W3C Welcomes IDPF as Organizations Officially Combine to Develop Roadmap for Future of Publishing

W3C announced on 1 February 2017 that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) have combined organizations to better align Publishing and Web technologies and to create a new roadmap for the future of publishing.

"W3C is thrilled to gain the expertise of the publishing industry with its rich tradition of excellence in developing many forms of content for books, magazines, journals, educational materials and scholarly publications," said Dr. Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. "Working together, Publishing@W3C will bring exciting new capabilities and features to the future of publishing, authoring and reading using Web technologies."

More than 75 organizations provided EPUB 3.1 Member Submission as a Member Submission to ensure that the EPUB 3.1 standard, developed by IDPF, remains royalty-free. To maintain EPUB and advance its further adoption, W3C is setting up a separate EPUB (3.1) Community Group that is free and open to anyone to participate.

A new Publishing Business Group will be the focal point for the community to address new needs and requirements and to serve as a forum for industry discussions. The Publishing@W3C roadmap includes plans to charter new standards work later this year to focus on both online as well as offline access for digital publications.

For more information read the press release.