Published by
DAISY Consortium
Editor, and Co-ordinator of Production and Distribution
William Jolley
Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium
20 Wadham Parade Mount Waverley 3149 AUSTRALIA
Phone/Fax: 613 9807 5137
wjolley@bigpond.com
www.daisy.org
Ingar Beckman Hirschfeldt and George Kerscher are the proud recipients for 2001 of the Dr. Dayton M. Forman Memorial Award. This prestigious award, established by the CNIB Library Board in January 1996, recognises outstanding leadership in the advancement of library and information services for Canadians who are blind or vision-impaired. It is offered in tribute to Dr. Dayton M. Forman, an exceptional humanitarian and longstanding CNIB volunteer, who exemplified the leadership required to make a difference for more than half a million people who are blind or vision-impaired throughout Canada. Award winners receive a bound copy of the Award Citation, together with a silver medal bearing the likeness of Dr. Forman.
Ingar and George were recognised for their outstanding achievements in overcoming barriers to information equity for people who are blind or print-disabled in Canada and beyond. Their achievements were seen as broad in scope, of an enduring nature and significant in terms of library and information services as a whole; demonstrating great leadership and innovation, and serving as a positive role model for others.
Ingar Beckman Hirschfeldt has been President of the DAISY Consortium since its formation in 1996, and as director of the Swedish Library of Talking-Books and Braille she has led the development effort to create and implement the worldwide standard for digital talking-books, the DAISY standard. George Kerscher, who pioneered accessible eText documents for people who are blind or print-disabled as long ago as the late 1980s, has been Project Manager and Technical Director of the DAISY Consortium since 1997.
"I am deeply honored by this news", George said, "I look forward to standing with Ingar to receive the award on behalf of everybody who has contributed to the efforts of the DAISY Consortium. Ingar is the leader we all want in this effort to improve access to information for persons with print disabilities."
We are delighted to inform you that DAISY is a winner in the International Access Awards Ppogram for 2001 of the International Coalition of Access Engineers and Specialists (ICAES). The purpose of the awards Program is to recognise significant innovative technical contributions to the access engineering profession. All entries were judged on innovation, creativity, scope-of-benefit to consumers and the universality of the product or service.
The Daisy Consortium, National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and Open eBook Forum (OeBF) have won ICAES' Collaboration and Coordination Award, recognising their successful endeavours to resolve and promote compatibility and interoperability. The work of DAISY, NISO and OeBF has converged nicely in the development of file specifications for Digital Talking-Books and eBooks. In announcing the Award ICAES stated that "... digital talking-books based on the open standards being developed by Daisy and NISO provide significant advances in usability and functionality for people with print disabilities. The Open eBook specification, a base format for mainstream electronic books, incorporates features to promote accessibility. These organisations are working together to build a future where the world of electronic books will be open to all."
ICAES is a non-profit membership organisation which fosters international co-operation and support for the design of products that are as accessible and usable by persons with disabilities, as economically possible, and technically feasible. Achieving this mission will deliver better products, for all consumers, on a global basis. For more information go to www.icaes.org.
Welcome to DAISY News, the newsletter of the DAISY Consortium. We promote new technology to make books and information more accessible for all people who are blind or print-disabled. We advocate for accessibility to all written text - be it from printed books, newspapers, eBooks or websites. The DAISY Consortium has developed the worldwide standard for digital talking-books, which we hope will become the standard for accessible navigation of multimedia documents.
This is the first issue of our newsletter that is planned to come regularly. The aim is both to share information within the Consortium among its Members and Friends, and to reach out to other organisations and institutions that are interested in information technology and accessibility.
The DAISY Consortium is formed by over 60 libraries, organisations and institutions from all over the world that are producing talking-books, Braille books or eBooks for people who are blind or print-disabled.
Our Friends are companies that are involved in the software and hardware development in DAISY, or see a future there.
In this newsletter you will find information about the DAISY Consortium, standards development, training support and technical developments. There is also the first in a series of articles about DAISY implementation around the world.
The idea and the importance of the DAISY Consortium is that we are many people working together with the support of our organisations for a better future when it comes to information access for people who are blind or print-disabled all over the world. There are many technical and political issues waiting for good solutions, such as streaming of DAISY books over the Internet or the resolution of conflicting interests when it comes to copyright and Digital Rights Management (DRM) and the need for good inter-library lending rules between countries.
A major obstacle for our goal of information access for all is the lack of resources for new digital technology in many countries. It is an important task of the DAISY Consortium to involve developing countries. For some of these countries it could be better to bypass cassette technology and go straight to digital talking-books as the cornerstone of information services for people who are blind or print-disabled.
National Libraries are vital for the development of a library service designed for all. The accessibility of the new information technology should be on the agenda on many library boards. Therefore IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) is an important arena for the DAISY Consortium. Its Section of Libraries for the Blind (SLB) has during the past six years been of utmost importance as an introducer and supporter of the new digital technology. This is one good reason why the DAISY Consortium decided to introduce its newsletter at the IFLA conferences in August 2001, at the SLB pre-conference in Washington and in the Exhibition in Boston.
I hope to meet you there, or perhaps hear from you by email. We welcome your interest to know more about the DAISY Consortium! And we welcome your involvement to join our work to create opportunities for a better world, with more accessible books and library services for all.
The DAISY Consortium was formed in May 1996 by talking-book libraries to lead the worldwide transition from analogue to digital talking-books. Our President is Ingar Beckman Hirschfeldt from the Swedish Library of Talking-Books and Braille.
Our vision is that all published information is available to people with print disabilities, at the same time and at no greater cost, in an accessible, feature-rich, navigable format. An important element of our vision is that the utility of documents is maximised. It is not good enough to have an unstructured eText document or poorly formatted Braille document; we envisage a world in which documents in accessible formats are clearly presented and convenient to use. It is the power and flexibility of the digital environment that makes this possible.
The DAISY Consortium is developing the international standard and implementation strategies for the production, exchange and use of Digital Talking-Books in both developed and developing countries, with special attention to integration with mainstream technology to ensure access to information for people with print disabilities.
We have identified five major goals which will guide the work of the DAISY Consortium over the next few years. These are:
Goal 1: Currently there is nothing other than the DAISY standard for digital talking-books. The standard which allows a blind or print-disabled person to navigate through an audio document, like a sighted person navigates through a printed book, is the DAISY standard. It allows the user to move quickly between sections and subsections, to go to specific pages and index references, and may even allow text-string searches in full text and audio books. The change from the cassette-based analogue talking-book to the CD-based digital talking-book is revolutionary for blind and print-disabled people, like the change from the scroll to the book (for sighted people).
Goal 2: We are fully aware that the transition for library services, both for adults and for students, from the analogue to the digital environment is complex. Organisations have significant investments in human resources, book stock and playback equipment in the analogue environment, and these need to be transferred to the digital environment. This is much easier and less expensive for some organisations than for others. Our concern is not just organisations in the industrialised world, but also for the creation or development of digital library services in developing countries.
Goal 3: Clearly, if mainstream documents are accessible and readily useable by people with print disabilities, then the onus on service agencies to produce accessible documents is reduced. The work of both the Web Accessibility Initiative within the World Wide Web Consortium and of the Open eBook Forum is critically important in this context.
Goal 4: Integration of the DAISY standard with the mainstream is vital. In particular, we intend that mainstream devices such as MP3 players should be able to play DAISY books; and that commercial audio book publishers will adopt the DAISY standard to make their products conveniently navigable for their readers.
Goal 5: The ideal of being able to access a talking-book recorded in another country, without delay and with a minimum of red tape, is cherished by many blind or print-disabled people and their talking-book libraries throughout the world. Many migrants, who revert to their native language as they grow older, want to read talking-books in their preferred language. The global library is also important for languages such as English, French, Spanish and Chinese, where there are native speakers of these languages spread to all corners of the world. However, the main barrier faced by proponents of a global library is not technical; it is the plethora of uncoordinated national copyright laws and the absence of an international framework for the free exchange of Braille and talking-books.
There are twelve Full Members of the DAISY Consortium, almost thirty-five Associate Members and ten Friends. Full and Associate Members are non-profit organisations, typically national talking-book libraries or national consortia of such libraries. Friends are for-profit organisations including software developers and production or playback product manufacturers. Full Members pay a joining fee of $35,000 and an annual fee of $25,000. They may appoint a representative to the Board of Directors. Associate Members pay an annual fee of $2,500. Friends pay an annual fee of $2,500 as a minimum. Some donate a higher amount. All Members and Friends can participate in the workteams of the DAISY Consortium. These include standards development, Training & Support, Technical Developments, Developing Countries, Public Relations and Fundraising.
There are four members of staff of the DAISY Consortium. They bring an international approach and multi-disciplinary backgrounds.
The first DAISY standard was proprietary, originating in Sweden. The idea was to use digital recording and introduce some document structuring that would allow easy navigation by the user. The concept was unveiled in 1994 and its adoption steadily gathered momentum. In 1997 the DAISY Consortium decided to adopt open standards based on file formats being developed for the Internet. The DAISY 2.0 standard was released in 1998, and the 2.02 recommendation was approved in February 2001. We hope that DAISY 3.0 will be released late in 2001 or early in 2002.
In essence a DAISY book is a set of digital files that includes:
For a library book the text file might only contain the table of contents, whereas for a student's textbook or a reference book the full text might be included. The DAISY standard allows the producing agency full flexibility regarding the mix of text and audio, ranging from audio-only to full text and audio to text-only.
The DAISY Consortium is building the standards for Digital Talking-Books (DTB) from existing international standards. To do this, and to influence the direction of future information technology developments, DAISY must focus on strategically important standards activities. This article gives information on current standards, explains the relevant standards bodies and how the Consortium participates in the evolution of these standards.
The fundamental role for DAISY is to establish the single international standard for Digital Talking-Books. The DAISY 2.02 specification is the current recommended implementation. The DAISY 2.x specifications have been adopted extensively and the DAISY Consortium is now considered the DTB authority worldwide. As part of the strategy towards a single worldwide standard, the Consortium collaborates with possible competing DTB standards and unifies developments towards an ever-evolving single standard of information technology.
The second role of the DAISY Consortium's standards effort is to push DAISY requirements into mainstream information technology development. Many information technology specialists have noted the elegance of the DAISY specification, and the incorporation of DAISY techniques can move DAISY into the mainstream. While the DAISY standard for DTB is optimised for persons who are blind or print-disabled, enhancements can make it very attractive in commercial applications. If Universal Design principles are used, mainstream specifications can work equally well for persons with disabilities. Of course, the dream is to have all information work for all people!
It may be helpful to understand how international standards development proceeds. In most cases a working group produces a specification that is placed before the standards body for comment and, after several revisions, for ratification. The approval process differs slightly depending on the policies and procedures of the standards body, but the working group structures are amazingly similar. It is here in the working group dynamics that the DAISY Consortium, or any other organization, can have the most influence.
Extensive communication is required for working groups that span the globe. An email list server (reflector), conference calls at all hours, and face-to-face meetings are all used to develop the specifications. A list of required functionality guides the working group in its efforts. These requirements are the key to ensuring the DAISY Consortium, and the print-disabled people we serve, get what we need in standards.
The requirements the working group implements depend on many factors, but most importantly is the voice of a champion in the working group that insists on his or her requirement being met. Without this voice pushing the requirement, it would be likely that the working group would let the requirement take a back seat to more lucrative issues or even drop the accessibility requirement entirely. It is through this vocal participation that the representative from the DAISY Consortium can ensure that accessibility, or multimedia or navigation components get included in the specification.
Looking around the table at one of the NISO meetings on DTB you would find a host of DAISY member organizations and a small smattering of organizations that have not yet joined the DAISY camp. However, everybody worked together under the leadership of Michael Moodie from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS).
The NLS position has always been that it would only embrace a standard that had formal recognition in the USA. The NLS had previously worked with NISO, and chose that well-established organization for its DTB standards effort. The DAISY Consortium decided that:
We are very pleased that Michael Moodie attributes the success of the standards development process to the DAISY Consortium. The DAISY/NISO standard for DTB as it has become known still requires some work, but it should go to vote by the NISO members before the end of this year (2001). It is expected that the DAISY Consortium would then adopt this as DAISY 3!
The DAISY Consortium is a voting member of the W3C. The W3C is the standards setting body for the Internet. Many DAISY members were instrumental in forming the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), one of the four main branches of the W3C. The WAI is vital in making the web accessible, and it also carefully reviews W3C evolving specifications to ensure that no barriers to access are erected.
The DAISY Consortium has used the W3C standards in the development of the DAISY specification. HTML and now XHTML, XML, SMIL, and CSS are all standards established by the W3C that are used for Digital Talking-Books. The DAISY/NISO group has been working with SMIL 2 and this is expected to become a W3C standard before the end of August 2001. Once SMIL 2 becomes a formal recommendation, the work towards DAISY 3 can continue.
The emerging eBook industry sets standards through the OeBF. DAISY is a member of this standards and trade body. While the basic DAISY DTB does not require full text, the importance of full text for Braille production, full featured DTB, and eBooks as stand-alone products are the clear reasons for DAISY participation.
The OeBF specifications include accessibility in the 1.0.1 version of the standard. Developments are underway for the DAISY navigation model to be introduced in the OeBF 2.0 developments, scheduled to be released before the end of the year.
The other essential aspect of OeBF is the work on the protection of eBooks from piracy. The emerging eBook industry does not want to suffer from what the music industry is trying to cope with. The comprehensive treatment of the rights of all stakeholders, including authors, publishers, libraries, and end-users, is called Digital Rights Management (DRM). DRM is complex and extremely controversial. It is the non-standard DRM implementations that are currently locking out screen readers from eBook products. For example, Microsoft announced that its next version of Microsoft Reader due out in the fall of 2001 would be a self-voicing application providing text-to-speech output. This mechanism will preserve its DRM solution by not allowing other applications, like a screen reader, to access the information. The DAISY Consortium is participating in the OeBF DRM activities to ensure that the information made available through this technology is a benefit and not a barrier to persons who are blind or print-disabled.
The MPEG committee is responsible for the compression standards that are used for music, audio, and for video. MPEG is a committee of the International Standards Organization (ISO) and continues to build the standards needed for digital media. Most recently it has started work on distribution and dissemination issues. Here too the need to protect intellectual property from piracy is paramount. The DRM strategies are being developed under MPEG and the OeBF hasf set up a liaison relationship with this group. It is not expected that the two organizations will work to cross purposes, but rather the OeBF will strive to ensure that one group or the other develops the DRM technologies for eBooks.
The DAISY Consortium's primary participation in MPEG is through the OeBF. However, since the MPEG committee has stated that its compression and dissemination solutions are content agnostic (they will deal with all digital content), it is important for the DAISY Consortium to track developments that could impact our international standards effort. It is clear that the DAISY Consortium must influence these large standards efforts and use the technologies they develop for our own purposes.
Standards development is very much an incremental and collaborative process. The creation of the DAISY DTB standard was a major achievement, demanding an understanding of user requirements, intellectual rigour and collaboration among talking-book libraries. But now a new phase of standards development has commenced: our focus is on evolutionary development of the DAISY DTB standard, and collaboration with mainstream standards bodies. We must build on the W3C standards for the Internet; and we must ensure that standards for multimedia documents of the OeBF and MPEG promote accessibility and navigability of multimedia documents for people who are blind or print-disabled.
This article describes basic functional differences between two DAISY Digital Talking-Book (DTB) production tools - lpStudio/PRO and SigtunaDAR 3.
Since the varying feature sets of these tools apply differently to specific production environments, the article may serve as an introductory aid in the decision-making process for organisations which are building an infrastructure for DAISY DTB production.
It is important to note that neither of these programs currently have a finalised feature set, since they are still under development. This means that the differences and similarities described here may change over the next few months.
Both software tools are developed by Labyrinten Data AB (www.labyrinten.se): lpStudio/Pro for the DAISY Consortium and SigtunaDAR for JSRPD (Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities). They are available, free-of-charge, to members of the DAISY Consortium. For general information about availability, licensing arrangements, etc., email our Secretary General, William Jolley, wjolley@bigpond.com.
This article is quite technical, requiring some understanding of the processes of digital recording and DTD production for a full appreciation of the similarities and differences between the two software production tools. If you come across unfamiliar technical terms, further reference is provided by the documents DAISY Structure Guidelines, lpStudio/PRO Basic Training Manual, and DAISY 2.02 Specification. These documents are available on the DAISY website. For further technical information email Markus Gylling, markus.gylling@tpb.se.
Timestamp: July 2001. Versions described: lpStudio/PRO v1.5.33 and SigtunaDAR 3 v2.7.4.
Both programs produce books conforming to the DAISY 2.0 specification. Support for the DAISY 2.02 specification is expected by the end of August. Both programs are able to produce "NCC-only" as well as "full text" DTB. Hence, it is not the output from the programs that differ; it is the methods used to achieve the output.
The project setup and structure creation procedures are areas where lpStudio/PRO and SigtunaDAR 3 offer distinctly different alternatives.
The project setup procedure in lpStudio/PRO is based on the method of importing a source document into the project. At the import stage, the Navigation Control Centre (NCC) and text documents of the DTB are automatically generated. Since the imported source document contains the full NCC structure (and possibly also the full text) of the DTB, from this point on, all that remains to be done is narration.
The project setup and structure creation procedures in SigtunaDAR 3 can be done in the same way as for lpStudio/PRO, but there is also a second alternative. SigtunaDAR 3 supports what can be called a "dynamic structuration-narration mode". This means that headings and pagination may be entered into the structure continuously during narration. This latter mode is used for creating "NCC-only" DTB, whereas the former mode supports both "NCC-only" and "full text" DTB.
When using the "source-document-import" mode in either of the programs, the source document is created outside the program with a text/html editor of choice. In addition to this method, lpStudio/PRO offers a built-in "Structure Editor", dedicated to the task of creating "NCC-only" source documents.
When using the "dynamic structuration-narration" mode in SigtunaDAR 3, functions available in the recording and edit screens are used to add headings and pagination to the structure.
LpStudio/PRO has two recording windows. The first "volunteer" window provides a simplified recording environment, intended mainly for narrators who might be working alone in the recording process. The second window offers more advanced functionality, such as the ability to set marks and annotations, and a dedicated user defined time counter.
SigtunaDAR 3 has one recording window that resembles the "volunteer" window of lpStudio/PRO.
Furthermore, there is a difference in available "recording modes" in both programs. While lpStudio/PRO offers "overwrite", "insert" and "replace" modes, SigtunaDAR 3 offers "overwrite" and "insert".
In both programs, the narrator may use a computer keyboard to control the recording functions. This can also be done with remote control units (such as the RE-11 remote control from Plextor Co) replacing the computer keyboard totally or partially.
Both programs will accept input from external sources other than microphones. Typically, this method is used when transferring an analogue tape recording into DAISY format. At the transfer stage, a realtime phrase recognition analysis may be used to divide the transferred audio into segments.
SigtunaDAR 3 offers additional functionality when performing tape transfers. First, this program accepts input from sources running in double speed, which will effectively half the time required to transfer a recording. Second, it allows the recording to be done directly into ADPCM2 format, instead of the otherwise used PCM/WAV.
Both programs support the ability to import wavefiles (PCM/WAV format) into the project. At the import stage, phrase recognition analysis may be used. SigtunaDAR 3 can import audio files which are not wavefiles, but without phrase recognition analysis.
The Event Edit functions of both programs offer a set of shared functions that allow editing of DTB data during (and when finalizing) the recording process. These include event level editing (reordering, merge, split, cut, copy and paste of events) and NCC heading level editing (deletion, renaming, sequence and indentation editing). Both programs also offer a "SMIL Editor" which is used for fine tuning the timing of a single audio event.
In addition, the Event Edit functions in SigtunaDAR 3 include (primarily as a part of the "dynamic structuration-narration" mode) the ability to delete, join and split heading sections, as well as the ability to add, edit and delete pages.
LpStudio/PRO stores information about audio clip errors and marks (annotations, bookmarks and producer marks). The Event List of lpStudio/PRO's Edit Window displays this information on a per-event basis, and search features enables quick location of events that contain clip errors or marks.
SigtunaDAR 3 offers the ability to insert images into the SMIL presentation. This is done in event edit mode.
When using the "source-document-import" mode, sometimes the imported structure contains errors - for example, omitted pages or headings. Currently, the ability to correct this after the narration has begun varies somewhat between the programs.
In lpStudio/PRO, omitted headings can be inserted into the project. There is as yet no built in function that allows removing or adding pages. Currently, to achieve this, the file set has to be manually modified.
In SigtunaDAR 3, when using the "dynamic structuration-narration mode", headings and pages can, as mentioned above, be added and removed at will. In the "source-document-import" mode heading and page adding is also supported; but in the current version of the program the resultant file changes (although technically correct) will be difficult to handle for the narrator unless the file set is manually modified.
SigtunaDAR 3 has a specialised Audio & Text Addition Utility (ATAU) which allows the addition of text to a DTB that was originally recorded as "NCC-only". Text can be entered via manual typing or via importing of html elements from an external source document. Since the added text is synchronised with the pre-existing audio, the result is a full or partial text DTB.
lpStudio/PRO has a "project integrity check" feature which checks for the existence and reference integrity of project files, as well as clip errors in audio files.
Both lpStudio/PRO and SigtunaDAR 3 offer a "QA Player" which can be used for proof-reading of projects. An additional function in the lpStudio/PRO version of QA is the ability to insert event-level producer marks during the proof-reading session. These may be used to point the narrator to problematic passages in the recording.
The finalization (or "build") stages are very similar in the two programs. Both support encoding the material directly into MP2, Real Audio, and the DAISY proprietary ADPCM2 formats. Both programs also allow additional CoDecs to be "plugged in" and used instead of the above mentioned alternatives. This is normally done to achieve encoding into MP3 format using commercial encoder packages. Both programs also offer a "uncompressed" build alternative, where a project distribution master is created with the audio maintained in WAV format.
Both programs require a "clean-up" stage (creating a 1:1 relationship between audio files and SMIL files) before an encoding session can commence.
lpStudio/PRO offers a user profile management feature. This allows the customisation and modification of rights for different users. For example, a "technician" user profile can be set up to allow deletion of audio and text events, while a "narrator" user profile could prohibit this.
The "Studio Database" function of lpStudio/PRO allows administration, distribution and control of projects in a networked multi-studio environment.
lpStudio/PRO offers a "check-out check-in" feature, which allows the producer to split a larger project into smaller parts, record the parts individually, and then merge the parts back together again. SigtunaDAR 3 can merge projects in a similar way (the "lpo-import" function), but there is currently no implementation of project splitting.
A quite common view is that the differences in the functionality provided by these two programs indicates that lpStudio/PRO and SigtunaDAR 3 occupy different parts on a continuum of production environment complexity. While lpStudio/PRO offers some "advanced" features that correlates to the typical needs of larger multi-studio settings, SigtunaDAR 3īs somewhat more "straight forward" user interface may be more suitable for smaller production environments.
While theoretically true, this is however a somewhat over-simplified view. Both programs have proven to be usable in any organisational setting. The "suitability", then, of these two programs, depends more on the desired DTB production workflow of the organisation.
Both programs can create "NCC-only" as well as "full text" DTB. Besides the common "source-document-import" production mode, SigtunaDAR 3 allows alternative routes to the end product by offering the "dynamic structuration-narration" mode and the ATAU function.
The choice between "dynamic structuration-narration mode" or "source-document-import mode" depends to some extent on the infrastructure of the organisation. If there is a clear division of labour between the text markup department, managers, technicians, and narrators, the latter mode may be the most suitable. If the narrators are used to working more on a self-maintained basis, assuming responsibility for parts of the production process other than narration, the former method may be their preferred choice.
Also, the amount of user profiling that is desired within the organisation is likely to have animpact on the choices made. Where SigtunaDAR 3 in certain situations offers a larger amount of "freedom" for the user, lpStudio/PRO instead offers a larger amount of safety.
Finally, if a smaller-scale tape transfer program is planned within the organisation, the ability of SigtunaDAR 3 to transfer tapes in double speed, may impact the decisions made.
Needless to say, the choice of which program to use should optimally be done after a period of testing of both programs. There are examples of production units which initially were quite convinced that one of the programs suited them best - only torealise some months later, when the production process had developed and matured, that the other program actually was most suitable to their needs.
Training and Technical Support (T&TS) are integral components of the DAISY Consortium Work Plan. This program is planned and carried out by the DAISY Training & Technical Support Team providing training, information and assistance to members of the Consortium who are producing or are planning to produce DAISY DTBs. Members of this team work closely with the Technical Developments Team and the coordinators of each of these teams are members of both to ensure effective communication. Cross representation facilitates both the improvement of existing software and the development of standards.
The goal of the DAISY Training and Technical Support Team is to facilitate the training process, to expand the Consortium's pool of expert "trainers", and to ensure that every member organization has an opportunity to take advantage of this training program and the available support.
Member organizations may request a Basic Training Course to be held at their facility. This course is designed to provide training to individuals who will then be qualified to train others within their own organization and potentially on behalf of the Consortium as an "expert" trainer.
The Consortium will cover the travel expenses of expert trainers sent to present a Basic Training course. Host organizations are required to provide the following:
If one of the people attending the course is identified by the trainer(s) as being a potential trainer, the host organization will be asked to permit this person to become a member of the T&TS Core Team. An organization which has in its employ a member of the T&TS Team is assured that its DAISY DTB production staff will have a skilled instructor on site.
Basic Training Courses tentatively scheduled for the remainder of this year are:
The Consortium provides support to its members in several ways. The T&TS list serve provides a forum for members registered on the list to submit questions and suggestions to all members of the full T&TS Team.
The "first line" of support within an organization which has hosted a Basic Training Course is the internal expertise that has been developed. These individuals will be able to provide guidance as well as training for others.
The DAISY Website is currently under revision and will contain both a FAQ and Knowledge Base that will provide information accessible to all Consortium members. In addition, a Help Desk is planned for the site. Software and training materials will be available for download (as they are on the current Website).
I joined the staff of the DAISY Consortium following the Copenhagen Board Meeting in February. Since then I have visited DAISY Members in Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, New Zealand, Thailand and Singapore. I have been impressed by the spirit of co-operation, openness and information-sharing among DAISY Members and Friends, and I share the optimism which is evident throughout the organisation that the DAISY Standard will make a great difference to information access for people who are blind or print-disabled.
I work from my home-based office in Melbourne with the support of two part-time staff. Lena McDonald is my Personal Assistant, helping me to keep on top of various administrative and clerical tasks. John Simpson, known to some people as the Event Organiser for the WBU Fifth General Assembly in Melbourne last year, provides support and advice on public relations and fundraising matters.
I am very privileged to lead an outstanding team of technical specialists in carrying out the work of the DAISY Consortium. George Kerscher, Lynn Leith and Markus Gylling each bring an extraordinarily high level of expertise and commitment to our organisation, and together they form an outstanding team. We appreciate the support of their employers: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic in the United States, Canadian National Institute for the Blind and Swedish Library of Talking-Books and Braille.
Stockholm, in May, was the setting for the General Meeting for 2001 of the DAISY Consortium. In addition to the General Meeting we held a Board Meeting and a Technical Seminar; all events hosted by the Swedish Library of Talking-Books and Braille. It was a festive occasion as we celebrated the fifth anniversary of the formation of the DAISY Consortium and received gracious Swedish hospitality. More than fifty people from twenty countries participated in the General Meeting, which transacted the business of an Annual Meeting and which provided participants with an update on standards, technical developments, implementation programs and other matters.
We were pleased to welcome Norma Tousedo to the General Meeting, representing the World Blind Union (WBU). The General Meeting decided that the DAISY Consortium should become an international member of the WBU, cementing the important relationship between our two organisations.
The General Meeting welcomed five new Associate Members:
Since May we have been pleased to welcome two new Associate Members:
The General Meeting welcomed two new Friends:
The General Meeting made some minor changes to the Articles of Association. It was confirmed that staff cannot be members of the Board, and that the terms of office for the President and the Treasurer will be staggered, so that one of these positions is up for election each two years. The General Meeting re-elected Bernhard Heinser from Switzerland as Treasurer, for the four-year period 2002-2005.
The General Meeting requested the staff to make proposals, for approval by the Board, for another Technical Conference to be held in 2002. This followed the outstanding success of the DAISY Technical conference held last March in Los Angeles.
The General Meeting kept membership fees at their current levels:
In late June I attended a planning workshop convened by the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). I thank AFB for enabling my participation, and for warmly welcoming the involvement of the DAISY Consortium. The purpose of the workshop was to make plans for training programs for Braille transcribers to produce Braille from XML source files. The DAISY DTBook3 standard will be based on XML files for text markup, with a specific DAISY-DTD. XML denotes Extensible Markup Language and DTD denotes Document Type Definition. The training of Braille transcribers to produce Braille from XML files is a part of the endeavour by the AFB to improve the access of blind students to textbooks and reference materials under the National Agenda for Education of the Blind in the USA.
The importance of this meeting is emphasised by recent agreement between the blindness field in the United States and the American Association of Publishers to promote Federal legislation to make publisher files available for production in accessible formats. These files would be lodged with a national repository, but more importantly they would be XML files in conformity with the DAISY-DTD. If this Federal Legislation is passed, and the prospects are very good for bipartisan support, there will be an important endorsement of the DAISY standard and its associated XML DTD, as well as major flow-on effects for information access for people who are blind or print-disabled around the world.
When I joined the staff of the DAISY Consortium in February this year I was given a Plextalk DAISY-book player by Plextor in Japan, and a Victor DAISY-book player by VisuAide in Canada. I thank both companies for their generosity to me, and for their ongoing support for the work of the DAISY Consortium.
I would also like to thank Microsoft which has donated 25 copies of Microsoft Project for use by member organisations of the DAISY Consortium. If you would like a copy of Microsoft Project, for your use in connection with the production or distribution of digital talking-books, please contact George Kerscher, kerscher@montana.com.
More information about joining the DAISY Consortium as a Member or Friend is available from the DAISY website www.daisy.org.
The Swedish Library of Talking-Books and Braille (TPB) collaborates with local libraries to give people who are blind or print-disabled access to literature. TPB is an entirely government funded agency. Its purpose is to produce and lend talking-books, books in Braille and eText. Furthermore TPB provides advice and information on matters concerning talking-books and Braille. TPB also serves university and college students in Sweden with literature.
At the end of last year we had a total stock of 64,300 analogue titles. During the year 2000 TPB acquired 2982 titles (2305 produced at TPB and the rest by other producers). 813 DAISY titles were A/D converted from analogue tapes
From November 2000 all talking-book production at TPB is digital in the DAISY format. This process began in early 2000 when TPB called for tenders for DTB production. At TPB we don't have any regular in-house production, and as a government agency we have to select our external producers through a tender process - a true challenge when you go from analogue to digital production.
To prepare for the new digital age TPB started to build up a knowledge base by training our staff, employing new technical people, building our own studio, working with A/D conversion, participating in the international consortium work with the production software, etc. We also created a set of guidelines to help our future DTB producers:
Last year we signed contracts with four talking-book producers for 38 months, through to December 2003, for around 27000 hours of recording per year. This is equivalent to 2600 titles per year. Every title should be delivered:
Our producers have chosen to work with lpStudio/Pro and/or lpStudio/Plus, Pro can only be used when recording for TPB. Both products are from Labyrinten Data AB. During the first few months we have supported our producers with training and on-site support. Our producers have faced some difficulties due to the new production processes and instability of the production software.
All talking-books produced for TPB must be proofread. In the old days this was done with an open real tape recorder. For DAISY production we had to develop our own software. The first version of this software was delivered to our producers in December, and has since then been developed and released in several versions.
Creating DAISY titles from old analogue tapes started at TPB in 1996, creating books in the DAISY 1.0 format. In 1999 we specified and financed development of a more professional A/D system called TIPS (Tape Input Production System), together with Labyrinten Data AB (www.labyrinten.se/english/tips.html). When TPB started full scale A/D with TIPS in the middle of 2000 it meant that production capacity was increased substantially. From June 2000 we also contracted an external producer for A/D conversion of 14000 hours, around 1555 titles, per year.
TPB has decided to supply the libraries and end-users with analogue copies of our digital recordings for another three years, with one exception - we will not make analogue copies of university titles produced for students in Sweden. The reason for analogue copies is that it will take some years before all the end-users of digital talking-books will have access to a playback unit.
In late summer 2000 we specified and financed the development of TOPS (Tape Output Production System), together with Labyrinten Data AB (www.labyrinten.se/english/tops.html). The system creates analogue master from the compressed CD-ROM master. In June this year, several months delayed, TPB started D/A conversion of the digital production delivered so far. From coming autumn our producers of leisure and fact books will produce an analogue copy from their regular production.
With a growing number of DAISY titles there comes a need for duplication. Currently we do all duplication in-house. The reason for this is that the CD-ROM masters are stored at TPB as physical media or on RAID discs on our server. Our future goal is the disc-based archive located anywhere, and available for anyone with the right to make duplicate books.
Distribution of DAISY books through the postal service requires a designated container. The only available container was the one developed in Japan for caddy base books. Therefore TPB and the Swedish Library Agency (BTJ) started to develop a new container which should be able to house two CD-ROM discs and also have room for ink and Braille labels. The manufacturer has recently started to deliver the container and TPB is now in the process of shifting from the commercial jewel cases, that we have been using in the meantime, to the new container.
The implementation has of course had an impact on all parts of TPB and an effect on all our employees. Several new routines have been created and our computerised library system has been enhanced to correspond with the new production lines.
The development of DAISY in Sweden started because we wanted to give university students a better tool for information access. As the PC has become the natural study place for all students we decided to develop PC based playback software and make it available free of charge. It started with Playback for Windows and Playback 2000, financed by TPB and developed together with Labyrinten Data AB. Last year when we started in-house software development we decided to manufacture our own Playback software. The first version will be TPB Reader 1.0, due for beta-testing in August, later to be developed into a second version containing additional features and functions. These software players will be free to end-users.
Over recent years, and long before there were any substantial archives of DAISY titles, we have seen different versions of DAISY players from Plextor Co., Ltd in Japan and VisuAide Inc in Canada. These brave companies have been good supporters to the DAISY Consortium since 1996.
TPB has bought more than one thousand players, FOR TWO MAIN reasons:
There are several milestones you have to pass when you are involved in a huge project like this. Some of them we have already passed, and some remain. In May his year TPB launched a player campaign.
The purpose of the campaign is to make the transition from analogue to digital reading easier. The campaign also emphasises that the whole society - municipalities, county councils, the government, organisations and individuals - have to be engaged in the purchase of digital players or personal computers. The end-users must be able to read the new talking-books and be a part of the digital revolution! The goal of the campaign is to establish the DAISY book with the reader because DAISY is an easier way of reading talking-books compared with a cassette book.
All new talking-books produced by TPB are in the DAISY format. The DAISY book is here to stay. DAISY is the new talking-book standard in the world and TPB has a front position. The government has granted an additional budget of SEK 2 million ($200,000) a year for converting analogue titles in to DAISY format.
There are today more than 2500 DAISY titles at TPB and by the end of 2001 there will be 6000. The rapid growth increases the demand to have access to DAISY players. The campaign will run from May 2001 until December 2004. After that date TPB plans to lend out DAISY books only.
DAISY implementation continues as a once in a life time adventure for our staff, library staff, producers, narrators, end-users and others. You can never be totally certain when and if all details will fall into place, but you must not hesitate to start the transition. The workload has been enormous, but very positive reactions from the end-users make it worth while. This is a feeling that many of us in this revolution share, both on a national and international level. The international co-operation within the DAISY Consortium has been outstanding, with a growing number of Members and Friends.
We are now looking at new challenges: archiving this huge amount of data, finding new ways of distributing the books, and incorporating text and pictures with the audio. We also look forward to seeing the commercial side of audio book and newspaper production adopt the DAISY standard; and to big companies like Philips and Sony starting to manufacture players, bringing down the price and making hardware available for all end-users.
In this series of articles I plan to give basic information about contemporary technical developments. In this article I will discuss some new audio compression formats and some upcoming DAISY-related software tools.
On June 14 Thomson Multimedia of France and the Fraunhofer Institute of Germany released what has been called "the son of MP3", MP3PRO. This new format is said to require half the disk space needed to encode the previous generation of MP3 files. That is, for the same sound quality files will be half their current size.
One drawback of the new format is that it is not entirely backwards compatible. Although an MP3 Pro player will play older MP3 (MPEG 1 Layer 3) files perfectly well, existing MP3 players may reproduce MP3 Pro files with loss of fidelity. This is because the new format splits the audio data into two streams. This shows the importance for hardware-based players, that they be software upgradeable.
Licensing policies are expected to be the same as for MP3. MP3 Pro royalties will be around 50 per cent higher than their MP3 equivalents.
You can read more at www.thomson.fr.
Recently a new audio compression format, somewhat oddly named "Ogg Vorbis", has been announced. Ogg Vorbis offers the same compression ratios as MP3PRO, although with (according to Vorbis itself, as well as some objective test reports) improved sonic quality.
The unique feature of the Ogg Vorbis format is that it is developed within the GPL (GNU Public License) framework. This means that all software is free of charge, and that companies that wish to develop their own applications do not have to pay any royalties.
A number of audio software suites like Winamp, Soniqe and Sonic Foundry have announced support for the Ogg Vorbis-format.
You can read more at www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/index.html.
DTBD 1.0 is a tool for testing Digital Talking-Books for possible technical errors that can occur during the production phase. The books tested must conform to the DAISY 2.0, 2.01 or 2.02 specifications.
On July 6 the program was released as a beta-version to the members of the DAISY Traning and Technical Support Workteam. A normal version will hopefully be released in the beginning of September.
The program is written by Per Sennels, responsible for the technical part of DAISY production at Huseby Resource Centre in Norway. Per is also a member of the DAISY Consortium Technical Developments Core Team.
ENCU (Enhanced NCC Construction Utility) is a tool used to construct DAISY 2.02 NCC source documents.
By using a scanning device to capture the TOC (Table of Contents) of a print source, and then treating the resultant raw text in ENCU, the time consumed to create a NCC source document can be decreased considerably.
The program, scheduled to reach beta phase at the beginning of September, is written by Markus Gylling, a member of the DAISYWARE team, located at the Swedish Library of Talking-Books and Braille (TPB).
The beta-testing for the new DAISY 2.0 and 2.02 software playback tool, TPB Reader, launches in August. For the next few months, Consortium Members who have volunteered for participation in the beta program will engage in heavy testing of the tool.
During the summer, work to ensure double byte character support in TPB Reader has been carried out in collaboration with JSRPD, Japan.
TPB Reader is developed by the DAISYWARE team, located at the Swedish Library of Talking-Books and Braille (TPB).
Strategically, the DAISY Consortium wants to move the DAISY standard into the mainstream of audio publishing and publishing in general. This was the first year the Board of the DAISY Consortium felt it was time to devote resources in this area. The audio publishing arena was the first target.
Prior to the DAISY Technical Conference, held March 16-18 2001 in Los Angeles, the Audio Publishers Association (APA) in the USA was contacted. The Consortium was asked to publish a short paper in their newsletter and invite the mainstream publishers to the DAISY Technical Conference. Several commercial audio publishers attended the conference including Random House Audio, Time Warner, Audible, and Brilliance. Brilliance even joined the DAISY Consortium as a Friend! The staff of the DAISY Consortium held several informal meetings with these publishers and interest was definitely there. The DAISY Consortium was also clearly a force at the June meeting of the APA in Chicago.
The DAISY specifications seem to meet the mainstream audio publishers needs, but the largest barrier to adoption is the availability of widespread playback software and hardware devices. One publisher said, "If the DAISY CD's could be played in a car, we would be ready to move forward."
The audio publishers and manufactures heard loud and clear Microsoft's promise to support the DAISY standard in Microsoft Reader. This still seems to be in Microsoft's business plan, but the date for release of support of such a product has not been announced. The next release of Microsoft Reader later in 2001 has made no mention of DAISY text and audio synchronization.
In conclusion, the mainstream audio publishers are waiting for support for DAISY playback in generally available browsers or OeB Reading systems. They would love to also see support for DAISY playback in off-the-shelf MP3 players.