Meeting minutes
<Karen> +1 welcome Michelle Kelly
Michelle: With Legible Media--platform launching in a month. She works with publishers on NA and expanding to Africa. Angela is here too.
Thorium Reader (EDRlab)
<Ralph> https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-publishingbg/2020Apr/0012.html "Laurent's email" with pointer to his presentation
Laurent: Speaking on support
of audiobooks at Readium specifically Thorium.
… EDRLab--nonprofit global association supported by
member fees and grants.
… Readium: not an application or a reading app. Set of
SDKs focusing on different OSs.
… Focusing on EPUB, supporting LCP
… Mission is to enable the development of reading
apps, incl. audiobooks and image-based publications.
<Avneesh> It is strange, George and I can hear each other on phone line, but cannot hear Laurent
Laurent: Wrt audiobooks,
publishers, aggregators, retailers may apply DRM
… Based on LCP.
… Currently have 21 apps based on Readium technology.
… Lots of power in Readium--you will find it in many
applications.
… R2 Reader is a test application supporting W3C
audiobook format.
… People still rely on ??? formats for audiobooks
… The is also a cloud reader, Readium Web, which is
audiobook enabled.
… This will support W3C audiobook format when it's
finalized.
… Thorium Reader: Windows 10 and 8, Mac, and Linux.
… Thorium is totally free, highly accessible, and open
source.
… Right now 20k users on Windows 10; can't tell about
Mac or Linux.
… Majority of users are US, India, and Japan.
… Used a command line tool at first. Then created a
mapping from W3C format to internal Readium format.
… Wanted to be protected by LCP.
… You can import a W3C audiobook in an LCP server.
… (Transitioned to demo.)
… Showed moving from track to track, changing speed,
etc.
… HTML TOC is not yet implemented.
… You can have several windows open in Thorium, so you
can read in one while listening in another.
… Demo'ed providing small LCP license with the
content.
… Version 1.3 is out today on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
It's in the wild!
… LOC in the US wants to install Thorium in various
locations in the US.
… There should be a lot of use of Thorium soon.
… Next steps: Not yet any W3C audiobooks content in
the wild.
… We developed this to support the W3C and enable
implementations.
… There needs to be support of LCP because publishers
require DRM. Need to encourage support.
… EDRLab needs financial support. Software is free
globally, supported by membership and grants.
… Internationalization: already implemented in
multiple languages.
… Interface is designed to be accessible, e.g. with
screenreader; has keyboard shortcuts; etc.
… It's able to be customized, of course.
… We think this is the most accessible application for
EPUB, now including audiobooks, on the market today.
<George> George loves Thorium and is using it on Windows.
Laurent: Continuing to work on refinements like display adjustments for accessibility.
<Zakim> jeff, you wanted to ask about the profiles of those that are downloading
Jeff: Very interesting--glad
to see how you're helping the ecosystem and the standard.
… What do we know about the 20k users? Interesting
that the 3rd most users are from Japan.
<George> I was in a presentation about Thorium and a dyslexic person said wow I can now read. We were showing a dyslexic friendly font with adjusted spacing and margins.
Jeff: Is there interest in audiobooks in Japan? How do we find out how Thorium is being used there?
Laurent: Good partnership
with JPL, good opportunity to localize the application for Japan.
… Also good potential in Korea and China where we have
partners.
… Good access to libraries in China.
Jeff: Will this be repeated for an Asia-friendly timed PBG call?
Daihei: Very happy to
facilitate users in Japan. Don't know about audiobooks in Japan yet.
… But interest in this sort of system is high,
especially for comics/manga.
… I will try to coordinate something for Japanese PBG
members and others for Laurent to present to.
Cristina: Is Italian implemented?
Laurent: No. Not difficult. E.g. Dutch was done by KB.
George: Very pleased with the accessibility in Thorium--really good. Has ability to turn MathJax on or off for MathML.
Ralph: Will I get update notices automatically?
Laurent: Yes.
<Daihei> @Laurent: will you share the slides with all?
Liisa: Thanks so much, Laurent. We'll work on getting people engaged.
Cristina: Will you share the slides?
Laurent: Yes, I'll send them.
EPUB 3 WG Charter
Liisa: Topic: EPUB 3 WG Charter.
<dauwhe> https://w3c.github.io/epub-3-wg-charter/
<Ralph> EPUB 3 WG charter issues
dauwhe: There are a few
issues. See link.
… I added a bunch of success criteria. Hope that will
help us focus the scopel
… E.g., multiple implementations, all features
supported, changes should fix real issues in the ecosystem, etc.
<Ralph> [Dave reads from section 3. Success Criteria]
<Ralph> 3. Success Criteria
dauwhe: Still want people to continue commenting.
Ivan: One open PR, along the
lines of what Dave said. Puts removal of existing features out of
scope.
… Hope this addresses the concerns about disrupting
the existing market.
<Ralph> pull #29
Ivan: Two related issues
still pending.
… Duration of the WG. Google questions whether 2 years
is enough.
… Also Dave raised the issue that the timing in the
charter are guidelines rather than hardcore limits.
… Not 100% sure if all AC members will be happy with
that, but let's see.
… One comment from Mateus still in the works.
… WG taking on responsibility for IDPF registries is
another issue.
… Would still like to have more comments from
publishers globally.
… Need that before starting the AC process.
dauwhe: Looking at making
the scope a bit smaller. Right now we have a mix of WG and CG
incubating features.
… Maybe we should leave the incubation to the CG and
focus the WG on writing and executing tests, getting language
precise, etc.
… What is the least change we can accomplish for EPUB
3.x to get the spec to Rec quality level.
<Ralph> Takami-san's comment #31
Daihei: Totally agree--we need comments globally. Two new questions: disruption from new version and potential disruptions by HTML5 serialization.
Ivan: Takami-san proposed a
change that we have accepted and closed the issue.
… Adding a version of EPUB that is not backwards
compatible would be very problematic.
… This charter is not for the long term future; it is
focused on the next 2-3 years.
… Perhaps we should keep such issues in a parking lot
for future consideration.
Avneesh: Agree to have WG
focus on quality of spec and CG to focus on incubation.
… Wrt EPUBCheck, is the WG taking responsibility for
that?
Liisa: Somewhere the
responsibility for EPUBCheck needs to be explicit.
… Re new features, need to think about how we get
incubation to happen in time for the charter timespan.
… I would like to see some new features coming out of
the survey.
dauwhe: EPUBCheck is
critical part of the ecosystem, it needs to fully support EPUB 3.x or
it will be a failure.
… WG needs to do everything possible to enable
EPUBCheck to support its work
Ivan: Some discussions were
pushing EPUBCheck into a reference implementation, which I pushed back
on.
… Avneesh, please look through charter text and let us
know what needs alteration.
… EPUBCheck should be in cooperation with the WG but
the work should probably be elsewhere.
… Wendy: Agree with Ivan. We discussed EPUBCheck
extensively. Can't make WG responsible for it but it needs to have a
big hand in making it successful.
… Wrt reframing the charter deliverables: I think we
need to push more incubation to the CG.
… We have a number of features that are in demand and
needed.
… Important for CG to test those out. E.g., HTML5,
APIs, JavaScript need incubation in the CG.
… Just revising the spec will be a 2-year project.
… Taking out the incubation work makes that more
achievable and lets the CG work in parallel.
… Should result in a much better spec informed by the
CG incubation work, rather than rushing that in at the end.
… It's very important work and shouldn't be rushed.
… Ivan: Should we modify the text about new features
to be explicit that the new features must go through an incubation
period in the CG.
<liisamk> +1 to Ivan's suggestion
Ivan: Making the process
more explicit and more binding is needed.
… We need to be careful not to tie the hands of the
WG.
Jeff: Very good comments.
These conversations are less chartering issues and more chairing
issues.
… It will be very healthy on an ongoing basis for the
chairs of the WG to keep track of what's going on in parallel in the
CG.
<dauwhe> +1 to Jeff
Launch of EPUB Reading System Bug GitHub Repo
<liisamk> https://github.com/w3c/epub-rs-bugs
Liisa: My team will start populating some of the RS bugs (see link).
Ivan: I set up the Github
repo but it's currently an empty shell.
… It needs some explanatory text.
Liisa: Will do.
Garth: There are only two more meetings of the PBG scheduled. Let me know what to do about that.
Liisa: Will do that too.
Update on EU standardization process
Cristina: Re EU
standardization process. Have met with group responsibility for
accessibility requirements in EU.
… Included George, Avneesh, Judy Brewer, et al.
… The Commission may ask for a mandate, which will
look for available standards to base on.
… EPUB Accessibility spec is being submitted to ISO.
… ISO standard should be evaluated by EU Commission.
… Another option is an ISO TS which might not go
through EU standardization body.
… Spec needs a very strong technical basis and needs
to conform with current EU requirements in development.
… We think the TS route is best because the EU body
may create some changes.
… Need to assess alignment of EPUB Accessibility with
the EU accessibility act.
… The commission may rely on more than one technical
specification.
… This work is moving pretty quickly.
… Looking to have a mandate by next June.
… We have time now to address this so we can be ready
when the commission needs something from us.
… Feel free to be in touch with me if you need more
information
[Ivan what do I need to do now?]
<ivan> you: nothing