Candidate Statement - Pierre Danet

Readium is a great industry initiative.

The breadth and depth of work done by volunteers under the Readium banner is nothing short of amazing. Team dedication to facilitating shared solutions among industry partners is a testament to the power of what can happen when people of good intentions, even when they’re competitors, come together to progress on the technology side.

Under my leadership, Hachette Livre has been supporting Readium web at its beginning in March 2012.

Our technical efforts started in Readium Web at its early beginning, with one Hachette developper, Vincent Gros, as the unique contributor of the French version. We do want to continue these efforts.

Epub 3 and Open Web Platform remain a priority project for Hachette teams.

Hachette and its engineers have been thoroughly involved in Epub 3 specifications, FXL and AHL standardization, Samples Project Production and other Working Groups.

With W3C membership, Hachette has taken a new step up in standards : challenging the Open Web Platform to cope with publishing needs. Hachette technology teams have joined their forces in the tasks forces of the DIGIPUG Interest Group with, for example, Dave Cramer, leading the key typesetting pagination task force.

Readium needs a strong technology governance.

Readium needs for Publisher views represented on the Board. The majority of members is certainly on the vendors side. But Readium deserves other perspectives to decide any next steps. I can represent this Publisher sensitivity inside Readium Governance.

Readium needs secured governance. Open collaborative projects may face technical and legal risks. I commit myself to pay deep attention to technology and legal choices. The architecture coherence between all choices and trends must also be ensured in this fast evolving digital shift.

Readium needs more financial means to finish Y2014 and go on next years. While there may be concerns about having more members coming in and diluting governance, I‘m for separating membership in Readium Foundation from commercial rights to Readium SDK and any other technologies. We could therefore collect more money to improve and deliver high quality technologies.

Biography Pierre Danet

Pierre Danet is the Digital Technology Officer at Hachette Livre, the publishing arm of Lagardere, reporting to global CEO, Arnaud Nourry.

Pierre oversees innovation, standards support and web initiatives, globally.

Previously, Pierre was former COO and CIO at Hachette divisions and other Lagardère Group Business Units, with responsibility across Europe. In Spain, he was Operations Managing Director of « Editorial Bruno » in 2001 / 2003.

Pierre is IDPF Board member and W3C Account Representative.

Pierre is also Vice President of Paris « Cap Digital ». Cap Digital is the French Business cluster for digital content and services in Ile de France region.

Hachette Livre, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère SCA, is the world’s third largest trade book publisher with sales of € 2,038 million. It is # 1 in France, # 1 in the UK, #2 in Spain and # 5 in the USA. It publishes 15,000 new titles a year under more than one hundred different imprints in a dozen languages, but mainly in French, English and Spanish. It covers all segments of trade publishing : General fiction and non-fiction, mass market pocket books, books for young readers, illustrated books, travel guides, school books, as well as partworks. Its headquarters are in Paris, France.