RE: Next PubSC call, EPBUBCheck dev status

Hello All,

 

A few thoughts about the survey:

 

Now that Edge has dropped support for EPUB, there is no, “in-box” solution for Windows, Other OS has at least a default reader for EPUB, Mac and IOS, Books, Android PlayBooks. I expect that by the end of the first quarter 2020, there will probably several free options, probably VS Bookshelf and Thorium. Having something on all OS is important for broad adoption.

 

This means that Government and business would be able to deliver their papers/manuals/newsletters , and those groups do not seem to be represented in the survey.

 

Early in the first quarter, WordToEpub will be launched, which will make authoring more available to the masses.

 

Education is another sector that does not seem to be represented in the survey. Many LMS distribute EPUB and many have their own reader. Also, here is where the interactive quiz and testing using IMS specs is taking place. I don’t see this aspect covered in the survey.

 

Before I attack the GoogleDoc with this, I was hoping to get your thoughts.

 

Talk in45 minutes.

 

Best

George

 

From: Jeff Jaffe <jeff@w3.org> 
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2019 11:40 AM
To: Dave Cramer <dauwhe@gmail.com>
Cc: AUDRAIN LUC <LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr>; W3C Publishing Steering Committee <public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
Subject: Re: Next PubSC call, EPBUBCheck dev status

 

 

On 12/12/2019 11:58 AM, Dave Cramer wrote:

 

On Thu, Dec 12, 2019 at 9:50 AM Jeff Jaffe <jeff@w3.org <mailto:jeff@w3.org> > wrote:

Can we also get an update on the survey for future EPUB features?

 

I've been doing a lot of work on this. The draft is available at:

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZLAIgAH7hoWo56uov3QN2-jaMY6MaWQKJrAys1GwDdY/edit# <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZLAIgAH7hoWo56uov3QN2-jaMY6MaWQKJrAys1GwDdY/edit> 

Indeed, lots of work!

I doubt that I'll be able to add much in terms of new questions.  Combination of a great job on your part and ignorance on my part.

But when I asked for an update, I didn't actually mean an update on the list of questions.

It was more a question of: have we finalized who we are sending the questionnaire to; if we send to an organization whether we expect it to forward to their members; schedule for sending; schedule for receiving the results.

But having looked at your draft questionnaire, it stimulates another question.

As the questionnaire points out, " feel free to skip any questions".

Here is my interpretation of that remark.  We recognize that we have many different audiences and our questions are at different levels of detail.  Some communities might have a lot to say about some questions and might not even understand other questions.

I wonder whether we can structure this differently.  I suspect that there are a set of questions (e.g. 1-5, some accessibility questions (of 33-41), maybe one open-ended question: what features would you like to see added to EPUB?) that should go to everyone.  Perhaps we can construct four partially overlapping questionnaires which all start with these mandatory questions, and then has separate branches for creators, publishers, retailers, or readers)? 

 

Comments welcome! I expect this will be changing and evolving rapidly for a while. 

 

Thanks,

 

Dave