DAISY Consortium 2010 Annual Report

George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium

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.

§ Moving DAISY into the Mainstream

In 2010 the Consortium was focused on moving DAISY into the mainstream. George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium, was elected as president of the IDPF at the close of 2009, with the responsibilities of the position beginning in 2010.

The EPUB 3 Working Group Charter was approved by the IDPF Board of Directors in May; Markus Gylling, Chief Technology Officer for the DAISY Consortium was appointed as the Chair of that Working Group. The involvement of the DAISY Consortium in the revision of the EPUB standard, the development of the Charter, and the inclusion of accessibility requirements in the EPUB 3 standard were critical steps toward moving DAISY into the mainstream. Both the DAISY and EPUB standards are undergoing revision and both are open, non-proprietary standards, but EPUB is a mainstream, commercial standard.

All of the major features targeted for the distribution portion of the DAISY 4 Standard will be incorporated into EPUB 3 which will be a blend of what DAISY has done and what the commercial market is looking for. The authoring portion of DAISY 4 will remain the standard for accessible content source file authoring, content preservation, and archiving. The relationship between DAISY 4 authored XML content and its structure will be preserved in distributed EPUB 3 content. Rather than duplicate the efforts of the IDPF Working Group the Consortium is expected to endorse accessible EPUB 3 for distribution of DAISY 4 authored content. It is fully in line with the DAISY Consortium's Vision, Mission and Goals to use existing standards wherever possible.

With the understanding that all of the features the DAISY community requires will be incorporated, the decision by the DAISY Board of Directors in late October to endorse EPUB 3 as the distribution standard for DAISY 4 content was a landmark decision. The DAISY Consortium's collaboration with the IDPF in the revision of the EPUB standard forges the way for DAISY moving into the mainstream and for bringing navigable, feature-rich, accessible content to everyone, everywhere.

§ Collaboration for Equitable Information Access

Efforts to bring about worldwide equal access to information intensified in 2010. The DAISY Consortium, its membership and others who understand the need for and importance of accessible information have worked together to achieve this goal. There are many issues involved – one of the primary issues being an international copyright exception that would enable the cross-border exchange of accessible publications.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

Meetings of and consultations arranged by the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) were held:

• WIPO held open-ended consultations addressing the issue of Copyright Limitations and Exceptions for Persons with Print Disabilities in Geneva, Switzerland, May 26 - 28. Prior to these meetings, WIPO established an On-line Forum - Towards International Consensus seeking input on the issue of access to copyrighted works.

• On May 26 the fourth meeting of the Stakeholders' Platform was held in Geneva. The focus of this meeting was to review the work done by the two Platform subgroups: the Trusted Intermediaries' (TI) subgroup and the Technology Subgroup. Members of the Platform include representatives of:

• DAISY Consortium
• World Blind Union (WBU)
• International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
• Global Right to Read Campaign
• International Publishers Association (IPA)
• Inclusive Planet
• International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO)
• Publishers Licensing Society (PLS)

George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium, is the representative for DAISY on the Stakeholders' Platform.

• In the weeks that followed, a merger of the Global Accessible Library (GAL), a joint project of the DAISY Consortium and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities Section (IFLA/LPD), and the WIPO Trusted Intermediaries (TI) Pilot Project was approved by the Board of Directors of the DAISY Consortium, IFLA/LPD and the WIPO Stakeholders' Platform.

• The WIPO SCCR/20 meeting (20th meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization, Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights) was held in Geneva, Switzerland, June 21 - 24. No agreement was reached.

• On October 23, 2010 in New Delhi, India, at the 5th meeting of WIPO's Stakeholders' Platform an initiative to facilitate access to published works by the visually impaired and other print disabled persons was announced. The Platform approved the November 1st launch of TIGAR (Trusted Intermediary Global Accessible Resources Project) which will enable publishers to make their titles available to trusted intermediaries:

"Through a range of library services and publisher offerings, TIGAR promises to ensure that persons with print disabilities - both in developing or the developed countries - have equal access to published works as persons without print disabilities. TIGAR will allow the print and visually disabled to search for content across distributed networks which enable them to access published works in accessible formats." WIPO press release, October 23, 2010.

• The 21st session of WIPO/SCCR took place November 8 - 12 in Geneva. "Limitations and Exceptions" were the final topic on the agenda. Consensus was reached on a work program and timetable for moving forward.

In the WIPO/SCCR 21 meeting summary Member States Continue Discussions on Key Copyright Issues it states that "All of these proposals aim at creating an enabling legal environment for better access to copyright-protected works for reading impaired persons. The SCCR will submit recommendations to the 2011 WIPO General Assembly on exceptions and limitations for persons with print disabilities and other reading disabilities."

Declarations Reflect Mutual Commitment & Collaboration

Three important declarations which reflect a mutual commitment to collaboration and to equitable information access for everyone, everywhere, were signed in 2010. These declarations welcome and support clearly outlined ways to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in relation to access to information:

• The Leipzig Declaration was endorsed by the European Blind Union (EBU) and the DAISY Consortium.
• The Melbourne Declaration was signed and issued by the World Blind Union (WBU) and the DAISY Consortium on November 13.
• The London Declaration was issued by the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) and the DAISY Consortium on December 4.

The content of each of the declarations is almost identical. They are comprised of a series of points which provide a framework for bringing accessible information to the millions of people worldwide who have a visual or other print disability. The approaches presented include:

• integration of the DAISY Standard with mainstream publishing systems
• accessible commercial publishing
• adoption of a single electronic source file by publishers
• development of the DAISY Standards to support the easy production of electronic and hard-copy braille
• international cross-border exchange of accessible information
• related capacity building in developing countries for the production and distribution of accessible books using the DAISY Standards

Collaboration within the DAISY Community

Some of the collaborative efforts among organizations and companies that make up the DAISY Consortium were:

• Dedicon offered its expertise and conversion production capacity to DAISY Members and affiliated organizations.
• The Bibliothèque Hélène digital collection of 5,000+ XML DTBook text-only DAISY format titles are protected using the DAISY PDTB2 specification and can be read on the HumanWare Victor Reader Stream. This joint effort "illustrates wonderfully the power of DAISY standards to foster this type of cooperation." [Dominique Burger, of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, and President of BrailleNet]
• A team from the Madrassa An-Noor for the Blind (located in South Africa) visited the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt for four days to learn about DAISY and DAISY production. Bibliotheca Alexandrina is producing DAISY books in Arabic and the Madrassa An-Noor for the Blind goal is to produce content in both English and Arabic.
• Benetech, the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at WGBH and the U.S. Fund for DAISY were awarded $5 million by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to create the DIAGRAM Research & Development Center to develop tools and best practices to improve the processes and availability of accessible images.
• The DAISY Consortium, the Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities (JSRPD) and Microsoft Co., Ltd. partnered on ebook accessibility, resulting in the development of the Japanese language version of Save As DAISY, the Microsoft Word add-in.
• Bookshare International made thousands of accessible books (DAISY and electronic braille – BRF) available for download to its international members (individuals and organizations). Bookshare continues to work with publishers and authors to increase the number of books it makes available globally.
• Through a collaboration with Bookshare, O'Reilly Media added DAISY formatted books to its ebook bundles which already included DRM-free EPUB books.
• gh, LLC, in partnership with Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) developed RFB&D ReadHear, a dual-platform (Mac and Windows) DAISY reading software system which is made available to RFB&D individual and institutional members.

Collaboration and partnerships between and among the Members and Friends of the DAISY Consortium continue to improve information access for people who have a visual or other print disability, and illustrate the community's ongoing commitment to accessible reading materials across borders and around the world.

Global Affiliations

In addition to the collaborative work done by the DAISY Consortium with its membership, the Consortium is affiliated with numerous international organizations, including, in alphabetical order:

• EBU (European Blind Union)
• EDItEUR
• EUAIN (European Accessible Information Network)
• ICEVI (International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment)
• IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum)
• IFLA/LPD (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities Section)
• IFRRO (International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations)
• Inclusive Planet
• IPA (International Publishers Association)
• ITU (International Telecommunication Union)
• NISO (National Information Standards Organization)
• PLS (Publishers Licensing Society)
• UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
• W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
• WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative)
• WBU (World Blind Union)
• WHO (World Health Organization)
• WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization)
• WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society)

Continued collaboration within the DAISY community and with these and other international organizations unifies and solidifies worldwide efforts to bring accessible information to everyone, everywhere.

§ Awards

Each year the awards presented and recognition given to the DAISY membership reinforce the importance of their contribution to the worldwide movement to bring about equitable information access.

Ulverscroft and the IFLA/LPD Best Practice Awards

Yasmine Youssef, Librarian at the Taha Hussein Library for the Blind and Print Disabled, Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, and, Kathy Teague and Wendy Taylor, Librarians with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) National Library Service in the UK, received the Ulverscroft and IFLA/LPD Best Practice Awards. Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Library of Alexandria) is an Associate Member of the DAISY Consortium. RNIB is a DAISY Full Member of long standing.

2010 BETT Award

Synscenter Refsnæs and their partner The Royal National College for the Blind (RNBC) were awarded the prestigious annual the British Teachers Association BETT Award for RoboBraille, an email-based service which provides reading materials to students who have a vision or reading disability. The Bett Award is given in recognition of excellence in educational ICT. The RoboBraille DAISY service also supports production of structured audio books based on the DAISY Standard. Synscenter Refsnæs is an Associate Member of the DAISY Consortium.

Bangladeshi National e-Content and ICT for Development Award

Young Power in Social Action (YPSA) received the 2010 Bangladeshi National e-Content & ICT for Development Award for DAISY For All in Bangladesh. The YPSA ICT and Resource Centre on Disabilities (IRCD) was awarded the top prize in the e-Inclusion and Participation category. Young People in Social Action is an Associate Member of the DAISY Consortium.

IBN7 Bajaj Allianz Super Idols Awards

Dipendra Manocha, Developing Countries Coordinator for the DAISY Consortium, and President of DAISY Forum of India received one of two of the IBN7 Bajaj Allianz Super Idols Awards in the National Service & Rehabilitation category. These awards honour achievers with "special abilities who have soared beyond physical challenges and conventional barriers to realize their chosen dreams". DAISY Forum of India is an Associate Member of the DAISY Consortium.

Manthan Award South Asia

Young People in Social Action (YPSA) DAISY for All in Bangladesh received special mention in the e-inclusion category of the Manthan Award South Asia. In addition, YPSA won the Manthan Award in the e-environment category award for their Ship breaking portal.

§ Standards

DAISY Online Delivery Specification

In February the Final Draft Specification of the DAISY Online Delivery protocol entered the public review phase. The Specification was unanimously approved by the DAISY Consortium Board of Directors in May. Tested sample implementations were in place for the formal approval of the Specification by the Board ensuring that the Specification was ready for use.

Kenny Johar of Vision Australia, and Markus Gylling, DAISY Consortium Chief Technology Officer, co-chaired the Working Group which was made up of DAISY Members and Friends. Working Group members in good standing at the time of the publication of the final draft as well as those who contributed throughout the development process are listed in the Specification Acknowledgements.

DAISY 4: Revision of the DAISY Standard

Development of the DAISY Standard, officially ANSI/NISO Z39.86 Specifications for the Digital Talking Book, progressed well in 2010, with the release of two working drafts of the DAISY Authoring and Interchange Framework (DAISY AI). In order to address issues identified in the DAISY 3 Standard, it was determined that the revised Standard would be developed as two distinct specifications, one for content creation the DAISY Authoring and Interchange Framework, and the other for content distribution, DAISY Distribution. DAISY 3, the current DAISY Standard is a combined distribution and authoring format.

The first major public draft of DAISY AI (Authoring and Interchange) was made available for review in May. DAISY AI, also known as ZedAI, is a specification that defines the next generation of DAISY XML.

In October Version 0.7 of DAISY AI – the second Working Draft of the Authoring and Interchange Framework Specification – and new documentation were made available. The release of a third Working Draft is planned for early 2011, and the DAISY AI Draft Specification for Test Use is expected early in the second quarter of 2011.

EPUB 3: Revision of the EPUB Standard, & DAISY

Development of EPUB 3 by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) has been concurrent with the revision of the DAISY Standard. All of the major features targeted for the new DAISY Standard have been adopted by EPUB and will be incorporated into the EPUB 3 standard.

EPUB 3 is a distribution format, one that will provide all of the major features identified for the distribution portion of DAISY 4. Rather than duplicate what already is "DAISY", the Consortium will endorse accessible EPUB 3 for distribution. The DAISY Consortium has therefore put the development of the distribution portion of the revised DAISY Standard 'on hold'.

George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium is also Chair of the EPUB Standards Maintenance Working Group. The DAISY Consortium has provided leadership and resources to the revision of the EPUB standard illustrating the Consortium's commitment to standards harmonization and the alignment of the EPUB and DAISY Standards. Markus Gylling, DAISY Consortium CTO, has the lead role in the development of both the DAISY 4 and EPUB 3 standards. Accessibility of the distributed content (including navigability and enriched reading experience for the end user) is paramount for this DAISY Standard as it has been throughout its evolution.

The first Public Draft of EPUB 3 is scheduled for the first quarter of 2011 with completion planned for May. One of the primary goals of the revision of the EPUB standard is that it will be broadly adopted as the global standard for publishing. (Additional information about these key issues is available in the articles DAISY = Accessibility, Will EPUB 3 = Accessibility? PART 1 and DAISY 4/EPUB 3: What Does It All Mean? PART 2.)

MathML 3.0

The MathML 3.0 Specification was published as a W3C Recommendation in October. MathML is a markup language developed by the W3C specifically for mathematical and scientific content.

George Kerscher, President of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), and Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium stated in the W3C Press Release:

"We've incorporated MathML vocabulary into the DAISY Standard...With MathML 3 support for elementary math notation, materials used to teach math in elementary schools can now be made accessible. This will make production of math faster, cheaper, and better for those with print disabilities." (W3C Press Release)

MathML will be incorporated into DAISY 4, the revised DAISY Standard.

§ Projects

Projects of the DAISY Consortium and the projects in which it is involved focus on open standards, open source tool development, and equal access to published works in accessible formats by people who have a visual or print disability in both developing or the developed countries.

There is an alignment between many of these projects, the maintenance and/or revision of the DAISY Standard, and the Consortium's involvement with the revision of the EPUB standard. The open source authoring tools being developed by the Consortium will be made available following the release of the revised standards to enable rapid adoption of those standards by both the DAISY community and mainstream publishers. Both the revised DAISY Standard (DAISY 4) and the new EPUB standard will be supported.

DAISY Members, Friends and stakeholders around the world support the Consortium's projects through both financial contributions and commitment of human resources. This support facilitates the Consortium's development and maintenance of the DAISY Standard and the creation of the tools necessary to support that Standard.

DAISY Online Delivery Project

The DAISY Online Delivery protocol is a web service API (application programming interface) that facilitates the delivery of digital resources from service providers to end users. It features a core set of operations that can be configured to enable a variety of download models. It is a flexible, lightweight solution that addresses the growing need for online delivery of DAISY formatted and other published content.

On February 18, 2010 the Call for Public Review of the final draft of the specification was published. Following the comment period, the Working Group made the following recommendation: "The DAISY Online Working Group unanimously recommends that the DAISY Online Technical Specification be endorsed as a Technical Recommendation of the DAISY Consortium by the DAISY Board."

The DAISY Board of Directors unanimously approved and endorsed the Online Delivery specification on May 29, extending thanks to the working group members for their contribution and hard work. The DAISY Online Working Group is an excellent example of the positive results of collaboration among DAISY Members and Friends.

DAISY Pipeline 2

The DAISY Pipeline 2 project is developing a next generation, open-source, cross-platform framework for automated production of accessible materials for people with print disabilities. This transformation tool is a follow-up and complete redesign of the original DAISY Pipeline, however some of the functionality in Pipeline 1 will be incorporated into Pipeline 2. This next generation framework will better leverage new standards and technologies. As outlined in the DAISY Pipeline 2 Project Charter it is a two phase, three year project, which began May 2010 and with completion planned for September 2013.

Both DAISY Pipeline 1 and Pipeline 2 will co-exist for a period of time, in part because of the large number of external contributions to Pipeline 1 which is in use around the world and has been incorporated into numerous tools by developers. Maintenance releases which fix known bugs and integrate any third party contributions will however be published. In January Maintenance Release V20100125 of the DAISY Pipeline (1) was made available. The DAISY Pipeline 1 is in maintenance mode and is no longer actively developed by the DAISY Consortium.

High Level Objectives: Pipeline 2

One of the primary objectives of the DAISY Pipeline 2 project is to provide early support for the DAISY 4 and EPUB 3 standards. The DAISY Pipeline 2 will play a major role in supporting the requirements of the joint DAISY Consortium/EDItEUR "Enabling Technologies Framework" WIPO project as one part of the new Pipeline will support the requirements of commercial publishers and conversion houses.

Other high level objectives of the Pipeline 2 project are to:

• Minimize the development and maintenance cost
• Lower the framework learning curve
• Increase the interoperability with the heterogeneous automated production workflows

The Pipeline 2 is a collaborative project hosted by the DAISY Consortium, with numerous organizations such as Dedicon, NIMAS/CAST, NLB, RNIB and SBS participating and contributing to the development process.

Obi

Obi is the DAISY Consortium's structured audio DAISY book production tool. It is an open source development project. The software is released under LGPL license, is available at no cost, and the source code may be run, modified and/or redistributed. Obi, which is designed to be both accessible and easy to use, can create DAISY 3 (ANSI/NISO Z39.86) and DAISY 2.02 DAISY Digital Talking Books.

In October Obi 1.2, Release Candidate 2 was made available. This release addressed usability issues and bugs that had been reported. RC 2 rectified issues with handling large projects which had been problematic for content creators when importing and authoring large projects. GUI (user interface) performance issues were also largely resolved.

Input from the community of Obi testers provided the feedback needed by the Obi development team to move to the release of Obi 1.2 in November, bringing increased performance and capabilities to the DAISY authoring tool.

Tobi

The first public beta release of Tobi, the DAISY Consortium's open source, full-text/full-audio authoring tool was made available in March. This beta, Version 0.2.4.1, was followed at the end of April with RC1 (the first release candidate). A basic documentation primer to help new users get started was also made available with RC1.

The Tobi development team moved quickly from RC1 to the release of Version 1.0 at the end of May. This multimedia production tool produces original DAISY 3 content with support for rich document markup. Tobi can also be used to import an existing DAISY book for further production. Content authoring with human voice narration is supported.

The software is distributed under a business-friendly license and is available at no cost. The Tobi project is a collaborative effort lead by the DAISY Consortium with participation from its membership.

Merged Obi/Tobi Project

In October the DAISY Consortium Board of Directors approved the joint development of the Tobi and Obi projects and the three-part strategy upon which the project amalgamation is based. Both DAISY authoring tools are open source and share a common framework, the Urakawa SDK (Software Development Kit). Although the projects are merged into a single project the characteristics that define Obi and Tobi as distinct applications, each with its own dedicated user communities, will be preserved.

Three-Part Strategy

1. Reduce software maintenance costs through harmonization of the source code at the core of the software architecture (Obi will be upgraded to Urakawa SDK 2.0).
2. Develop support for evolving, next-generation, multimedia publication standards, including DAISY 4 and EPUB 3, providing potential for native accessibility in mainstream multimedia electronic publications, and for these tools to serve a broader audience while continuing to support the efforts of the DAISY membership.
3. Feature-set improvement – one of the high priority feature requests for the joint project development is to implement an authoring workflow for accessible graphical content as part of the DIAGRAM project.

The Obi/Tobi Project Charter which was approved by the DAISY Board is available on the DAISY website.

AMIS

AMIS 3 (Adaptive Multimedia Information System) is the open source DAISY reading system (player) software developed by the DAISY Consortium with contributions and support from the DAISY membership and community. It supports both DAISY 2.02 and DAISY 3 content and is available at no cost.

Version 3.1 was released in December 2009 and during 2010 translations for numerous additional languages were completed, with language packs for Swedish, Japanese, Latin American Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, Vietnamese and Serbian added to the list. AMIS supports fifteen languages in addition to American English; all are available on the DAISY website for download. The volunteer translations for AMIS which are done by members of the DAISY community illustrate the level of commitment within the DAISY Consortium, its Members, Friends and Supporters.

Enabling Technology Framework Project

The project, run under the auspices of and endorsed by the WIPO Stakeholders' Platform, and funded by WIPO, began in the first quarter of 2010.

In December 2009 the WIPO Stakeholders' Platform Technology Subgroup proposed the Enabling Tech Framework Project to the WIPO/SCCR19 meeting. In the Second Interim Report of the Stakeholders' Platform it stated:

"The technology subgroup presented a proposal for an enabling technologies framework. This proposal consists of a three-year project to be jointly run by two international standards bodies, namely the DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) Consortium and EDItEUR."

The general objective of the project is to evolve mainstream publishing processes to enable the production of fully accessible digital content. The focus of the work is to "develop best practice guidelines for publishers to follow in their production process and where appropriate to integrate existing standards (e.g., ONIX, EPUB and DAISY) into mainstream publishing in ways that enhance these best practices…The Platform recognized the positive momentum building and progress being made by both DAISY and EDItEUR in order to get closer to mainstream accessible publishing." (Source: Fourth Interim Report of the Stakeholders' Platform)

TIGAR Project (Trusted Intermediary Global Accessible Resources)

In October the WIPO Trusted Intermediaries (TI subgroup) presented an interim report regarding its work on the cross-border exchange of digital content and the rights between TIs in various countries. The report was presented to the WIPO Stakeholders' Platform, with the Platform approving a November 1st, 2010 launch of TIGAR.

This pilot project which will span three years (November 2010 until the end of 2013) is designed to facilitate access to published works by people who have a visual or other print disability. It will enable publishers to make their titles available to trusted intermediaries who will create accessible formats and share them amongst each other and with specialized libraries.

In part TIGAR is a result of a merger of the original TI project and the Global Accessible Library (GAL) project. The GAL initiative was a collaborative effort of the DAISY Consortium and members of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities Section – IFLA/LPD to establish an accessible global digital library. WIPO committed to placing one of its staff members to the position of project manager for TIGAR.

§ Membership

DAISY Members, Friends and Supporters play a vital role in the work of the Consortium and its continued efforts to develop standards and advocate for accessible information for all. The DAISY Consortium is made up of non-profit organizations, companies and individuals around the world who share the same belief, that "access to information is a fundamental human right" (George Kerscher, 2002). However it is their ongoing commitment to that belief, and their willingness to contribute and collaborate that enables the Consortium to ensure that the DAISY Standards remain relevant and meet current and future needs. Through ongoing international collaboration with governments, related NGO's, commercial publishers and others, the DAISY Consortium and its membership will continue to move DAISY into the mainstream and endeavour to ensure that accessible information is available to everyone, everywhere.

New Members, Friends and Supporters of DAISY

In line with the reporting period for new Members and Friends adopted in the 2009 Annual Report, the organizations, companies and individuals identified here joined the DAISY Consortium between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010.

New Full Members

One representative from each of the Full Members of the DAISY Consortium sits on the DAISY Board of Directors. It is this Board that determines the future direction of the Consortium, and it is the organizations represented on the Board which provide the greatest financial commitment to the ongoing work of the DAISY Consortium. Welcome to all four of the 2010 new Full Members:

• Benetech (Bookshare) – Benetech, a long time Associate Member, became a Full Member in 2010
• Korean DAISY Consortium – The Korean DAISY Consortium was formed in 2010; prior to this the Korean Braille Library (one of the members of the new Korean DAISY Consortium) was a Full Member
• National Federation of the Blind (NFB) – NFB which is located in the USA is a new Member of the DAISY Consortium, and as such is warmly welcomed into the DAISY community
• Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind (RNZFB) – RNZFB was previously a member of ANZAIG (the Australia, New Zealand DAISY Full Member)

New Associate Members

• Special Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Srpska, Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Tamkang University Resources Center for the Blind, Taiwan
• Norra Österbottens Svenska Synskadade r.f., Finland
• Library for the Blind of Montenegro, Montenegro
• Polish Association of the Blind, Poland
• DAISY Forum of India, India

New Friends and Developers

• Olympus Imaging Corporation, Japan
• Blackstone, Audio, Inc., United States
• IVONA Text To Speech, Poland
• Coral Hub Ltd, India

New Publishers, Educators and Advocates

• Macquarie University Accessibility Services, Australia

New Individual Supporters

• Robert Nagel , United States
• Niels Thøgersen, Denmark
• Daud Abu Saim, Malaysia

The DAISY Consortium welcomes each of these organizations, companies, institutes, and individuals to the DAISY community. Special acknowledgement is extended to Niels Thøgersen who is the Managing Director of xml-tekst, a company which he founded and which has been a DAISY Friend in the Developer category since it was established. Niels has now also joined as an Individual Supporter, reinforcing his ongoing commitment to the work of the DAISY Consortium.

§ Communications & Marketing

The DAISY website is one of the Consortium's primary communications tools. To better meet the needs of the DAISY membership and the DAISY community in general, efforts to improve and enhance the website continued. The DAISY RSS Feed brings every posted news entry to those who have subscribed to the service, and the DAISY You Tube Channel and DAISY Twitter feed which were created in 2009 continue to attract new followers. The DAISY Planet newsletter reaches out via email to those who subscribe to it and to all who are on the DAISY lists, linking readers to the current issue on the website. There are seven DAISY forums which provide a platform for discussion and Q & A on a variety of topics.

During 2009 and 2010 the DAISY Glossary was revised and updated. It was viewed 16,337 times in 2010.

DAISY Website

The Google Analytics report on DAISY website activity indicates that 41,678 pages were viewed a total of 1,004,658 times, an increase of 102% over 2009. There were 229,474 visits from 206 countries (includes countries and territories). This is an increase in visits of 32% over 2009, which is approximately the same as the rate of increase reported for 2009 over 2008.

The top five areas visited were:

1. DAISY Home page
2. Tools & Services area
3. AMIS project page
4. DAISY Standards page
5. DAISY Glossary

Expansion of the Tools/Services area in 2010 resulted in increased traffic to that area, moving it into second position in the list of most frequently visited areas of the DAISY website, and the improvements to the DAISY Glossary moved it up into the top five list.

In early 2009 the DAISY You Tube Channel was launched with five video clips. At the close of 2010 there were 58 videos available for viewing, including Favorite videos created by DAISY Members and Friends. In addition, three presentations were added to DAISY Consortium Slideshare in 2010.

The 2010 CSUN Conference materials were made available for download in HTML and DAISY formats from the DAISY website.

The frequency with which accessibility related websites linked to the DAISY website continued to rise, content was reposted, and the number of Google Alerts linking to the site exceeded 200. Many DAISY Members and Friends include information about and links to the Consortium on their websites, which raises awareness about DAISY and helps to bring new visitors to the DAISY website.

The number of followers on "accessibledaisy", the DAISY Twitter feed increased from 411 at the end of 2009 to 819 at the end of 2010. This more recently introduced communication vehicle reaches new audiences and provides an almost instant method for conveying information.

During 2010 individual website logins were introduced and "account managers" were set up for the DAISY membership. This allows all DAISY Members and Friends to update their individual records on the website and introduces an interactive component not previously available.

The Drupal Content Management System (CMS) platform was launched in December 2009 and work on the conversion and implementation of new features continued well into 2010.

DAISY Planet

The DAISY Planet which is published eleven times a year provides the DAISY community and others involved in fields such as accessibility, publishing, and information access, with comprehensive articles on DAISY and DAISY-related news and events. It is global in scope and provides opportunities for the DAISY membership and others within the community to communicate with people around the world about new developments, activities, events, accomplishments, standards, tools, international collaboration and related issues of interest.

In August the newsletter was redesigned. The columns are wider and the fonts and colour contrast were reviewed and improved to better meet the needs of readers with low vision. In addition a new DAISY Planet logo was created and the DAISY Consortium logo was added. The cleaner, sleeker lines enhance the overall reading experience.

Published each month with the DAISY Planet is a 'story' written by someone who is in some way connected to the DAISY community. The authors may be people who read DAISY books, developers, entrepreneurs, directors of organizations, company executives, or anyone who has been touched in some way by DAISY. All of the published Your Stories are available on the DAISY website.

In 2010 the average number of visits to each issue of the DAISY Planet was 1,300; the total number of visits to the newsletter during the year was over 14,000.

DAISYpedia

DAISYpedia is an information resource designed to assist in and support the implementation of the DAISY Standards worldwide. It is an online how-to guide containing articles and instructions on creating content in DAISY format, and also includes articles about the navigable and accessible DAISY reading experience. This DAISY information center replaces and greatly expands upon the DAISY Knowledge Network. In addition, it has been designed for growth with contributions made by the DAISY community.

The DAISY Training & Support Team, lead by Dipendra Manocha, was instrumental in the development and implementation of DAISYpedia.

The top level categories for DAISYpedia content are:

• Introduction to DAISY: Collection of reference articles and white papers
• Reading the DAISY Way: Descriptions of applications and playback devices, how-to guides
• Publishing the DAISY Way: Learning materials, tutorials and examples of best practices
• Miscellaneous: Accessibility, Digital Publishing, Emerging Technologies Articles on other digital publishing and universal design topics

Open Links Interview

In addition to the many DAISY and DAISY-related presentations given during 2010, an interview with Varju Luceno, the Consortium's Communications Specialist, was published in Open Links, the newsletter from The Open University Disabled Student Services, UK. The interview with Ms. Luceno is on page 11 of Issue 53, Digital Audio Project - Final Report, and the focus of that issue is DAISY and the Open University DAISY Launch:

"Our global reach is very important as the DAISY Consortium is able to build project teams of talented administrators, software architects, and implementers that are representative of the global population served by the DAISY multimedia standard. Collaborative efforts result in accessible standards and systems that reflect the needs of persons with disabilities, while providing the richest reading experience for the whole population." [Varju Luceno]

§Events

During 2010 the DAISY Consortium continued its efforts to introduce more people around the world to the DAISY Standards, projects and developments. The DAISY Consortium, its Members, Friends and Supporters participated in and presented at conferences and events, and provided training for organizations new to DAISY content authoring and distribution.

A detailed list of 2010 events is available in the DAISY website Calendar Archive. Several of the noteworthy events were:

• Techshare India 2010, New Delhi, India, February 15 - 16; presentations were given by DAISY Consortium team members Avneesh Singh, Prashant Verma, and Dipendra Manocha
• Copyright, & Related Rights & Issues: International Training for Developing Countries & Countries in Transition, Washington, DC, March 8 - 12; George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium, presented on three distinct subject areas to policy-makers and experts from 28 countries
• IFLA World Library and Information Congress, Gothenburg, Sweden, August 10 - 15; Library Services to People with Special Needs and Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities joint session: "The right to read? How to include excluded citizens in the knowledge society?" DAISY was a featured topic.
• DAISY Technical Conference: Inclusive Digital Library and Information Systems, New Delhi, India, October 28 - 29; India hosted the first DAISY Technical Conference held in a Developing Country
• 13th Annual Accessing Higher Ground Conference, Westminster, Colorado, USA, November 15 - 19; George Kerscher, DAISY Consortium Secretary General, President of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) and Chair of the Web Accessibility Initiative Steering Council, gave the keynote presentation "eBooks, Standards, Laws, and Implementations"

DAISY Board of Directors: Meetings in 2010

The DAISY Consortium Board of Directors develops and is responsible for the policies which determine the Consortium's priorities, projects and activities. It also prepares strategies and long term plans, providing direction for the DAISY management team.

In 2010 the number of Board meetings held per year was reduced from three to two in order to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. The DAISY Consortium Annual General Meeting is held immediately following the first Board meeting of the year.

However, in 2010 ash from the volcano in Iceland which caused widespread air travel cancellations and delays made it necessary to reschedule the Consortium's Annual General Meeting and first Board meeting of the year. They had been scheduled to take place in Edinburgh in April. It was the first time in the history of the DAISY Consortium that its General Meeting had to be rescheduled. The GM was as a result held in October following the second Board meeting of the year. The first Board meeting was held in May in Europe. The 2010 meetings of the Board of Directors were held as follows:

• DAISY Board Meeting, May 28-29, Zurich, Switzerland
• DAISY Board Meeting, October 25-26, New Delhi, India
• DAISY 2010 General Meeting, October 27, New Delhi, India

§ Financial Review for 2010

Summary of Finances as at 31 December 2010

As in the past two years, a distillation of the 2010 financial report (approved in its comprehensive form by the DAISY Consortium Board of Directors) forms part of the Annual Report and includes the Auditor's Report, the Balance Sheet and the Income Statement.

The 2010 accounting period closed with a surplus of USD 33K, increasing DAISY Consortium's capital as of 31 December 2010 to USD 235K.

This positive result as compared with the previous year which closed with a loss of USD 413K, including the building of accruals amounting to USD 100K, can be attributed on one hand to reductions in staff costs (minus USD 73K) and direct costs largely relating to travelling expenses (minus USD 88K), and, on the other hand, to increased income from membership fees (plus USD 130K).

The fact that 82% of expenditures go directly to the DAISY Consortium's productive activities is a strong indication of the goal-directed work of the Consortium and the efficient use of its resources:

• Standard development, 15%
• Tool development [Pipeline, Obi, Tobi], 29%
• Training, technical support and consultancy, 13%
• Communications and Marketing, 24%

Looking Ahead

With the continuation of stringent cost and budget control, it is forecast that 2011 and 2012 will also close with a small surplus.

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, 2010.

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 27th, 2011

BETSCHON TREUHAND AG
Hanspeter Gresch
Auditor in Charge

Christian Schmid
Auditor

Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2010

DAISY Consortium	capital	2010	2009
BALANCE SHEET as per 31st of December 2010 (USD in thousands)
ASSETS
Liquid Funds
Banking Accounts		370	160
Securities		101	182
		470	342
Debtors
Membership Fees		86	46
Other debtors		43	75
		129	121
Accruals for potential unpaid membership fees
		-46	-33
Transitive Assets
General Positions		15	16
Withholding Tax		0	4
		15	20
Capital Assets
		4	4
TOTAL ASSETS		572	454
LIABILITIES
Credits
Credits		4	20
		4	20
Transitive Liabilities
Transitive Liabilities		243	132
		243	132
Accruals
		91	100
Capital
Capital at the Beginning of the Year		202	615
Gain / Loss for the Year		33	-413
Capital at the End of the Year		235	202
TOTAL LIABILITIES		572	454

Operating Income and Expense as of December 31, 2010

DAISY Consortium
OPERATING INCOME AND EXPENSE as per 31 December 2010 (USD in thousands)	2010	2009
INCOME
Membership Fees	738	608
Full Members	565	474
Associate Members	113	102
Friends: Developers	87	67
Friends: Publishers, Educators, Advocates	6	6
Friends: Individual Supporters	1	1
Accruals for potentially unpaid fees	-35	-42
Additional Income	188	233
Standards	73
Tools	70
Diverse	45
Release of Accruals	100	0
Capital	2	1
TIGAR	79
Received Contributions	174
Transfer to Transitive Liabilities	-95
TOTAL INCOME	1,106	843
EXPENSE
Overhead Costs	172	207
Travelling and Accommodation Board Meetings	40	60
Administrative and Various Costs	51	51
Operational Management (Direct Costs)	13	22
Operational Management (Staff Costs)	68	73
Standards	147	439
Direct Costs	28
Staff Costs	119
Tools	289
Direct Costs	7
Staff Costs	283
Training and Technical Support, Consultancy	132	127
Direct Costs	10	15
Staff Costs	121	112
Communication & Marketing	239	381
Direct Costs	14	73
Staff Costs	225	309
WIPO/Stakeholder Platform	14	0
Direct Costs	14	0
Amortization of Capital Assets	2	2
Accruals	0	100
TIGAR	79	0
Project Management	72
Direct Costs	7
TOTAL EXPENSE	1,073	1,256
BALANCE	33	-413

§ DAISY Consortium Board of Directors

The DAISY Consortium Board of Directors is comprised of one representative from each Full Member organization within the DAISY Consortium. As Full Members, these organizations may appoint one representative to the DAISY Board. In addition to providing leadership for the Consortium, each of these individuals plays a leadership role within his or her own organization.

Four organizations joined the DAISY Consortium as Full Members in 2010. In addition there were several changes in the Board member representation.

In 2010 the four new Full Members and their Board representatives were:

• Betsy Beaumon, representing Benetech (Bookshare) – Benetech joined the Consortium as a Full Member in 2010 and had been a long time Associate Member
• Young Sook Lee, representing the Korean DAISY Consortium – The Korean DAISY Consortium was formed in 2010, prior to this the Korean Braille Library (one of many members of the Korean DAISY Consortium) was a Full Member with Keun Hae Youk as the Board representative
• James Gashel, representing the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) – NFB is a new Member of the DAISY Consortium
• Neil Jarvis, representing the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind (RNZFB) – RNZFB was previously a member of ANZAIG (the Australia, New Zealand DAISY Full Member) and Neil Jarvis had been the Board representative for ANZAIG

The following changes in Board representation were made in 2010:

• Michael Katzmann – new Board representative for the Library of Congress, NLS/BPH
• Pedro Milliet – new Board representative for the DAISY Latino Group
• Julie Rae – new Board representative for Vision Australia

The DAISY Consortium and its Board of Directors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the individuals who stepped down from the Board in 2010 – Trish Egan (Vision Australia), Stephen Prine (Library of Congress, NLS/BPH) and Edgard Pinto Ferreira (DAISY Latino Group)

The DAISY Board of Directors supports the work and collaborative efforts of the DAISY community. They share a common goal – to make equitable information access a reality for everyone, everywhere.

Sincere thanks go to each of these individuals who together make up the DAISY Consortium Board of Directors.

The 2010 DAISY Consortium Board of Directors

Hiroshi Kawamura (President) Japanese DAISY Consortium Arne Kyrkjebø (Treasurer) Norwegian DAISY Consortium
Betsy Beaumon Benetech	Peter Beran Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic	Elke Dittmer Media Association for Blind and Vision Impaired People
James Gashel National Federation of the Blind	Kjell Hansson Swedish DAISY Consortium	Neil Jarvis Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind
Michael Katzmann National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, The Library of Congress	Stephen King Royal National Institute of Blind People	Flavia Kippele Swiss DAISY Consortium
Young Sook Lee Korean DAISY Consortium	Markku Leino Finnish DAISY Consortium	Francisco Martínez Calvo Spanish National Organisation of the Blind
Margaret McGrory Canadian DAISY Consortium	Edgard Pinto Ferreira DAISY Latino Group	Julie Rae Vision Australia
Maarten Verboom Dedicon Michael Wright Danish National Library for the Blind