RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

Hi, as promised I split up the wiki page, see:
https://www.w3.org/Member/wiki/PubSummit/Program 

 

I left goals & attendee profile in the main page at:
https://www.w3.org/Member/wiki/PubSummit as Events Team at W3C and others
will need to be guided by this. But I consider it in the purview of PBG-SC
to help refine these since the theme/program needs to reflect the goals and
expected attendee profile and visa-versa.

 

Dave, Liisa, and others have made concrete suggestions on theme and
sessions. I am happy to pour these into the wiki page on program but will
not do so unless asked (lest I editorialize and in case you want to
adjust/add to your suggestions). LMK.

 

In the spirit of brainstorming I encourage us to get as many suggestions in
as possible so we can (hopefully quickly!) refine and agree on focus
(foci?).

 

Thanks,

 

--Bill

 

 

 

From: Bill Kasdorf [mailto:bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com] 
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2017 9:29 AM
To: McCloy-Kelley, Liisa <lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com>; Graham
Bell <graham@editeur.org>; Bill McCoy <bmccoy@w3.org>
Cc: Tzviya Siegman <tsiegman@wiley.com>; George Kerscher
<kerscher@montana.com>; Dave Cramer <dauwhe@gmail.com>; Karen Myers
<karen@w3.org>; Luc Audrain <LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr>; Paul Belfanti
<Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com>; PBG Steering Committee (Public)
<public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

I really like all of Liisa’s suggestions.

 


Bill Kasdorf


VP and Principal Consultant | Apex CoVantage


p:

734-904-6252  m:   734-904-6252

ISNI: http://isni.org/isni/0000000116490786

ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7002-4786
<https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7002-4786?lang=en> 

 

 

From: McCloy-Kelley, Liisa [mailto:lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com] 
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2017 12:24 PM
To: Graham Bell; Bill McCoy
Cc: Tzviya Siegman; George Kerscher; Bill Kasdorf; Dave Cramer; Karen Myers;
Luc Audrain; Paul Belfanti; PBG Steering Committee (Public)
Subject: Re: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

Hi All-

 

Sorry I had to drop out of the discussion for the last 36 hours- it was all
the usual health and work stuff. Dang that day job. 

 

I’ve tried to catch up this morning and wanted to throw in a few things that
I’m happy to put on the wiki if that helps. 

1.	I’m in agreement with those who think that plenary is the way to go
and that panels are not always great. I’ve participated in and observed few
panels over the years that I thought were engaging. Doing multiple tracks is
more work and more to manage. 
2.	Short topical sessions would be my preference, with a large variety
of 15-20 minute topics- this is one of the most successful things to me
about BiB. No one gets a chance to fall asleep. 
3.	The Pecha Kucha style lightening rounds at EPUB Summit were great
and that might be a good way to get things going at that slow moment after
lunch. 
4.	I’m not sure that I think “keynote” speakers are worth it. There are
few big names in all of this at this point who people would pay to come see.

5.	Having a clear “networking space” for people to talk in if the
current session wasn’t to their liking would be fantastic. 

As for themes, I feel like the overarching theme needs to be relatable, sexy
and interesting. We need something that is going to draw those folks who
think that “ebooks are done and over” and help them understand we’re just
getting started. There is so much more to do. This next evolution is beyond
anything we’ve seen in the last 18 years and has great potential. 

 

What if we did something like: 

- The Horizon of Digital Publishing: What You Need to Be Doing NOW, What You
Need to Be Considering SOON and How the Web Will Influence the Future of
Reading

 

That way the sessions could be grouped: 

- Now- Accessibility, Adopt EPUB3, Why Standards Matter, The Shock of the
New

- Soon(ish)- Better formatting, Connecting Publications to the Web

- Future- EPUB 2027, PWP, web payments and all the amazing things

 

This type of organization would help those who are never quite sure where
something falls in the time-space continuum and need to know that we have to
use this opportunity we have to push back the edges of the box we’re in.
(and yes, you know there is one of those boxes on your doorstep right now). 

 

If we could get someone to talk about studies of digital reading habits with
real info, that would be a HUGE draw for more publishing people. There is so
little info out there about this that is trustworthy. 

 

Liisa

 

 

 

From: Graham Bell <graham@editeur.org <mailto:graham@editeur.org> >
Date: Friday, May 12, 2017 at 11:32 AM
To: Bill McCoy <bmccoy@w3.org <mailto:bmccoy@w3.org> >
Cc: Tzviya Siegman <tsiegman@wiley.com <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> >, George
Kerscher <kerscher@montana.com <mailto:kerscher@montana.com> >, Bill Kasdorf
<bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com <mailto:bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com> >, Dave
Cramer <dauwhe@gmail.com <mailto:dauwhe@gmail.com> >, Karen Myers
<karen@w3.org <mailto:karen@w3.org> >, Luc Audrain
<LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr <mailto:LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr> >, Microsoft
Office User <lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com
<mailto:lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com> >, Paul Belfanti
<Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com <mailto:Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com>
>, "PBG Steering Committee (Public)" <public-publishing-sc@w3.org
<mailto:public-publishing-sc@w3.org> >
Subject: Re: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

Our own mini-conference is in the 75–100 range and is deliberately kept
almost ‘intimate’ in scale. Jazz club rather than rock concert. That
intimate scale makes it difficult (or impossible) to turn a profit though. 

 

Our most problematic years – in terms of attendance, quality of sessions
and, well, everything else – were the years that our mini-conference was
presented as a track within another, much larger, conference. Attendance was
higher in purely numerical terms, but engagement was much, much lower.

 

 

G

 

Graham Bell

EDItEUR

 

On 12 May 2017, at 15:22, Bill McCoy <bmccoy@w3.org <mailto:bmccoy@w3.org> >
wrote:

 

HI Graham, thanks for sharing the perspective. BTW how many attendees (paid
/ total “buns in seats”) is your supply chain event at Frankfurt drawing in
recent years? I’m just curious to understand what you consider as a “small
conference”. E.g. would you feel differently if we were at 125 people vs.
250+?


FWIW while I indicated support for doing some parallel breakouts in earlier
email that was mainly to support comments others were making by noting what
is possible given our venue. I want to reiterate that in addition to
Graham’s point about breakouts diluting the feeling of community vis-à-vis
shared experience, it’s also significantly more work to organize parallel
sessions and that work is not just in the session planning it also bleeds
over into program, signage, day-of logistics, etc. It is slightly mitigated
by lower standards for things like A/V in breakout rooms and even in some
cases lower standards for breakout session organizing and prep but OTOH I
think we’ve all experienced sub-par breakout room A/V and frankly sub-par
breakout sessions where it was clear that minimal effort had gone into
planning/prep. Personally, I’d much rather attend a super well planned
plenary program than jump around slapped-together breakouts even if the more
focused breakout topics might be more interesting to me in principle.

 

BTW one way some other events (including IDPF) have historically tried to
split the difference is of course to come back together into plenary after
some breakouts.  That could be an option for us but the cost factor to hold
on to our plenary room while also doing breakouts might be a significant
consideration unless we can do some really fancy dancing around room
swapping with other TPAC meetings on Thurs/Fri. And I’ve seen mixed success
with this approach in terms of whether a critical mass of attendees ever
come back together after breakouts, especially when that’s supposed to
happen late in the day.

 

--Bill

 

From: Graham Bell [ <mailto:graham@editeur.org> mailto:graham@editeur.org] 
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2017 5:00 AM
To: Tzviya Siegman < <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> tsiegman@wiley.com>; Bill
McCoy < <mailto:bmccoy@w3.org> bmccoy@w3.org>
Cc: George Kerscher < <mailto:kerscher@montana.com> kerscher@montana.com>;
Bill Kasdorf < <mailto:bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com>
bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com>; Dave Cramer < <mailto:dauwhe@gmail.com>
dauwhe@gmail.com>; Karen Myers < <mailto:karen@w3.org> karen@w3.org>; Luc
Audrain < <mailto:LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr> LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr>;
McCloy-Kelley, Liisa < <mailto:lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com>
lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com>; Paul Belfanti <
<mailto:Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com> Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com>;
PBG Steering Committee (Public) < <mailto:public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
Subject: Re: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

Chiming in because at EDItEUR, we run a mini-conference during the Frankfurt
Book Fair.  I’m also not a huge fan of multi-track, particularly at the
scale we’re talking about – obviously it’s different if there are 1000
attendees. But part of a small conference is the ‘shared experience’ and
community building, and that disappears if everyone hears a different
selection of presentations. And it tends to dissipate any sense of  thematic
coherence, even if each ‘track’ appears coherent in isolation.

 

G

 

Graham Bell

EDItEUR

 

On 12 May 2017, at 12:43, Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken <
<mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> tsiegman@wiley.com> wrote:

 

Hi All,

 

I think we are reaching consensus around the idea of a focused theme. We
have about 2 days to clean up the wiki and get the word out. We are good at
work under pressure :)

 

BillK, I hope you’re feeling better soon.

 

BillM, I had a similar idea, but I didn’t suggest it because I thought it
was a little wacky. I’m so glad we agree! I spoke about a similar theme at
BiB a few years ago (“The Inadvertent Accessible Content Architect”).

 

Accessibility, how to do it, why it matters, and how it makes everything
better was a huge them at ebookcraft in March. You can watch the videos at
[1].

 

As far as parallel tracks vs plenary – maybe we should just stick with
plenary? Parallel tracks is basically planning two (or more) conferences
simultaneously. We have been saying that business, tech, etc are merging.
Can we go in with the assumption that people might just be interested in
hearing what topics that are slightly beyond their comfort zones have to
say? Is the concern that we will be flooded with speakers and be forced into
parallel tracks? I will give up my spot to a new speaker, happily. If a
topic doesn’t interest someone, s/he will cut out and use the time to
network. We want that to happen anyway.

 

[1]  <https://booknetcanada.wistia.com/projects/rdm09rsvvx>
https://booknetcanada.wistia.com/projects/rdm09rsvvx (also catch Dave’s talk
about DRM, which is facts, not politics. Should be required viewing for
anyone making decisions about DRM.)

 

 

 

Tzviya Siegman

Information Standards Lead

Wiley

201-748-6884

 <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> tsiegman@wiley.com

 

From: Bill McCoy [ <mailto:bmccoy@w3.org> mailto:bmccoy@w3.org] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 7:21 PM
To: 'George Kerscher'; 'Bill Kasdorf'; Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken; 'Dave
Cramer'
Cc: 'Karen Myers'; 'AUDRAIN LUC'; 'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa'; 'Paul Belfanti';
'PBG Steering Committee (Public)'
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

HI BIllK and George,

 

BillK thanks and I hope you get well and well caught up by next week!

 

George, personally I think it’s critical that we make a11y a focus for this
event. It is one of the key things that already unites EPUB 3 and the rest
of the Open Web Platform and to the extent that I see the real underlying
theme for the broadest audience as “Beyond PDF”, a11y in the broadest sense
(including optimized reading on mobile devices) is a primary driver for the
need to go beyond PDF and the paper-replica model for representing content.

 

This does lead me to a crazy idea about a potential theme. I have always
thought of a11y as the mine canary for all kinds of  machine processing,
because well-structured content with metadata is much easier to reliably
analyze, summarize, etc. I even once gave a Books in Browser talk suggesting
we were creating content for machines to read, not humans and arguing that
this was a good thing not an Orwellian disaster (despite what Jaron Lanier
thinks). Of course the Web also makes Big Data practical and available to
all (Ok Google). But this was all well before the current boom in AI. We
could have a theme about AI and the future of documents/publications and
weave in a11y to that as well as the imperative to move beyond PDF to OWP
since it will facilitate content that can be processed reliably and at Web
scale and with granularity (vs. PDF, “ the roach motel for data” [1]). And
I know some folks in our world such as Liza Daly have gotten into AI lately.
Just an idea…

 

--BillM

 

[1]
<http://www.techradar.com/news/software/pdf-is-where-documents-go-to-die-say
s-microsoft-exec-1089202>
http://www.techradar.com/news/software/pdf-is-where-documents-go-to-die-says
-microsoft-exec-1089202

 

From: George Kerscher [ <mailto:kerscher@montana.com>
mailto:kerscher@montana.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 2:26 PM
To: 'Bill Kasdorf' < <mailto:bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com>
bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com>; 'Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken' <
<mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> tsiegman@wiley.com>; 'Bill McCoy' <
<mailto:bmccoy@w3.org> bmccoy@w3.org>; 'Dave Cramer' <
<mailto:dauwhe@gmail.com> dauwhe@gmail.com>
Cc: 'Karen Myers' < <mailto:karen@w3.org> karen@w3.org>; 'AUDRAIN LUC' <
<mailto:LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr> LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr>;
'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa' < <mailto:lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com>
lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com>; 'Paul Belfanti' <
<mailto:Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com> Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com>;
'PBG Steering Committee (Public)' < <mailto:public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

Hi,

 

I too have been following it all. I alerted the WAI chairs to the coming
event. Bill, you will probably be in touch with Judy.

 

/George

 

 

 

From: Bill Kasdorf [ <mailto:bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com>
mailto:bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 3:08 PM
To: Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken < <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com>
tsiegman@wiley.com>; Bill McCoy < <mailto:bmccoy@w3.org> bmccoy@w3.org>;
'Dave Cramer' < <mailto:dauwhe@gmail.com> dauwhe@gmail.com>
Cc: 'Karen Myers' < <mailto:karen@w3.org> karen@w3.org>; 'AUDRAIN LUC' <
<mailto:LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr> LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr>;
'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa' < <mailto:lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com>
lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com>; 'Paul Belfanti' <
<mailto:Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com> Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com>;
'PBG Steering Committee (Public)' < <mailto:public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

Hi, folks—

 

I am even later to this discussion. I’ve been ill the last couple of weeks
and struggling to recover (including from a sinus infection) before I get on
a plane to London tomorrow. So I have only been able to do what was urgently
necessary. I’m even giving a keynote presentation next Wednesday that I’ve
hardly begun to prepare. So needless to say, I’ve had to defer looking at
this lively thread since it started. (Not to mention hundreds of other
emails.)

 

I have not looked at any of these, but before I leave for London I needed to
make sure you didn’t interpret my silence as lack of interest. I don’t want
to comment until I’m up to speed with where you’ve been going. Which I’m
really sorry about, because as you know I love programming stuff like this
and will be very happy to be involved. If there’s something you really need
me to look at or weigh in on in the next week please let me know with a
“BillK” or something in the subject line so I will respond right away.
Otherwise, I will try to catch up on these and many others as I can, but I
will be busy with IPTC meetings in London (including BBC) much of the time
there.

 

I should be able to get well caught up the week of the 22nd, but I didn’t
want to wait that long to at least touch base. I look forward to joining
this discussion when I can. Thanks!

 

--Bill

 


Bill Kasdorf


VP and Principal Consultant | Apex CoVantage


p:

734-904-6252  m:   734-904-6252

ISNI:  <http://isni.org/isni/0000000116490786>
http://isni.org/isni/0000000116490786

ORCiD:  <https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7002-4786?lang=en>
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7002-4786

 

 

From: Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken [ <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com>
mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 4:25 PM
To: Bill McCoy; 'Dave Cramer'
Cc: 'Karen Myers'; 'AUDRAIN LUC'; 'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa'; 'Paul Belfanti';
Bill Kasdorf; 'PBG Steering Committee (Public)'
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

Hi Bill,

 

Apologies for coming late to the game. I love Dave’s idea of reaching out to
our proposed audience to ask them what they want to hear. People who are
included in the planning are a lot more likely to come and thus more likely
to participate. I understand the time constraints though. I am also aware
that the conferences we’ve discussed have had full-time staff and larger
budgets. We are offering some of our time and experience.  

 

I do think it’s a good idea to focus the meeting. When I’m asked to speak,
and the topic is “ebooks”, I don’t know where to start. If I am given a
specific topic, I can usually come up with a good proposal. Here are a few
ideas:

 

*	Decentralizing publishing – working within and without the giants of
digital publishing (renaming Dave’s David and Goliath)
*	The making of a standard and why it matters to publishing (EPUB,
(P)WP, ISO)
*	OpenSource me – is OS relevant to your work? What does it mean to be
opensource? Is that different from Open Standards (a personal favorite of
mine, given some of the work I’ve been doing at Wiley).

Should I put these ideas on the wiki?

 

Best,

Tzviya

 

Tzviya Siegman

Information Standards Lead

Wiley

201-748-6884

 <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> tsiegman@wiley.com

 

From: Bill McCoy [ <mailto:bmccoy@w3.org> mailto:bmccoy@w3.org] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 3:58 PM
To: 'Dave Cramer'; Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken
Cc: 'Karen Myers'; 'AUDRAIN LUC'; 'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa'; 'Paul Belfanti';
'Bill Kasdorf'; 'PBG Steering Committee (Public)'
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

I should also add that if your issue is really that you think we need a
significantly narrower/topical focus for theme than anything that’s been
proposed so far, that is something the PBG SC can certainly discuss. That
was not the direction we came to in March but IMO there is time to narrow
focus if that is what is desired and assuming we think a tighter focus will
better achieve our goals. But we would need to agree on a more specific
focus ASAP (within 1-2 weeks).

 

--Bill

 

From: Bill McCoy [ <mailto:bmccoy@w3.org> mailto:bmccoy@w3.org] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 12:51 PM
To: 'Dave Cramer' < <mailto:dauwhe@gmail.com> dauwhe@gmail.com>; 'Siegman,
Tzviya - Hoboken' < <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> tsiegman@wiley.com>
Cc: 'Karen Myers' < <mailto:karen@w3.org> karen@w3.org>; 'AUDRAIN LUC' <
<mailto:LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr> LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr>;
'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa' < <mailto:lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com>
lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com>; 'Paul Belfanti' <
<mailto:Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com> Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com>;
'Bill Kasdorf' < <mailto:bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com>
bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com>; 'PBG Steering Committee (Public)' <
<mailto:public-publishing-sc@w3.org> public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

HI Dave, well we’ve had a draft theme statement for many weeks and now we
have an improved one. If we want to start over from scratch with an appeal
to the public to help us devise a theme we can do it. But IMO the PBG SC
should have decided to do that in March in London. At this late date, with
need to announce that an event is happening and open it for registration by
June 12, I think with your and Tzivya’s fresh thinking we should instead
improve (/redo) the theme we already have been working on and move on to get
the event announced and start working on program. I do think a public call
for proposals does make sense.

 

--Bill

 

From: Dave Cramer [ <mailto:dauwhe@gmail.com> mailto:dauwhe@gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 12:37 PM
To: Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken < <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com>
tsiegman@wiley.com>
Cc: Bill McCoy < <mailto:bmccoy@w3.org> bmccoy@w3.org>; Karen Myers <
<mailto:karen@w3.org> karen@w3.org>; AUDRAIN LUC <
<mailto:LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr> LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr>;
McCloy-Kelley, Liisa < <mailto:lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com>
lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com>; Paul Belfanti <
<mailto:Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com> Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com>;
Bill Kasdorf < <mailto:bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com>
bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com>; PBG Steering Committee (Public) <
<mailto:public-publishing-sc@w3.org> public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
Subject: Re: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

Publishing@W3C is new. We have been blessed with a fresh start. In the
spirit of W3C, let's get the community involved in planning the conference. 

 

First, we need a theme, a topic, something more than "this is a digital
publishing conference, y'all are interested in digital publishing, you
should come." Heck, we could ask  Twitter (and BISG, and existing WG/CG/IGs)
what people loved or hated about IDPF/BEA, and what they'd like to see from
a P@W3 Summit. We could each send emails to our colleagues asking such
questions. How do we find out what would bring Peter or Rena to California?
Ask them!

 

Once we have a theme, let's put out a call for proposals. I'd love to see
speakers and panelists I haven't heard before, but just asking the people we
already know is guaranteed to result in the usual suspects. This way we get
volunteers rather than draftees, and the level of response will give us some
information on how much enthusiasm is out there for such a conference.

 

Dave