[Dtb-talk] What good is a standard.

[Greg Kearney]

In the last few days I have run into an issue which would seem to  
strike at the very heart of DAISY as a standard.

I produced for Apple the VoiceOver Getting Started Guide. This short  
book is, in effect the user manual for Apple's screen reader. I  
generated this in DIASY 2.02 and DAISY/NISO 2005. It is fully valid,  
full text and full audio with images.

Apple wants this book distributed as widely as possible and with that  
in mind we offered it to the NLS, RFB&D and any other organization and  
library service who wanted it. You may recall the posting here,. All  
that Apple asked was that no digital rights management be placed on  
the copies.

The response we got back was puzzling to say the least. We have been  
informed by several entities that they do not accept books produced by  
others. To me this raises the question of what good is a world-wide  
standard for digital talking books if in the end entities are going to  
refuse to accept books from any source other than themselves. Does not  
such policies fly in the face of our efforts to produce an  
international standard.

Anyway if there are libraries or agencies that want to distribute this  
title they are free to do so here is the link:http://w3.wmcnet.org/dtbmaker/books/vogs/

In addition if you have a Solutions Radio or similar device that can  
play DAISY directly from an online source you can point it tohttp://w3.wmcnet.org/dtbmaker/books/voiceover/ncc.html 
  and get it as well.

If your organization does decide to offer this book would you please  
drop me a line and let me know.

Greg Kearney
535 S. Jackson St.
Casper, Wyoming 82601
307-224-4022
gkearney at gmail.com