In Memoriam - Pierre Danet

A visionary leader in the advancement of publishing technology and the Web has passed away. Pierre Danet, Chief Digital Officer of Hachette-Livre Group, was a long-time Board member of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). In that capacity he played an instrumental leadership role in the recently completed combination of IDPF with the W3C.

Pierre also led Hachette-Livre to join W3C and was active in other W3C work prior to the combination. He was a founding Board member of Readium Foundation which develops open source software for EPUB and Web publishing. Pierre also drove the creation, and served as founding President, of the European Digital Reading Lab (EDRLab).

Pierre was a tireless leader, and a warm and generous soul whose wise counsel was always well-seasoned with humor.  W3C and the entire publishing industry owe a great debt to Pierre’s vision, energy and accomplishments, as do I. His passing is a great loss but I know he was happy to see his vision for digital convergence and open standards for publishing technology and the Web moving forward, and I’m certain that his memory will inspire all of us to continue to work to make it happen.

On behalf of the W3C and its Publishing Business Group,

Bill McCoy

W3C Publishing Champion /  President, Readium Foundation / Executive Director, IDPF (emeritus)