First
Annual Meeting A Success
DATE:
May 22-24, 2000
LOCATION: The Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers
DCL's Mikhail Vaysbukh was one of the OEBF members in attendance at the meeting. Commenting on the meeting, Vaysbukh tells of the meetings' focus on digital rights management and the forum's ultimate goal of encouraging standardization across the ebook industry. "With companies like Rocketbook, Softbook and Palm introducing their own handheld devices, there is a real danger of fragmentation in the e-publishing industry. Such fragmentation will not serve the end user well. What's important about a book, is, and has always been, its content. Regardless of the electronic device you decide to use - you should have the same access to the same content as everyone else."
These sentiments, are of course, in keeping with the true spirit of XML, SGML, and HTML. That publishers and device manufacturers are recognizing this early on is certainly good news for the user.
SGMLNY on eBooks: "With major vendors such as Adobe, Microsoft, Palm and Gemstar (of Rocket eBook and SoftBook Reader fame) lending credibility to e-books, and the recent popularity of Stephen King's novella on the Web, e-books are becoming more popular with consumers and more of a challenge for publishers.
Fortunately, the Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) has recently published its new XML-based standard for e-books "that will benefit creators of content, makers of reading systems and, most importantly, consumers."
ABOUT OEBF: The OEBF is constituted of representatives of some 35 organizations. This group will focus primarily on initiating discussions, among stakeholders involved in electronic book publishing, regarding standards, digital rights management, and "dual-stream" publishing - the simultaneous publication of print and electronic versions.
Data Conversion Laboratory is an OEBF member and looks forward to working with this important new body in the e-publishing world.
ABOUT SGML FORUM OF NY: The SGML Forum is an independent, nonprofit corporation established, and administered, by and for the user community--corporations, end-users and implementers.
Members come from a variety of industries, professions and
institutions, including publishing and other information providers,
telecommunications, securities, insurance, pharmaceuticals,
technical documentation, libraries, museums, defense and many
other fields.