Re: DAISY reader et al

["T. V. Raman" <raman@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

With respect to your second question --
Re: my signing an NDA with RFB/Daisy to implement a reader
for unpacking their books --I will do no such thing
--primarily because such an NDA will definitely tie my hands
with respect to open sourcing the implementation.>>>>>

In fact their policy as you describe will preclude any open
source implementation, since their security by obscurity
will not survive an open source implementation.
This is also the reason why I have not bothered doing

anything with bookshare.
"Janina" == Janina Sajka <janina@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Janina> 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, Director Technology Research and
    Janina> Development Governmental Relations Group
    Janina> American Foundation 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> --
	
    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

-- 
Best Regards,
--raman

      
Email:  raman@xxxxxxxxxxx
WWW: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/raman/             
AIM: TVRaman
PGP:    http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/raman/raman.asc 

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