Congrats to Ken Brooks, an SVP at Cengage Learning, formerly Thompson Learning, who has just won a seat on the board of the International Digital Publishing Forum.
An area where I hope Ken will do some rethinking: DRM. The best solution would be changes in business models. I’m all for profit. My forthcoming novel will be available in DRMless ePub as well as other popular formats. Within the area of education, Ken, how about bundling textbook costs into students’ tuition? Jon Noring has talked up that possibility, and I agree with him.
What I like about Ken’s priorities: His strong advocacy of ePub: "With increasing numbers of announcements of support of EPUB, it is becoming important to encourage new tools and business practices to take advantage of the standard." I just hope that Ken and others will not simply couple ePub with DRM. On the IDPF’s agenda should be the creation of a logo for DRMless ePub—a true standard, unlike the DRM-tainted variety, which reflects proprietary technology. Don’t just wait around for a problematic DRM standard. Keep the ePub momentum going!
Related: Earlier election item and IDPF announcement of election results. Also see other Brooks bio info.
I don’t think having a textbook publisher on a forum will help DRM issues. Text publishers are more likely to push for more stringent requirements.
My fears, too, BG. But give Ken Brooks a chance. Maybe he’ll show some open-mindedness here. The real fix would be in more modern biz models, as opposed to DRM. Meanwhile let’s hope that the traditional textbook mindset doesn’t contaminate other areas of publishing. That could cost the industry plenty in lost sales to consumers fed up with DRM. I remain skeptical of the “standardization” efforts. If it happens, there may well be complexities and gotchas to torture consumers.
Thanks,
David