DAISY Consortium 2008 Annual Report
Welcoming Comments from the President and Secretary General
Hiroshi Kawamura, President of the DAISY Consortium
The DAISY Consortium received the prestigious ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award during Telecom Africa 2008 in Cairo, Egypt, in recognition of its contributions to persons with print disabilities, persons with minority languages in the community, indigenous peoples who do not have their own written scripts, and those who are illiterate. The year 2008 was a year for the DAISY Consortium to uphold its mission and vision to support both the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) action plan.
The number of the Consortium Members, and standards and tools development activities were considerably enhanced in 2008. The DAISY for All Project kindly funded by the Nippon Foundation was concluded in 2008 with 14 DAISY focal points established by the project and rich human resources working on DAISY in developing countries.
This is an outline of the key achievement of the DAISY Consortium in 2008 but the real success of DAISY should be measured by quality of services and quantity of people served by the DAISY Standards.
Mainstreaming of DAISY is a strategy currently we are working on. Save as DAISY in word processors, presentation tools and Desktop Publishing Software will ensure a simple DAISY content creation path. The Urakawa multimedia authoring tool development project will guarantee the development of the DAISY Standard that supports industry standard accessible e-publications in the mainstream market, and feature-rich multimedia applications that meet the diverse requirements of persons with print disabilities through the use of that same Standard.
Copyright and Digital Rights Management issues have been tackled in collaboration with the World Blind Union. Implementation of the CRPD and WSIS plan of action are very important in this area.
On behalf of the DAISY Consortium, I sincerely thank all of you who have contributed to the DAISY Consortium landmark achievements in 2008 which are integrated into current DAISY strategic action plan.
George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium
As Hiroshi Kawamura points out in the President's message, the DAISY Consortium received the prestigious ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award in 2008. This award acknowledged the importance of the work of the DAISY Consortium and also helped to increase our visibility worldwide. DAISY standards and technologies are being mentioned more and more in publishing circles and in tech companies in the information chain. It is important that each organization in the DAISY Consortium continue to promote DAISY technologies. The presence of DAISY technological solutions that meet publishers' needs, while making information fully accessible to persons with disabilities, is at the heart of our communication goals.
In support of a commitment to greater communications and marketing of the DAISY concept, in 2008 the DAISY Consortium hired Varju Luceno as our Communications and Marketing Specialist. Varju is reporting to Bernhard Heinser who has been brought on as our Chief Financial and Development Officer. Bernhard came to us from the Swiss Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired (SBS) and is spearheading a systematic approach in the creation of marketing materials. In addition, Lynn Leith transitioned to part-time as a partial step towards retirement, continuing as the Editor of the DAISY Planet, the Consortium's monthly newsletter. I believe having a team focused on the DAISY communications and marketing will continue to keep DAISY in the forefront for everyone who is thinking about fully accessible information.
The DAISY For All (DFA) project has been integrated into the core of the DAISY Consortium's work. In support of this commitment, Dipendra Manocha has moved into the role of our Developing Countries Coordinator. Dipendra's extensive work in DFA makes him an excellent choice to also coordinate our Training and Technical Support program. Olaf Mittelstaedt and Prashant Ranjan Verma have joined Dipendra's T&TS team to build a strong program.
Markus Gylling accepted the title of Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for the DAISY Consortium. Under his leadership our open source development projects have thrived. I am delighted in the progress that we are making. From DFA, Marisa DeMeglio and Daniel Weck join his team. We have also added Chhavi Negi and Rachana Singh to the development team.
We have made excellent progress in the standards arena. SMIL 3 was published as a W3C recommendation, which includes, for the first time, a DAISY Profile that moves us up as a 'first class citizen' within this multimedia specification. The DAISY Online Delivery working group made excellent progress and is expected to submit the Online Specification for approval in mid 2009. Finally, the revision of the DAISY Standard kicked off after six months of extensive requirements gathering. The Standard will be composed of two parts, "Authoring and Interchange" and "Distribution". There was tremendous demand from many to move the Authoring and Interchange piece forward as quickly as possible. I am delighted that we were able to respond to this demand within the DAISY Community.
The DAISY Consortium is now strategically aligned with excellent team members leading Communications and Marketing, Training and Technical Support, and our Technical Developments and Standards work. I am confident that this better organizational structure will allow us to serve the DAISY community better than we have ever done before. The future is bright and we are stronger than ever.
Mission and Vision
Vision
The DAISY Consortium envisions a world where people with print disabilities have equal access to information and knowledge, without delay or additional expense.
Mission
The DAISY Consortium's mission is to develop and promote international standards and technologies which enable equal access to information and knowledge by all people with print disabilities and which also benefit the wider community.
DAISY Everywhere: Recognition and Collaboration
This year brought international recognition of DAISY as the Best Way to Read and the Best Way to Publish. Collaboration among Consortium Members, Friends and Supporters moved developments forward and furthered the dissemination of the DAISY "message" around the world. Processes to determine the direction of the next revision of the DAISY Standard were completed and the initial steps to revise the Standard were taken. Technology evolves and moves forward at an increasingly fast pace. The DAISY Consortium will ensure that its Standard remains vibrant and viable, and that it addresses technological transition and change.
The DAISY Standard and the Consortium's ramped-up efforts brought DAISY to the forefront. DAISY in the mainstream is no longer a visionary concept; in 2008 there were leaps and bounds made toward making this a reality. DAISY is and will continue to be the number one accessible reading format in the world.
History in the Making
On April 3, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was ratified. Developed with the active participation of country delegations and NGOs representing people with disabilities, the Convention was adopted with remarkable speed by countries around the globe. The Convention includes detailed mandates related to accessible and assistive Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). For everyone in the DAISY community and all who are involved in or concerned about information access, April 3 was an historic day.
Highlights: Awards and Recognition
In 2008 the achievements and work of the DAISY Consortium were acknowledged internationally at a level which surpassed that of all previous years.
ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award
On May 15, the DAISY Consortium received the ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award. Hiroshi Kawamura, President of the DAISY Consortium, accepted the award on behalf of the DAISY Consortium. The focus of the 2008 ITU Award was "connecting persons with disabilities to opportunities offered by information and communication technologies (ICT)" (International Telecommunication Union press release).
In his message at the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon stated: "It is vital that we change attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities, ensuring that all fundamental rights and freedoms are honoured, including the right to fully participate in the information society, and bring forth input, ideas and effort from the disability community." Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré, ITU Secretary-General, stated in his message: "The key to the information society is universal access. Everyone must have equal opportunity to participate in the digital age. And no one should be denied the potential benefits of new information and communication technologies (ICT)..."
In his acceptance speech Mr. Kawamura said "This award reinforces the DAISY Consortium's commitment to improving access to information for everyone, everywhere. We strive for an inclusive society where no one is excluded from participation." The video of Mr. Kawamura's speech is available online.
Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award
George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium was named among the first recipients of this NLB
award which recognizes individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions toward achieving the full and equitable integration of individuals who are blind into society.
Gary Wunder, Secretary of the National Federation of the Blind and Chairman of the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award Committee, presented the award to Kerscher, saying, "Dr. George Kerscher has been a tireless and effective advocate for full and equal access to all kinds of information by the blind, and his work has helped to give us access to the printed word to a degree that has never before been possible in all of human history. These efforts have substantially increased the ability of blind Americans to become productive members of society and to compete with our sighted peers, and that is why Dr. Kerscher's work is deserving of the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award." (DAISY Consortium press release)
Dr. Roland Wagner Award
The Wagner award which is named after the founder of the International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP) was presented to George Kerscher via teleconference for his tireless efforts to ensure equal access to information by people with print disabilities. Dr. Wagner was a pioneer in information and communications technology for people with disabilities in Europe.
Dayton Forman Memorial Award
In August, Hiroshi Kawamura, President of the DAISY Consortium, and long time advocate for equitable access to information, was presented with the Dayton M. Forman Memorial Award. This award is given annually by CNIB to one outstanding individual who has demonstrated extraordinary commitment and leadership to Canadians living with vision loss. Mr. Kawamura's ongoing, international efforts to make accessible information available to everyone, everywhere were recognized at the reception which was held in conjunction with the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) World Library and Information Congress.
2008 Tech Awards Laureate: Katherine M. Swanson Equality Award
In September the DAISY Consortium was named as one of 25 global innovators recognized as a Tech Awards Laureate. The DAISY Consortium was selected from among hundreds of nominations representing 68 countries; all nominees were identified for their contributions to applying technology to benefit humanity and spark global change. The Consortium was named as a Laureate for its development of the DAISY AMIS software which makes multi-media and text information accessible to people who have a print disability such as a visual impairment, a cognitive or learning disability, or who are unable to use a keyboard or printed publication.
Culture of Sharing Award
At the Adaptive Content Processing Conference 2008 (ACP '08) held November in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Stephen King was presented with the DAISY Consortium's Culture of Sharing Award. King, who is Group Director Access and Innovation at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in the UK, was one of the six founding members of the DAISY Consortium and continues to serve on the Consortium's Board of Directors. This is the third time the Culture of Sharing award has been given by the Consortium since its introduction in 2005.
Highlights: Standards
Requirement Gathering Completed - Revision of Standard Begins
The official requirements gathering process for the revision of the DAISY Standard, officially the ANSI/NISO Z39.86 Specifications for the Digital Talking Book, closed on March 31, 2008. Input was sought from all parties both from within and outside the DAISY community. The openness of this approach further illustrates the Consortium's continued commitment to promote and participate in standards harmonization and open standards development. All submissions were reviewed and rated, and all are available in the Standards area of the DAISY Web site. Following this detailed review process it was determined that a revision of the Standard was required. Both authoring (master creation) and distribution requirements will be addressed.
On August 29, 2008 the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) membership approved the project to revise the DAISY Standard. NISO's Content and Collection Management Topic Committee approved the proposed committee roster in October 2008. George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium and Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Maintenance of the DAISY Standard was quoted in the NISO press release as follows: "It is expected that the next revision of the DAISY Standard will help tame the chaos of digital publishing by providing an extensible, flexible system that everybody can use for information and knowledge dissemination."
The first meeting to begin this process was held in September. Information about the process, committees and the work of the appointed sub-groups is provided on the DAISY - Zed Next Home Page.
DAISY 3 Structure Guidelines Published
A major revision of the DAISY Structure Guidelines was released in June 2008 following an extensive review period. The DAISY 3 Structure Guidelines are a resource for the creation of the textual content of DAISY publications and also provide information about the overall structural relationships that may be applied to any type of DAISY publication.
The DAISY Consortium, CAST, Inc. and gh LLC worked collaboratively to develop comprehensive guidelines which include extensive markup examples accompanied by corresponding print page images. Two new sections (Poetry and Mathematics) and an Index of Elements further increase the applications for the Guidelines and improve access to information about specific elements. The 2008 DAISY 3 Structure Guidelines are available on the DAISY Web site online and for download. The DAISY Structure Guidelines were first published in 1999.
MathML Working Group Completes its Mandate and Winds Down
The MathML in DAISY project Working Group completed its mandate to develop a specification for extending the DAISY 3 Standard to support accessible mathematics (the MathML Modular Extension being approved by the DAISY Board of Directors in 2007). However the Working Group continued its efforts well into 2008. They worked with the DAISY (ZedVal) validator
developers to extend the validator to process MathML. There were outreach efforts to potential users of the MathML extension, with all members of the Working Group giving at least one presentation about MathML in DAISY. The Mathematics Section for the new release of the DAISY 3 Structures Guidelines was also developed by this team.
Closing words from Neil Soiffer, Chair of the MathML in DAISY Working Group, were published in the November issue of the DAISY Planet, the Consortium's monthly newsletter.
Related Standards Achievements
In December 2008 two important related standards activities were announced. W3C announced the publication of its new Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, and SMIL 3.0 was endorsed as a W3C Recommendation.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Finalized
These new Guidelines published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) a division of the W3C, bring information accessibility to the forefront in Web design and information presentation. In the W3C Press Release, George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium and Co-chair of the Steering Council of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is quoted as saying, "In the recently passed United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, access to information and communications technologies is for the first time recognized internationally as a human right...WCAG 2.0 will help to make access to information a reality around the world."
WCAG 2.0 addresses accessibility for all types of Web content, including text, images, audio and video. The new DAISY Standard will incorporate these information media types. WCAG 2.0 "addresses barriers to accessing the Web experienced by people with visual, auditory, physical, cognitive and neurological disabilities, and by older Web users with accessibility needs." (W3C WCAG 2.0 Press Release)
SMIL 3.0: Official W3C Recommendation
SMIL 3.0, developed by the W3C SYMM Working Group, was endorsed as an official W3C Recommendation. The DAISY Consortium was directly involved in the creation of this specification which includes a DAISY Profile - a major step forward (SMIL 3.0 DAISY Profile). With this new specification several accessibility features have been added to the SMIL language, and a fully-conforming language profile has been defined for DAISY books within SMIL.
Highlights: Projects
The DAISY Consortium thanks the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), the Norwegian Library of Talking Books and Braille (NLB), Vision Australia, and all of the other DAISY Members, Friends and affiliates for their support of and participation in DAISY Consortium projects.
"Save As DAISY" Needed in Every Publishing Tool
"What is needed is a 'Save As DAISY' output option in every publishing tool out there, and this is what we are working toward and promoting" George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium.
"Save As DAISY XML" from Microsoft
The first official release of the "Save As DAISY XML" add-in for Microsoft Office Word was announced on May 7, 2008. Working collaboratively, Microsoft Corp., the DAISY Consortium and Sonata Software developed an open source, freely available DAISY translator that enables the creation of DAISY content anywhere by anyone. The joint project was a major breakthrough in provision of feature-rich, structured information to the millions of people around the world who are unable to read print due to a visual, physical, perceptual, developmental, cognitive, or learning disability.
Collaborative efforts to take "Save As DAISY XML" another leap forward continued throughout 2008; the release of the "Save As DAISY" translator for Microsoft Word producing complete DAISY books with synthetic speech is scheduled for early 2009.
Open Office DAISY DTBook AddOn: Odt2dtbook
Open Office released its DAISY DTBook AddOn 1.0 on October 13, 2008.
Odt2dtbook is an OpenOffice.org Writer extension which supports export of content in DAISY 3 format and includes support of mathematical content that conforms to the MathML standard.
DAISY XML Export in Adobe's InDesign CS4
One of the new features in the 'Export for Digital Editions plug-in' in InDesign CS4 released in October is DTBook (DAISY XML) support.
DAISY Pipeline
Development of the
DAISY Pipeline, the Consortium's open source transformation suite that transforms documents into accessible multimedia formats, continued throughout 2008. On May 7
a new release of the DAISY Pipeline was made available. Support for conversion of the output from Microsoft's add-in for Word was included in this release of the DAISY Pipeline. This release of the Pipeline also included beta versions of several new, pivotal transformers which support the migration of content from one DAISY Standard to another.
Other features in this release included usability improvements such as a new Windows installer, performance enhancements and a validator for EPUB files which are based on the open standard developed by the
International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) .
DAISY PipeOnline
This Web-based application of the DAISY Pipeline will provide a distributed system for running DAISY Pipeline jobs. The Norwegian Library of Talking Books and Braille (NLB) and the DAISY Consortium are working in collaboration on the development of DAISY PipeOnline, which will transform, convert and migrate content. The launch at NLB is planned for 2009.
Global Library
The DAISY Consortium Board of Directors and members of IFLA/LPD International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities Section (previously the "Libraries for the Blind Section", IFLA/LBS) met in February 2008 in Zagreb Croatia to review the goals of the Global Library Initiative, established in Redmond, Washington, November 2004.
The following four major initiatives were identified at the Zagreb meeting:
- Discovery and access: end user issues
- Shared collection development and exchange
- Business model for the global library
- Partnership development
A joint Steering Committee made up of representatives from both groups was established to provide governance, oversight and direction for the project. The Steering Committee members are from Australia, Canada, Denmark, U.K., U.S.A., the Netherlands, Korea, Australia and South Africa. Margaret McGrory, DAISY Board member, Vice President Information Systems and CIO of CNIB, and Managing Director, CNIB Library, was appointed as the chair of the Global Library Steering Committee. Julie Rae, General Manager, Community Information Access for Vision Australia, fills the role of Project Manager. Vision Australia, a Full Member of the DAISY Consortium, is providing critical funding for the initial phases of the project.
A draft project plan has been developed and made available to the committee members. The first phase report will be prepared and submitted to the Project Executive (the DAISY Consortium and IFLA/LPD) in 2009.
DAISY Online Delivery Project
Regular conference call meetings held throughout most of 2008 moved the work of the Online Delivery Project Technical Subgroup forward, resulting in significant progress in the development of the DAISY Online Specification. This specification incorporates and stipulates industry standards for maximum interoperability. It is tremendously flexible and has been designed to enable seamless communication between DAISY service providers and clients (DAISY player/reading system). Security is incorporated. The primary features of the DAISY Online Standard are:
- Dynamic Menu Generation
- Downloading and Streaming
- Authentication and Message Security
- Bookmarking
Four test implementations, two server (service provider) and two client (DAISY player), were established to test the specification which will be submitted to the DAISY Board in June 2009 for approval.
AMIS
AMIS
is the open source DAISY software player developed by the DAISY Consortium. In April the first beta of AMIS 3 was released. Following continued development through the year, beta 4 was released in November, with the first release candidate planned for early 2009. Improvements were made to internationalization, accessibility, and the overall reading experience. Two new notable features are:
- Support for text-only books in addition to full-text, full-audio and audio-TOC books
- A Keyboard Shortcuts book in the help menu
In September the DAISY Consortium was named a 2008 Tech Awards Laureate by the Tech Museum of Innovation, nominated for the 2008 Katherine M. Swanson Equality Award for developing AMIS.
AMIS 3 supports playback of DAISY 2.02 and DAISY 3 books.
DAISY SDK (Software Development Toolkit)
The purpose of this toolkit, also known as the Urakawa SDK, is to minimize development costs by enabling programmers to focus on the workflow and usability of their products - the primary focus being the development of complex multimedia authoring applications. Obi utilizes the DAISY SDK. The development of the SDK runs as a parallel track to the development of Tobi which is based on the SDK.
Obi
Development of Obi, a simple to use DAISY 3 authoring tool which produces DAISY 3 content with audio and structure, continued through 2008. Release Candidate 1 and RC 2 were released in October, RC3 was released November 18th. Intensive testing and debugging will continue into 2009 with the version 1.0 release planned for early in the year.
Tobi
Tobi is an open source, multimedia DAISY 3 authoring tool under development by the DAISY Consortium.
It will produce accessible multimedia formats and will provide an easy-to-use user interface and an intuitive recording workflow with support for rich document markup such as the DTBook XML open standard (as used by DAISY, ePub, NIMAS). Tobi is extensible; its modular architecture will ensure that there is always scope for new features.
The first Tobi beta is scheduled for mid 2009, with the first release candidate planned for December 2009.
ZedVal
ZedVal is the DAISY 3 open source validator developed and maintained by the DAISY Consortium. Following the Release Candidate phase, ZedVal 2.0 was released in March. In June a first beta of ZedVal 2.1 with support for the MathML extension providing validation of MathML content in DAISY books was released. Additional betas of 2.1 were released later in the year. RC 1 (the first release candidate) of ZedVal 2.1 is planned for the first quarter of 2009.
Highlights: Membership
The membership of the DAISY Consortium is comprised of non-profit organizations, companies and individuals from around the globe. In both developed and developing countries many who believe in the right to accessible information that provides an enhanced multimedia reading experience have joined the DAISY Consortium. Contributions from the membership, both financial and manpower resources, enable the Consortium to move forward with the development of standards and DAISY tools.
New Members, Friends and Supporters of DAISY
As noted in the DAISY Consortium 2007 Annual Report, organizations, companies, institutes and individuals joining the Consortium will be reported in the 2008 Annual Report and subsequent reports, for the period April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009. This change in reporting period initiated in 2007 brings the information provided in the Annual Report in line with the DAISY Consortium Financial Report.
New Full Members
- Finnish DAISY Consortium
- Vision Australia
- DAISY Latino
At the DAISY Board meeting held in Oslo Norway, June 8 and 9, the Board of Directors accepted Vision Australia and the Finnish DAISY Consortium as new Full Members of the DAISY Consortium. These two new Full membership applications were put forward at the General Meeting which followed. The resolution to recognize the two new Full Members of the DAISY Consortium in 2008 was adopted. The Full Member application from DAISY Latino was received and approved by the Board at the October 2008 Board meeting held in Amsterdam. The 2009 General Meeting will confirm the application retroactively to January 1, 2009.
The Finnish DAISY Consortium is made up of three organizations: Celia Library for the Visually Impaired, the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired, and the Library Association of the Visually Impaired. Both Celia Library for the Visually Impaired and the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired were Associate Members of the Consortium.
Vision Australia has had a long history as a Full Member of the DAISY Consortium as a member of ANZAIG (the Australia New Zealand Accessible Information Group) which was formed in 1997.
DAISY Latino was officially established October 23, 2008. It is made up of nine member organizations including Instituto Nacional para Ciegos (INCI) in Colombia which has been a DAISY Associate Member since 1998, and the Dorina Nowill Foundation for the Blind in Brazil, which joined DAISY in 2006. In addition, there are three supporting organizations in the recently establish DAISY Latino. The other countries represented in DAISY Latino are Ecuador, Dominican Republic and Mexico.
New Associate Members
- National Braille Production Centre, St Joseph's School for the Visually Impaired
- Taiwan Digital Talking Books Association
- Synscenter Refsnæs/RoboBraille
- Novosibirsk Special Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired
- National Autonomous University of Mexico
New Friends and Developers
- ScanDis A/S
- Activated Content Corporation, Inc.
- Code Factory, S.L.
- VoiceCorp AB
- Adobe Systems Incorporated
New Publishers, Educators and Advocates
- American Physical Society
- Palestinian Ministry of Education
- BoJo AS
- AEL Data
The DAISY Consortium, its Board of Directors, the DAISY team members and all of the DAISY membership, extend a warm welcome to each of these organizations, companies and institutes.
Highlights: Communications
The DAISY website and monthly newsletter, the DAISY Planet, are two of the DAISY Consortium's primary communications tools.
DAISY Website
The DAISY homepage redesign project began in October; the redesigned homepage went live in early November. Features, organization of information and content continue to be reviewed and evaluated. The total number of visits to the DAISY website in 2008 increased 23% from the 2007 figure and the average time spent on the site increased 8%. The top five areas visited were:
- Home
- Tools
- About Us
- News
- Projects
The DAISY Marketplace continues to serve as a tool which highlights the new and updated tools and services of DAISY Friends and Members, and of the DAISY Consortium.
In September the position of Communication and Marketing Specialist was filled. The incumbent brings marketing and analysis skills which will improve the performance and usage of the website.
Drupal which is an open source, highly configurable, content management framework was selected as the new content management system for the DAISY website. In the latter half of the year a work plan for testing and porting the current site to Drupal was developed. Construction of several areas of the public DAISY website was completed on a Drupal test system as proof of concept for the entire website.
Public forums and a wiki for one of the DAISY development groups were implemented. The staff area which serves as a test site for collaboration on many design and data decisions was introduced in December. Development of the site will continue well into 2009.
The DAISY Planet
Readership of the Consortium's monthly newsletter, the DAISY Planet grew significantly in 2008, with subscriptions increasing 400% between January 2008 when the online subscription form was made available and the end of the year. The link on the homepage to the online subscription form encouraged new subscribers and simplified the subscription process. The DAISY Planet is also distributed to most of the DAISY Consortium lists. Many of those who receive the DAISY Planet forward it to others in their organizations or companies, and to associates who may find the Planet interesting and informative.
Highlights: DAISY For All (DFA)
Year 2008 was the last year of the 5 year DAISY for All Project (DFA).
The primary goal of the DFA Project was the implementation of DAISY in developing countries. DFA activities included:
- DAISY Seminars to raise awareness of the needs of persons with print disabilities and DAISY technology as the best solution.
- National DAISY Focal Points establishment in 14 countries.
- Training trainers for international training each year.
- Open Source tool development supported AMIS 2 and AMIS 3, Obi, Tobi, W3C/SMIL, and the implementation of 20 local languages for AMIS.
Each focal point introduced DAISY technology in information services for readers who are blind or have another print disability. For sustainable development of services at each DAISY Focal Point, an issue-based approach such as education, disaster preparedness, HIV/AIDS and gender issues was promoted by the DFA Project.
The World Summit on the Information Society (the United Nations process for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) and the Internet Governance Forum Society (IGF) were identified as the best public relations opportunity for the dissemination of information about DAISY around the world. DFA recognized this as the best possible approach to tackle global issues with DAISY technology, and in collaboration with the DAISY Consortium and its Members, took responsibility for the WSIS Disability Focal Point.
Outcomes of the DFA Project include:
- DAISY production, services and collections in 14 developing countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam.
- Open Source Tools: AMIS and Obi.
- Human resources: leaders, advocates, trainers and developers.
- International recognition of DAISY in United Nations development context.
The DFA Project was graciously funded by the Nippon Foundation.
Highlights: Events
The DAISY Consortium, its Members, Friends and Supporters attend conferences and events around the globe throughout the year to disseminate information about DAISY and accessible information, to participate in standards developments, and to remain abreast of current and developing technologies.
- ATIA 2008 Conference and Exhibition
January 30 - February 2, Orlando, Florida - Techshare India, 2008
February 4 - 5, New Delhi, India - O'Reilly TOC (Tools of Change for Publishing) Conference
February 11 - 13, New York, New York, USA - Networking, Collaboration and Co-operation - Introducing DAISY and IFLA
February 27 - 28, Zagreb, Croatia - DAISY/IFLA LBS Joint Meeting
February 27, Zagreb, Croatia - CSUN 2008
2008 CSUN Conference
March 10-15, Los Angeles, California, USA - Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities 2008
April 11 - 15, Melbourne, Australia - Z39.86 Advisory Committee Meeting
April 15 - 17, Palo Alto, California, USA - Joint G3ict-ITU Global Forum
April 21, Geneva, Switzerland - W4A International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility
April 21 - 22, Beijing, China - WWW2008: Seventeenth International World Wide Web Conference
April 21 - 25, Beijing, China - DAISY Workshop/Forum in China
April 25 - 26, Beijing, China - DAISY Production Workshop targeting Aids Information
May 5 - 9, Johannesburg, South Africa - Accessibility Conference
June 10, Oslo, Norway - DAISY General Meeting
June 11, Oslo, Norway - AAUP (Association of American University Presses) Annual Meeting and Workshops
June 26 - 29, Montreal, Canada - ICCHP, International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs
July 9 - 11, Linz, Austria - O'REILLY OSCON 2008 Open Source Convention
July 21 - 25, Portland, Oregon, USA - IFLA World Library and Information Congress: 74th IFLA General Conference and Council
August 10 - 14, Québec, Canada - ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008
September 2 - 5, Bangkok, Thailand - International Dyslexia Association 59th Annual Conference
October 29 - November 1, Seattle, Washington USA - Adaptive Content Processing Conference 2008 (ACP '08)
November 6 - 7, Amsterdam, Netherlands - Accessing Higher Ground: 2008
November 11 - 14, Boulder, Colorado, USA - Internet Governance Forum
December 3 - 6, Hyderabad, India
Details and information about many of these DAISY and DAISY-related conferences and events held in 2008 are provided in the Calendar of Events on the DAISY Web site.
DAISY Board Meetings in 2008
The Board of Directors of the DAISY Consortium establishes the policies which determine the direction of the Consortium's policies and developments. It is responsible for establishing future directions, priorities and strategies. In 2008 the meetings of the Board of Directors were held in:
- Zagreb, Croatia, February 25 - 26
- Oslo, Norway, June 8 - 9
- Amsterdam, the Netherlands, November 4 - 5
Global Collaboration
The DAISY Consortium is affiliated with and collaborates with numerous international organizations, including:
- IFLA/LBS (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Libraries for the Blind Section)
- WBU (World Blind Union)
- W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
- WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative)
- IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum)
- WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society)
- EUAIN (European Accessible Information Network)
Ongoing collaboration with these and other international organizations unifies and solidifies worldwide efforts to improve access to information for everyone, everywhere.
Financial Review for 2008
Introduction & Summary of Finances as at December 31, 2008
For the first time, the Financial Report for the DAISY Consortium General Meeting is being incorporated into the Annual Report. In addition to the present descriptive summary, it comprises the balance sheet, details of Operating Income and Expense and the auditor's report by the statutory auditors.
The year under review, 2008, closed USD 113K up on the budget and ended with a small negative balance of USD 6K. This reduced the DAISY Consortium's capital as at January 1, 2009 to USD 615K.
As the DAISY Consortium's success and reputation have grown around the world, so have demands for additional or expanded projects and activities. The Consortium's income however has not grown correspondingly during the same period.
To ensure the continuity of DAISY Consortium and its sustainability, the Board of Directors has therefore decided to depart from the previous practice of budgeting for one or two years and adopt a longer planning period, both in respect of technical development and in relation to fundraising, marketing and management. Appropriate measures have been introduced.
This change requires investment as a first step. It is because of this newly adopted approach that a Chief Financial and Development Officer and a Communication and Marketing Specialist have been appointed (in August and September 2008 respectively).
The next two years, 2009 and 2010, may be difficult financially for the DAISY Consortium and many other organizations around the world. The DAISY Consortium will address any possible financial adversity, introducing temporary savings as required.
Independent Auditor's Report
BETSCHON TREUHAND AG
Report of the statutory auditors
to the General Meeting of
DAISY CONSORTIUM
Zürich
As statutory auditors, we have audited the accounting records and the financial statements (balance sheet and income statement) of Daisy Consortium for the year ended December 31st, 2008.
These financial statements are the responsibility of the board of management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit. We confirm that we meet the legal requirements concerning professional qualification and independence.
Our audit was conducted in accordance with auditing standards promulgated by the Swiss profession, which require that an audit be planned and performed to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement. We have examined on a test basis evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. We have also assessed the accounting principles used, significant estimates made and the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, the accounting records and financial statements comply with Swiss law and the company's Articles of Association.
We recommend that the financial statements submitted to you be approved.
Zürich, January 30th, 2009
BETSCHON TREUHAND AG
Hanspeter Gresch
Auditor in Charge
Christian Schmid
Auditor
Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2008
| DAISY Consortium | capital | 2008 | 2007 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BALANCE SHEET as per 31st of December 2008
(USD in thousands) |
|||
| ASSETS | |||
| Liquid Funds | |||
| Banking Accounts | 83 | 388 | |
| Securities | 607 | 798 | |
| 690 | 1,187 | ||
| Debtors | |||
| Full Members | 0 | 0 | |
| Associate Members | 15 | 48 | |
| Accruals for potential unpaid membership fees | -14 | -23 | |
| Friends: Developers | 19 | 23 | |
| Accruals for potential unpaid membership fees | -10 | -15 | |
| Others | 76 | 100 | |
| 86 | 133 | ||
| Transitive Assets | |||
| General Positions | 19 | 38 | |
| Withholding Tax | 4 | 16 | |
| 22 | 53 | ||
| Plant and Equipment | |||
| Plant and Equipment | 3 | 0 | |
| 3 | 0 | ||
| TOTAL ASSETS | 803 | 1,373 | |
| LIABILITIES | |||
| Credits and Transitive Liabilities | |||
| Credits | 85 | 1 | |
| DAISY for All (reserve account) | 94 | 697 | |
| Transitive Liabilities | 6 | 21 | |
| Membership Fees (already paid for future years) | 2 | 32 | |
| 188 | 752 | ||
| Capital | |||
| Capital at the Beginning of the Year | 621 | 576 | |
| Gain / Loss for the Year | -6 | 45 | |
| Capital at the End of the Year | 615 | 621 | |
| TOTAL LIABILITIES | 803 | 1,373 | |
Operating Income and Expense as of December 31, 2008
| DAISY Consortium | ||
| OPERATING INCOME AND EXPENSE as per 31 December 2008 (USD in thousands) |
2008 | 2007 |
|---|---|---|
| INCOME | ||
| Membership Fees | 538 | 510 |
| Full Members | 389 | 368 |
| Associate Members | 100 | 89 |
| Friends: Developers | 49 | 52 |
| Friends: Publishers, Educators, Advocates | 0 | |
| Friends: Individual Supporters | 1 | 1 |
| Fundraising | 553 | 255 |
| General Fundraising | 6 | 0 |
| Project Based Fundraising | 548 | 255 |
| DAISY for ALL | 687 | 602 |
| Other Income | 16 | 31 |
| Capital | 15 | 27 |
| TOTAL INCOME | 1,809 | 1,424 |
| EXPENSE | ||
| Travelling and Accommodation Board Meetings | 31 | 25 |
| Administrative Costs | 25 | 20 |
| Organizational Structure and Administration | 156 | 83 |
| Members and Friends Maintenance | 1 | 4 |
| General Management of the DC | 37 | 5 |
| Board Meetings (incl. prep. and post-processing) | 23 | 15 |
| Internal Manpower | 94 | 58 |
| Other Costs | 38 | 19 |
| Membership Fees | 19 | 17 |
| Various Costs | 0 | 0 |
| Hardware and Software | 1 | 1 |
| Loss in membership fees | 8 | 0 |
| Funding for Conference/Seminar in Croatia | 10 | 0 |
| Total Before Projects | 250 | 147 |
| Excluding Staff Costs | 156 | 89 |
| PROJECTS | ||
| Technical Development | 542 | 398 |
| Direct Costs | 97 | 90 |
| Internal Manpower | 445 | 308 |
| Communication, Marketing | 331 | 225 |
| Direct Costs | 72 | 59 |
| Internal Manpower | 259 | 166 |
| Not in Work Plan / Unallocated | 6 | 7 |
| Total Projects | 878 | 630 |
| DAISY for All | 687 | 602 |
| Expenses | 593 | 491 |
| Allocated to the Reserve Account | 94 | 110 |
| Capital | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL EXPENSE | 1,815 | 1,379 |
| TOTAL INCOME | 1,809 | 1,424 |
| BALANCE | -6 | 45 |
| CAPITAL AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR | 621 | 576 |
| CAPITAL AT THE END OF THE YEAR | 615 | 621 |
DAISY Consortium Board of Directors
On behalf of the DAISY Consortium, its Members, Friends and Supporters, and all those who recognize the need for accessible information around the world, we thank each of the individuals who together are the DAISY Board of Directors. The work they have done and continue to do, directs and supports the Consortium in fulfilling its Vision and Mission. Their energy, leadership, and vision of a future where accessible information is available to everyone everywhere are crucial.
The 2008 DAISY Consortium Board of Directors
 Hiroshi Kawamura (President)
Japanese DAISY Consortium, JDC |
||
 Arne Kyrkjebø (Treasurer)
Norwegian DAISY Consortium |
 John Churchill
Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, RFB&D |
Elke Dittmer
Media Association for Blind and Vision Impaired
People, MediBuS |
 Trish Egan
Vision Australia
|
 Kjell Hansson
Swedish DAISY Consortium |
 Neil Jarvis
Australia New Zealand Accessible Information Group, ANZAIG
|
 Stephen King
Royal National Institute of Blind People, RNIB
|
 Markku Leino
Finnish DAISY Consortium/Celia Library
|
 Francisco Martínez Calvo
Spanish National Organisation of the Blind, ONCE |
 Margaret McGrory
Canadian DAISY Consortium/CNIB
|
 Stephen Prine
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
|
Maarten Verboom
Dedicon - Accessible information for People with a Print Impairment |
 Michael Wright
Danish National Library for the Blind, DBB
|
 Keun Hae Youk
Korean Braille Library, KBL
|
 Heinz Zysset
Swiss DAISY Consortium/Swiss Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired
|
Editor: Lynn Leith