The Book Industry Study Group (BISG), a US-based book industry trade association, has announced the publication of a new Policy Statement endorsing EPUB 3 as the accepted and preferred standard for representing, packaging, and encoding structured and semantically enhanced Web content - including XHTML, CSS, SVG, images, and other resources - for distribution in a single-file format. BISG member companies, and other industry stakeholders, can visit http://www.bisg.org/what-we-do-4-155-pol-1201-endorsement-of-epub-3.php to download a copy.
Reviewed and approved by BISG's 36-member Board of Directors, BISG Policy Statement POL-1201: Endorsement of EPUB 3 addresses the critical need for the global book publishing industry to rally around a single standard for the creation of digital content in order to impede recent instances of fragmentation beginning to seep into the supply chain.
BISG Policy Statement POL-1201: Endorsement of EPUB 3 encourages all member companies and other industry stakeholders to work toward adopting the full range of functionality within EPUB 3. It is understood that a period of transition is necessary for full implementation of the EPUB 3 standard. To guide industry stake holders through the transition, BISG published an EPUB 3 Support Grid in June 2012.
The Grid is a comprehensive reference tool for understanding what enhancements and features of EPUB 3 are currently usable on which devices, apps, and reading systems. Due to the rapidly changing nature of EPUB 3 support, the Grid will be frequently updated in the first year of publication. The current version is available at http://www.bisg.org/what-we-do-12-152-epub-30-support-grid.php.
