World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) Explore Plans to Combine

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Photo of Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO; Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director; George Kerscher, IDPF President; Bill McCoy, IDPF Executive Director, at DigiCon May 10, 2016

Tim Berners-Lee, Web Inventor and W3C Director, and Bill McCoy, IDPF Executive Director unveiled plans to explore combining their respective organizations to more quickly advance publishing technologies on the Open Web Platform. The announcement was made Tuesday, 10 May, following Berners-Lee's keynote address at the IDPF DigiCon Book Expo America 2016 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

"We share an exciting vision for W3C and IDPF to fully align the publishing industry and core Web technology. This will create a rich media environment for digital publishing that opens up new possibilities for readers, authors, and publishers," said Berners-Lee.

At a press briefing afterwards, Berners-Lee, Dr. Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO, George Kerscher, IDPF President, and McCoy answered questions. Additional information is available in the FAQ and joint press release.

The next steps in the process of combining the two organizations include soliciting comments from the respective memberships of W3C and IDPF and drafting a Memorandum of Understanding. Pending support from both memberships, completion of legal review, and the positive resolution of specific details, the goal is to combine the two organizations by January of 2017. The future evolution of EPUB technical standards would continue at W3C, along with broader work to improve publishing features across the entire Open Web Platform.

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