Re: DAISY reader et al

[Janina Sajka <janina@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, Raman:

Thanks for the explanation. I know that book. It's rather old, so
was written to an interim spec from about 3 years ago. It was an
influential book at the time because it demonstrated important
concepts we wanted to capture in the spec, but it is no way
representative of the final ANSI Z39.86.

I will get you copies of reference books as soon as some are
available. In fact, I've already asked about the status of these.
Some are in process at NLS, and others will be available from
DAISY.  Please recognize, though, that it will be some
time--years actually--before DAISY3/ANSI Z39.86 content is
generally available to patrons of various libraries for the blind
around the world.

What is available now is content encoded in DAISY 2.02. I
strongly suggest support for this spec, because this is the spec
usd by RNIB, CNIB, and RFB&D, to name but a few. I'm referring to
thousands of titles available through these programs. Some of
this content is text plus audio, most is audio only.

I can also get yopu reference content for DAISY 2.02, and would
be glad to do so. The spec is at
http://www.daisy.org/publications/specifications.asp where it's
available online and as a zip download.

Here's the critical question regarding RFB&D books. Are you
willing to sign an NDA with DAISY in order to get the spec for
unpacking RFB&D content?

Yes, they opted for an obscurity based security solution.  Much
could be said about why, and why it should be different. But,
that's another discussion.

The point here is that RFB&D will be shipping CD ROMs encoded
according to an unpublished specification available to developers
willing to sign an NDA with DAISY.

On Mon, 13 May 2002, T. V. Raman wrote:

> 
> Here is what happened --
> 
> I ran into Markku Hakkinen at the W3C Cannes plenary
> reception in early March and when I asked him on the status
> of things in DaisyLand --he told me about the myriad of
> commercial players being built for Windows.
> So I asked him for a sample so I could write one for Linux.
> 
> Along with a copy of the Daisy 3 spec, he gave me 
> "The complete fairy tales of Charles Perrault"
> allegedly in in Daisy3  format --
> after coming home I wrote a player for it one evening.
> 
> I say "allegedly" above because the navigation xml  file I
> got from him  does not validate either against the DTD he
> gave me then or the eventual Daisy3 spec.
> 
> The functionality that is implemented is documented in the
> online info pages; when and if Daisy3 content becomes
> available --and that content is something I want to read
> i.e., not just fairy tales-- I will probably add to what the
> emacspeak daisy player does.
> 
> >>>>> "Janina" == Janina Sajka <janina@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> 
>     Janina> Raman; Ann's question about the DAISY reader in
>     Janina> Emacspeak 16 reminds me to ask a similar
>     Janina> question of you.
> 
>     Janina> The docs say this is a device for reading
>     Janina> DAISY3content. But, there are yet no titles in
>     Janina> this format. Indeed, I'm not aware that DAISY
>     Janina> has yet adopted ANSI Z39.86 as DAISY3, though
>     Janina> they certainly will.
> 
>     Janina> So, here's the question ...
> 
>     Janina> What titles did you test with?
> 
> 
>     Janina> --
> 	
>     Janina> 				Janina Sajka,
>     Janina> Director Technology Research and Development
>     Janina> Governmental Relations Group American Foundation
>     Janina> for the Blind (AFB)
> 
>     Janina> Email: janina@xxxxxxxxxxx Phone: (202) 408-8175
> 
>     Janina> Chair, Accessibility SIG Open Electronic Book
>     Janina> Forum (OEBF) http://www.openebook.org
> 
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> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@xxxxxxxxxxx		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

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