HOMEZ3986 Advisory Committee
Information below pertains to the activities and organization of the DAISY 3 Advisory Committee through 2008.
Current development can be tracked on the wiki for the revision of the DAISY Standard.
Advisory Committee Members
The Advisory Committee, or Zed Committee, as it has become known, has opened participation to a broader spectrum of invited experts (non-voting) from for-profit companies, non-profit organizations, and other standards groups. See the Invitation For Participation. The current members of the Advisory Committee are:
- George Kerscher, Advisory Committee Chair – DAISY Consortium and Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic
- Ole Holst Andersen – The Danish National Library for the Blind
- Neil Bernstein – National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
- Marisa DeMeglio – DAISY for All Project
- Linus Ericson – Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille
- Reuben Firmin – Benetech
- Hiromitsu Fujimori – Shinano Kenshi Co., Ltd.
- Boris Goldowsky – Center for Applied Special Technology
- Markus Gylling – DAISY Consortium and Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille
- Kenny Johar – Vision Australia
- Dominic Labbé – HumanWare
- Rob Longstaff – Royal National Institute of Blind People
- James Pritchett – Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic
- Lloyd Rasmussen – National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
Participating Experts:
- Kathy Kahl – DAISY Consortium
- Mats Johnson – Dolphin
- Neil Soiffer – Design Science
Invitation For Participation in the DAISY/NISO Standards Committee
The DAISY/NISO Standard, officially called ANSI/NISO Z39.86, Specifications for the Digital Talking Book, is recognized internationally and receives endorsements from several national organizations. Active involvement by many companies and organizations is encouraged. Committee minutes are public and experts from companies and organizations are invited to participate on the committee as non-voting members.
To be efficient, the Committee must be kept to a manageable size as defined in the Terms of Reference, and each of the members must actively participate. This is a significant commitment of human resources and travel costs by any company.
The Committee has been holding 3- to 5-day face-to-face meetings twice a year. One has been in Europe and the other in North America, but other parts of the world are options as well. At least one conference call a month has been held, but during times of heavy work, as often as one call a week has been scheduled. In addition, there is research, spec writing, and spec reviews that demand time during a week. As you can see, this is a serious commitment of a talented person's work week.
There are expectations that each committee member will attend the face-to-face meetings, dial in to the conference calls, and complete the work assigned to them. Of course, there will be times when somebody simply cannot attend a face-to-face meeting, or may miss a conference call. The Committee feels that any member of the committee who drops significantly below the expected level of participation should be asked to make more time for the committee work, or voluntarily leave the committee. In a worst case, there may be a vote to remove a person from the Committee.
If you wish to suggest a person from your company or organization, you should look for somebody who is highly technical with a knowledge base in computer science, XML, SMIL, and related media. If you would like to nominate a person for the Committee, please use the Contact Us form, specifying category 'Z3986 Standards'. Please include the person's name, email, and contact information. In addition, you may provide a brief description of the person's background.
The Advisory Committee Chair, currently George Kerscher, will monitor Committee participation and privately discuss any perceived problems with the member. If there is a long-term issue, the chair may suggest that the member resign. If necessary, the Committee may vote to remove a member or an invited expert.
Summary
- The core of the Advisory Committee will be the voting members as determined by the Terms of Reference.
- Organizations and companies may suggest an expert for consideration. According to the Terms of Reference, the Committee would then invite the expert as a non-voting member, but with nearly equal influence over the direction of the work.
- All members of the Committee are expected to meet the participation requirements.
- The employer is expected to pay for the travel to two face-to-face meetings a year.
- The conference calls are scheduled at least monthly and frequently more often (the long distance calls are at the cost of the employer).
- Work will be assigned to committee members.
If you have any questions, please direct them to George Kerscher using the Contact Us form, specifying category 'Standards'.
Minutes, Issues, Future Directions Open for Public Review
All public drafts of the Standard, Advisory Committee meeting minutes, specification issues, and future directions for the Standard are publicly available on this maintenance Web site. The DAISY Technical Developments list will be notified of updates placed on the Web site.
