IDPF and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) are considering a merger of the two associations. In a letter sent to IDPF members, George Kerscher, president, and Bill McCoy, executive director, explained that the two organizations are talking about signing a Memorandum of Understanding “that would result in the unification of our respective organizations in order to pursue future development of EPUB and improvement of the overall Web platform for publishing as part of an expanded publishing activity within the W3C.”
In the letter, the two men were seeking feedback from members about the possible merger and explained that a special meeting is scheduled for after its DigiCon Conference set for May 10-11 in Chicago to discuss the plan.
If the merger is approved, IDPF members will have “interim participation privileges” in W3C during 2017 and 2018 at rates equivalent to current IDPF member fees. After 2018, IDPF members will be able to become members of a new W3C Publishing Business Group or full W3C members.
Kerscher and McCoy also stressed that the integration of the organizations is being eyed to “further an aligned mission to advance EPUB’s adoption and greatly increase publishing industry influence on the future evolution of the Web.”
If the agreement is approved, IDPF board members are expected to be on a W3C publishing steering committee and Bill McCoy would become a senior staff member at W3C.
