The DAISY project in its first phase, the so called "standard version", was finished in 1996. The "professional DAISY system" is going to be developed in international cooperation by the DAISY Consortium.
The DAISY Foundation was established in Amsterdam. The consortium members also constitute the board of the foundation.
In October 1996 there was a new consortium meeting in Cambridge. Association of Talking Book Libraries (Germany) consisting of 25 libraries was elected a new consortium member. Several libraries were interested in the DAISY concept although they did not want to become members of the consortium. Interested institutions were invited to join the DAISY Consortium as associated members. Associated members can take part in the open sessions of the meetings and have access to the software.
In April 1997 Hiroshi Kawamura was elected temporary manager for the DAISY Consortium. He also conducted a world wide field testing of DAISY digital talking books played in a prototype of a Plextalk cd-rom player.