it's been confirming a lot of the things we knew already, and the data is interesting, but there's a lot to go through
Ralph: we have a LOT of input from the survey, which is great, but will take more effort than expected
Daihei: as liisamk pointed
out, there are comments included from the japanese respondents, but
they replied in japanese, so somebody needs to look it over and
review, making translations as necessary so we can incorporate them
into the data repository
… i hate to tell you but i don't know where i can
review all the comments in japanese and put them back with a
translation... so can someone guide me?
… already asked some of my colleagues to help me
translate and organize comments and put back into the data source
lissamk: i recommend you go back to the sheet dauwhe sent, and look for the text in japanese... and give back a sheet where you have the translations
Daihei: can you/dauwhe send the sheet?
dauwhe_: i'll send the updated sheet now
wendyreid: i've been running some through google translate and so far the output has been understandable, haven't come across issues that don't make sense or aren's contextually appropriate... so all copy in spreadsheet now are translated
Daihei: so they are already in the spreadsheet, and i can review them for sense? and if there are revisions I can provide them
wendyreid: yes, but it's not
dauwhe's spreadsheet. his sheet will not have translations
… i will share our google sheet
<wendyreid> https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KEK8e7xbvyleKXqWHgijsT-xlLY5lNgj
Ralph: thank you all who are
working on them... we understand things are slowed down due to current
events and volume of data
… any other comments for this meeting?
tzviya: George had a topic
EPUB and Education
George: we're starting the
epub in higher ed working group, focused primarily on US, but we'll
start a webinar series every wednesday at 1500UTC, and starting with
announcement from publishers and vitalsource about free books
available to college students through end of this semester
… then moving on to sessions from various conferences
that have been postponed, like CSUN publisher faceoff, word2epub, a
couple on math, then london book fair and conference in sweden that
had been canceled
… this will be weekly, and i'll publicize this in the
WG and CG... apply to all sectors in publishing... does have a11y
focus, but not only
Ralph: thank you, George!
George: we will share info and sign-up lists... in process of getting it all sorted
Ralph: kudos for reacting in
positive ways to this new environment we'll be in for a few months!
… thank you all for being here, Bill_Kasdorf and
tzviya for the new roles... we've all worked together for a long
time... in the current global situation we need to be extra kind to
each other, we won't be up to the same pace and don't need to
apologize too much about missing deadlines and things like that...
things are going to be slowed down for a period of time
Cristina: just want to bring
you a little of what's happening in Italy and what happens when you're
stuck at home for weeks... it's really important that people not
move... i still see people talking about this like influenza, but in
italy we have more people die than in china... this is different, and
the only way to find a solution until a medical one, is to not be in
contact with people
… we have a very good health system, but it's a very
big problem... if you need advice or suggestion, please reach
out.... but please take care of yourself, parents, older people
Ralph: thank you, Cristina, i know i feel guilty as our chinese colleagues were going through this in Jan and Feb, and our w3c colleagues were cooped up at home, and we didn't acknowledge more the challenges they were going through... now we're learning, and thank you for sharing your experience
Cristina: this is exactly like an earthquake, war... it's difficult to think everyone can make a change, but it's very important
Ralph: i see news report of young people not taking this seriously... the message you're spreading is very important. thank you for emphasizing that. and to be kind to each other. life will be different and difficult.
tzviya: we'll discuss epubcheck next time in two weeks