Re: Offer letter to TPI Members [15 October 2018]

Audrain, thanks for the remarks.  Responses in-line.

Jeff

On 10/15/2018 10:20 AM, AUDRAIN LUC wrote:
>
> Dear,
>
> Perhaps I missed something, but I must admit I haven’t seen the PBG SC 
> discussions on this proposal.
>
> Sorry to be frank but I don’t think this proposal will improve the 
> current state of full membership after TPI.
>
> We are several to think that, with the existing fee amounts, it is 
> impossible to increase the number of Full Members among Publishers. 
> Except for a handful of very large groups, they are not engaged that 
> much in standards to cope with so huge fees. With no visibility on any 
> ROI before years, they cannot afford such an amount per year.
>

These are serious concerns and I think it is great that you are candidly 
raising these concerns.  Unfortunately, I don't see any easy answers, so 
we also need to proceed to transition TPIs somewhere (in many cases into 
the PBG as you point out).

> As, with or without a Publishing Champion, it will fail, the question 
> of having a Publishing Champion has also to be raised.
>

I am trying to address the Champion need.  As I mentioned in a recent 
call, a few candidates came forward in August but they were not a good 
match.  We are looking for additional candidates.

> The Publishing Business Group can be the global communication and 
> sharing instance and we have to push the PBG membership among TPI 
> members. But PBG members don’t contribute to standards.
>
> As Publishing is impacted by a limited numbers of W3C Rec, why not a 
> “partial” membership limited to that Rec scope for a limited fee?
>

This was discussed extensively with IDPF in the pre-merger discussions.  
On the one hand, from an IDPF point of view it was very logical - 
because some IDPF Members were only interested in a limited scope.  On 
the other hand, from a W3C point of view it did not work.  Today, many 
of our Members have interest in only a limited scope - but pay the 
regular membership fee.  We could not fairly create a limited scope 
carve out for IDPF - and not make that available for others with 
different limited scope interests.

Changing W3C from a "pay once participate everywhere" to "pay per 
Working Group" also seems infeasible.

We arrived at a compromise to create a limited scope TPI for two years, 
which unfortunately are now coming to an end.

As a result, I don't see an easy fix for this issue.

> I copy Ryan Pugatch, our Hachette Livre’s ACRep.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Luc
>
> Luc Audrain
>
> Head of Digitalization
>
> Hachette Livre
>
> Mobile : +33 (0) 6 48 38 21 41
>
> *De : *Karen Myers <karen@w3.org>
> *Date : *lundi 15 octobre 2018 à 14:26
> *À : *W3C Publishing Steering Committee <public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
> *Cc : *Jeff Jaffe <jeff@w3.org>, Ralph Swick <swick@w3.org>, Ivan 
> Herman <ivan@w3.org>, "J. Alan Bird" <abird@w3.org>
> *Objet : *Offer letter to TPI Members [15 October 2018]
> *Renvoyer - De : *<public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
> *Renvoyer - Date : *lundi 15 octobre 2018 à 14:26
>
> Dear Pub Steering Committee members,
>
> Thank you to a number of you who already hand raised to help with the 
> education, communication and outreach to current Transitional 
> Publishing Industry members over the next several weeks.
>
> We have organized a letter (see below) that we plan to send out today 
> (US, Europe and Korea) and tomorrow (Japan in Japanese) to the list of 
> current TPI members with special incentive offers for both the regular 
> membership and the Publishing Business Group. The special offer 
> expires 30 November so there is time to engage people in the upcoming 
> Webinar, in future Publishing Business Group calls, at TPAC and in 1:1 
> conversations over the next several weeks.
>
> If you have not already been in touch with me about making calls to a 
> few of the contacts you know and would like to do so, please let me 
> know this week.  I’ll be in touch with you about the specific 
> organizations that you would like to reach out to. As members of the 
> Steering Committee, you have an opportunity to engage and educate 
> folks who may not have been active yet about the great work you are 
> doing and the need to sustain the publishing community beyond the 
> expiration of the TPI membership.
>
> I’ll be in touch with several of you directly for some 1:1 
> conversations in the next few days before we head off to TPAC.
>
> Thank you for all you do!
>
> Karen
>
> ****
>
> 15 October 2018
>
> Dear [First and Last Name from TPI list]
>
> Thank you for your support of W3C as a Transitional Publishing 
> Industry (TPI) Member.  We appreciate your commitment to building a 
> community at W3C for all segments of the publishing industry to engage 
> and advance your vision and needs.  W3C is pleased to see the energy 
> and commitment of so many companies that wish to shape the digital 
> transformation affecting the publishing industry.
>
> The TPI membership was created as a means for former IDPF members to 
> participate in specific W3C publishing activities: the Publishing 
> Working Group, Publishing Business Group and the EPUB3 Community 
> Group.  As part of the agreement, the TPI membership term will expire 
> on 31 January 2019.
>
> To facilitate your continued participation and support in 2019 and 
> beyond, W3C is pleased to offer current TPI member organizations two 
> special opportunities:
>
> **
>
> *1. Regular W3C Membership*
>
> Your organization may become a regular W3C member with a 1 January 
> 2019 start date of benefits, but a payment due date of 1 April 2019.  
> Regular W3C membership means you may participate in an unlimited 
> number of activities and name a representative to the W3C Advisory 
> Committee.
>
> This offer includes three additional months of regular membership free 
> with an effective payment date of 1 April 2019 and a next renewal date 
> of 1 April 2020.  In order to take advantage of this offer, you will 
> need to complete and sign the W3C membership agreement by the close of 
> business on 30 November 2018.  For customization of this agreement, 
> please contact me before you begin the online membership application 
> [https://www.w3.org/Consortium/application] so that we can enter the 
> special offer.
>
> *2. Publishing Business Group Participation*
>
> Alternatively, your organization may choose to only participate in the 
> Publishing Business Group where the strategic direction and industry 
> liaising takes place.  The Publishing Business Group’s anniversary 
> date is 1 April.
>
> To bridge the gap from 1 February to 1 April, we would like to offer 
> you the opportunity to join the Publishing Business Group by the close 
> of business on 30 November 2018 and then receive two months free with 
> payment due on 1 April 2019. If you wait to join after 30 November, 
> there is a pro-rated fee between the date you join and the start date 
> of 1 April 2019.
>
> To learn more and to help you decide which of these two options to 
> take, we encourage you to attend or call into various meetings in the 
> next few weeks to be involved in the conversations.  There is a 
> Publishing Webinar on 17 October. 
> [https://www.w3.org/2018/10/17-publishing-webinar/]
>
> On 22-23 October, during W3C’s Technical Plenary and Advisory 
> Committee (TPAC) meetings in Lyon, France, there will be a discussion 
> of the roadmap of activities in the Publishing Working Group, the 
> Publishing Business Group and the future of EPUB.  Here is the TPAC 
> overview page: https://www.w3.org/2018/10/TPAC/
>
> Members of the Publishing Steering Committee and W3C will be reaching 
> out to you over the next few weeks to discuss the opportunities and 
> benefits in greater detail.  We are all very committed to continuing 
> the great work we have begun together since the combination with IDPF 
> and W3C in 2017, and we look forward to having your voice, presence, 
> and support continue.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Karen Myers
>
> W3C Business Development Team
>
> Office: 1.617.253.5509
>
> Mobile: 1.978.502.6218
>
> Email: Karen@w3.org <mailto:Karen@w3.org>
>