The EPUB Platform and the Readium Open Source Initiative James English NISO/BISG 8th Annual Forum on The Changing Standards Landscape: Managing an Increasingly Complex and Interconnected World of Content June 27, 2014

1. The EPUB Platform
and the
Readium Open Source Initiative
June 2014

4. PDF on the Web
•2.5B web pages (indexed by Google)
•520M PDF files
•Average length of PDF = 5 pages
•So amount of content on the Web in PDF form ~= amount of
content in HTML
•And far more PDF exists off the Web than on it

5. PostScript
PDF
History of Document Standards

11. EPUB makes the Web Platform
work for portable documents
• Structured
• Navigable
• Packaged
• Metadata
• Reliable

12. 12
• .ZIP-compatible archive containing:
mimetype
META-INF/
container.xml
[manifest.xml]
[metadata.xml]
[signatures.xml]
[encryption.xml]
[rights.xml]
content/
Great_Expectations.opf
cover.html
chapters/
chapter01.html
chapter02.html
…
assets/
style.css
image1.jpg
…
<.epub File Structure>

13. International Digital Publishing Forum: non-profit
trade association, formed in 1999
• 360+ member organizations from 45 countries
(40% North America, 34% Asia, 21% Europe, 5% ROW)
• Member organizations include publishers, service
providers, e-retailers, reading system developers,
libraries, educational institutions, government
agencies, and other publishing industry
associations (inc. our hosts ALA and BISG)

14. EPUB Global Adoption
•EPUB 2 (previous version, pre-HTML5) widely proliferated
•Reading System support for EPUB 3 rapidly increasing
•Apple iBooks, Google Play Books, Kobo, Sony, VitalSource, CourseSmart
•IDPF collaborating w/ BISG on “CanIUse” for EPUB (epubtest.org)
•Open Source development: Readium SDK
•EPUB 3 authoring tool options increasing
•Packaged SW from high-end (latest Adobe InDesign supports both fixed-
layout and reflowable EPUB 3) to mass-market (Apple Pages now exports
EPUB 3)
•Specialized workflow tools (Aerbook, Metrodigi Chaucer, Aquafadas, …)
•Japan has holistically adopted EPUB 3
•EPUB being adopted for both trade eBooks and e-Manga
•Amazon’s market entry in Japan based on EPUB 3 ingestion
•Education industry rapidly converging on EPUB 3 for e-textbooks (EDUPUB)

15. epubtest.org
• Collaboration between IDPF, Book Industry Study Group (BISG),
and DAISY Consortium
• Conformance test suite for EPUB 3
• Database of results/scores for different reading systems
• Creating peer pressure for improvement and giving content authors
objective guidance on feature support across implementations

16. Standards Development Activities
• EPUB Working Group (overall umbrella / coordination)
• EPUB 3.0.1 update: in final member approval process now
• Dictionaries and Indexes WGs: near-final specs
• Advanced/Hybrid Layout WG: stable specs
• Annotations initiative: first specs published
• EDUPUB semantic profile initiative: first specs published
• Widgets initiative: first specs published
• Comics profile initiative – in planning phase
• Magazine profile initiative – in concept phase
• ISO-level Standardization - collaboration with ISO/IEC JTC SC.34
• W3C Digital Publications Activity – collaboration
• (Advanced Adaptive Layout WG – spec published; on hold for W3C
coordination)
• EPUB 3.1 update: will start late 2014

17. Readium.org
• Independent open source consortium launched March 2013
• Developing commercial-grade open source components to advance
digital publishing for EPUB and the Open Web Platform
• 40 organization members making substantial contributions
• Projects
• Readium SDK (EPUB 3 support for native apps) – first adopting products
already on market (from ACCESS, Kobo, TXTR)
• ReadiumJS (browser-based EPUB 3 viewing, and Chrome App)
• Readium LCP (lightweight vendor-independent DRM)
• Preflight & Accessibility Checker (in planning phase)

18. ReadiumJS & ReadiumSDK Architecture
Readium Foundation, 2014
ReadiumJS Readium SDK

19. Platforms
• iOS
• Runtime: v. 6.x +
• Tooling: XCode 5 +
• OSX
• Runtime: v. 10.6 +
• Tooling: XCode 5 +
• Android
• WebKit: 4.x +
• Runtime: 4.x +
• Tooling: Android NDK/ADT 19+
• Windows Desktop
• Runtime: Windows 7/8
• Tooling: Visual Studio 13 +
Readium Foundation, 2014
• Chrome Extension
• Available here (or Google for
readium chrome)
• Browser Support
• Google Chrome
• Safari
• Firefox
• Opera
• Platform Support
• iOS
• OSX
• Windows
• Android
SDK ReadiumJS

20. How NYPL Will Use Readium
Tactically, NYPL will use Readium to
• Simplify user experiences getting eBooks from library’s
• Build capacity to better deliver and protect the digital content
and rights for works we own or that are in the public domain
• Increase readership by removing barriers to lawful access that
offer no value to the reader
Strategically
• Engage the publishing industry at a standards level
• Build better relationships with the digital publishing industry and
technology industry
• Advance interoperability between systems and technologies
• Provide alternative outlet to publishers where monopolistic
forces reduce customer access and choice
• Advance the state of the art
• eBook circulation OPDS for Libraries (outside of Readium formally but in
cooperation with Readium members)
• LCP for Libraries

21. Get Involved in Readium.org!
• Most code licensed under permissive BSD license
• The Readium SDK core C++ library is made available under a dual
license regime:
• Publicly licensed under the GPL Affero license
• Commercial-use-friendly Alternative License (which requires making a
financial and/or development commitment to the Foundation)
• Source hosted on github (Readium) in multiple repositories
• Documentation and samples on github and Google code
Readium Foundation, 2014

22. • The Information Communication Technology landscape
can be viewed as a set of specialized ecosystems, each
comprising a “platform”
• Tech firms often seek to establish their own platform(s)
• Platforms generally exhibit “lock-in”
• Switching costs
• Network effects
• Barriers to entry by competitors
The Platform Game

23. • Lower barriers to entry
• Lower switching costs between providers of
platform components
• Same tools, skills applicable across platforms
• Promotes competition among multiple
implementations of a given architecture
• Network effects accrue across all adopters not
solely a single platform provider
• Open platforms as generative architectures
Open Standards Encourage
Interoperable Platforms

26. EPUB Platform and Libraries
•A unified distribution standard for all text-centric content (books, serials,
learning content, …) will reduce costs, foster services and content
innovation, and ensure an interoperable open ecosystem
•The Open Web Platform (HTML5) is the right foundation
•EPUB is becoming the accepted standard for reliable, accessible
portable documents for the Web Platform
•We need to ensure that library requirements are well-integrated with
EPUB and the Web Platform
•Cross-organization global collaboration necessary for success
•Consider getting involved in IDPF, BISG, and/or Readium!

27. Thank you.
bmccoy@idpf.org
@billmccoy