Notes for Production processes & Systems
+ DIAGRAM Group con Call
Date: July 15, 2014 at 13:00 UTC
Participants:
George Kerscher
Avneesh Singh
David Andrews
Geoff Gilmour Taylor
Jon
Judy Dixon
Katie
Keith Creasy
Madeleine Rothberg
Mark Horney
Matt Garrish
Neil Soiffer
Paul wood
Pedro Milliet
Pielaet
Romain Deltour
Sueanne
Important discussions & action items
Introduction of the subject
George introduced the objective of the call, and the Braille requirements compiled by the TIES
working group.
He added that DIAGRAM group had discussion on this in June and is open to consider the
requirements. DIAGRAM project is coming to close in 7 months so this is wonderful opportunity to
work on DIAGRAM specifications.
What do we need to add for preformatted Braille?
George: The following things were identified recently, by TIES working group
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What else do we need in DIAGRAM content model for preformatted Braille?
Does the tactile element need anything (one tactile may have Braille labels and another not,
which relies on the tour)
Is there anything needed for 3D?
George: How satisfied are with existing DIAGRAM content model?
Mark: Quite satisfied
Matt: Overall its fine. Regarding the TIES requirements what are the expectations? more clarification
is required. On one side we have descriptions and on the other side we have things like tactile, which
is the alternate resource.
Paul: we should work on use cases first, it will give a better idea.
Decision: Develop a set of use cases including Braille for additions to the existing Content model. ,
what is the expectation, of how these records will be used.
Avneesh: Over last month, TIES working group sorted out 3 main items for work.
1. The whole EPUB 3 book is in unicode Braille. It looks quite possible, we may need some more
things like metadata support.
2. The EPUB 3 book is in text form, as provided by the publishers, and we have snippets of
preformatted or embosser ready Braille in it. i.e. the regular EPUB 3 book comes from publishers,
and Braille specialists add some components of preformatted Braille to it.
3. Support for describing the 3D printing - 3D models.
George: Someone gave me 3D object to touch and it was not easy to make out what exactly it was.
So, it requires the supportive descriptions,
the metadata we have in the DIAGRAM content model, 3D will be supported with existing one.
The other thing is maintaining a repository of concepts. For example a periodic table. It remains the
same in all the chemistry books published. So, why not have a central repository of such concepts?
The repository may have such objects, concepts and equations as well.
Dave: yes, these things are consistent all across, you can do something with it.
George: it may be an opportunity to have a generic thing that works for all, diagrams, 3D models etc.
Avneesh: I am concerned about the scope of the work, we have just 7 or 8 months left for DIAGRAM
model, and the repository will consume huge resources. So, it is important to write down what has
to be done in next 7 months.
George: Yes, all of it cannot be in the current DIAGRAM project. My responsibility under current
DIAGRAM project includes promoting the idea of repository.
Answer to the question of scope, the 3D model is being driven rapidly by the main stream industry.
So, this can be pushed quickly. If we jump on it, we can ensure that 3D models evolve with proper
accessibility support.
Another aspect to discuss here. Just see what is happening in publishing industry, they are putting
only the alt text and are not going beyond. Furthermore, even DAISY members are having hard time
in figuring out how to provide complete image descriptions in text books. So, such models of graphs
& diagrams, reusable by everyone are important.
Avneesh: So, what we exactly need to achieve in next 7 months with respect to 3D models?
George: If we can ensure that DIAGRAM Content model for such concepts work, it will be good.
George: Question for Matt, what about role & schema.org?
Matt: It is useful in general, for generic structure. The things are different when you talk about
presenting it for adoption in some other organization, All the things may or may not pass their
scrutiny test.
Assessments in EPUB and what is the status of APIP (IMS Global: Accessible
Portable Item Protocol (APIP)™)
George: Question for Mark. What about the accessible portable protocol from IMS?
Mark: it maps to html delivery.... we want to ensure that diagram content model works for us..
George summarized the reply of Mark: In a student's test item, there may be a diagram, and the
student may have to answer the question on the basis of this diagram. So, there is a need to explain
this question containing the diagram to the student, here the DIAGRAM content model is useful. This
is how IMS will use it.
George: Mark, will you look in DIAGRAM content model to decide what is more is required for your
usage?
Mark: it might also happen that we decide, that we already have everything.
Sample DIAGRAM title and how can we coordinate
George: Next item, we need to update the sample book, available on DIAGRAM center website, for
showing how descriptions are done in the books.
The sample book does not look in DIAGRAM xml. It is more a representation of DIAGRAM content
model in html. But this is a good book to add more sample content as we go along.
Another information, the W3C Open annotation should be out at the time the DIAGRAM project
ends. We should keep this in mind.
Plan ahead
Avneesh: Do we have some immediate action items to work on, I think that we still need to figure
our short term plan? It looks that the discussion has to continue more to decide the clear path for
next 7 months.
George: Avneesh. How often we need the production group calls?
Avneesh: Normal interval is of 2 weeks. But I wish to move discussions quickly till the clear path is
decided, so I will prefer interval of 1 week till we have short term plan ready.
George: Mark is not available on July 30 & 31, he has to participate in related event, and he will have
more information to share after that.
Avneesh: Then it will be good to talk when Mark is back with more information.
George: Lets aim to maintain weekly schedule on Tuesdays. TIES production group can meet each
Tuesday and DIAGRAM group can join on alternate Tuesdays.
So, we talk each Tuesday, but on one Tuesday we will talk about regular TIES production matters and
on the other Tuesday we will talk with DIAGRAM group.
Action items
George will send email for date & time of the next call, after figuring out suitable time with Matt &
Mark. It is likely to happen in Beginning of August.