Candidate Statement - Bill McCoy

Dear Members of Readium Foundation,

I am standing as a candidate for our Board of Directors as the representative of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).

I was one of the instigators in creating Readium Foundation and have been honored to serve as its initial administrator. I strongly believe that the Readium Foundation has an important role to play as an independent open source consortium developing commercial-quality implementations of key digital publishing technologies. We have much work still to do to deliver on the projects the Foundation has already undertaken, and there are a number of additional potential projects that could make sense to pursue. I believe that participating as a Board member will help me continue to contribute to Readium Foundation’s growth and development while promoting a broader community of leadership for the Foundation.

I’m personally and professionally committed to establishing EPUB as the open standard format for digital publications based on Web technologies. I want to see EPUB be globally relevant and accessible to all. But I’m also pragmatic about the business realities we all face, and as a Board member I would endeavor to represent the interests of all members rather than promoting a particular agenda. Having been a founder and CEO of a venture-capital-backed firm I’m sensitive to the needs of startups. As a former general manager at Adobe, I’m also sensitive to the realities of bigger companies. I have in the past served on several for-profit and non-profit Boards of Directors, including IDPF’s Board.

I believe the primary role of an open source consortium board should be to facilitate the development of infrastructure and culture that fosters relevant projects that gather critical mass of contributors, without attempting to dictate details that are best left up to the technical meritocracy. If elected, I will do my utmost within that context to promote the overall goals of the Foundation as well to advance the collective interests of the Foundation’s membership.

Biography

Bill McCoy serves as Executive Director of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), the trade and standards group responsible for the EPUB standard interchange and delivery format for eBooks and other digital publications. Bill has been involved in publishing technology for over 25 years, and has contributed to the establishment of numerous industry-standard platforms including PostScript, PDF, and OpenType as well as EPUB.

Prior to joining IDPF, Bill was General Manager, Digital Publishing at Adobe Systems. Previously he was Founder and CEO of PictureIQ Corporation (acquired by Eastman Kodak in 2003). Bill has a degree in Computer Science from University of California, Berkeley and began his career at Xerox Corporation in Palo Alto, CA before his first stint at Adobe (from 1986 to 1998). He has pursued postgraduate studies in Computer Science at Stanford University and in Business at Santa Clara University.