Candidate Statement - Cristina Mussinelli

Dear fellow Readium Foundation members,

I am kindly asking you to support my nomination for election in the Readium Foundation Board of Directors.

I am running as representative for the Italian Publishers Association [1], where I am in charge of technological innovation and digital publishing area. I am also Secretary general of the LIA Foundation (Italian Accessible Books), a not-for-profit organisation set up by AIE to support Italian publishers in delivering accessible versions of e-books in EPUB format in the mainstream distribution channels. I am also member of the IDPF board.

If elected I will operate to support the achievement of the key priorities of Readium Foundation in particular in developing and promoting commercial-grade open source components to advance digital publishing for EPUB and the Open Web Platform. More in details, I will create awareness, supporting and promoting the adoption of the Readium solutions by European publishers as the basis for their specific development in order to speed the creation of the open and interoperable ecosystem - comprehending not only the standard specs but all the other related and interoperable elements: reading solutions, productions tools, distribution platforms - versus proprietary wallet gardens provide updated and timely information on the activities of the Foundation also through dedicated international seminars or events foster collaboration among all the actors involved (in primis IDPF and publishers associations) and others standard organization

My presence in the Board as representative of one of the major EU trade associations could provide Readium Foundation a strong support in the European market to achieve its goals, thanks to consolidated relations with the most relevant European institutions and a long lasting knowledge of the European publishing market. European publishers are now investing - and plan to do so for the future – in digital production processes, products and services.

I will also be able to address the European Commission promoting the goals of Readium Foundation that are fully in line with the Digital Agenda for Europe, a strategy aimed at enhancing technologies and their role as engine for growth and employment. In the recent exercise “Licenses for Europe”, analyzing the factors that may trigger further development of the ebook market, the Commission stressed the importance of open and standard based solutions, essential for fair competition and for minimizing technological lock-in risks for consumers.

Furthermore thanks to the experience and knowledge achieved in the LIA Foundation I wiil be able to provide expert support to foster the commitment of Readium Foundation in the field of accessibility of digital publishing content for visually impaired persons.

Thank you very much for your attention

Cristina Mussinelli February, 2nd 2015

[1]Associazione Italiana Editori (Italian Publishers Association) is the trade association for Italian and foreign publishers that operate in Italy or publish books, magazines and digital publishing products, both multimedia and on-line, in Italian.

It represents the most important book and digital publishers in the country and totals some 400 members, accounting for more than 90% of the domestic market.

AIE is one of the founders of FEP, the Federation of European Publishers, and is also part of the General Confederation of Italian Industries, it is member of IPA (International Publishers Association), EDITEUR, ISBN International Agency and ABPTOE (Association of Booksellers and Publishers Training Organizations in Europe).

Finally, AIE devotes particular attention to the development of publishing standards; AIE manages the Italian ISBN agency, promotes the adoption of ISBN-A and is one of the two shareholders of mEDRA, the multilingual European DOI Registration Agency. The AIE engagement in this field is also demonstrated by the fact that AIE representatives are currently chair of Editeur and of the Standard committee of the IPA, and member of the Ex-Com or the Board of ISBN-IA and IDF. AIE coordinates the Arrow system, the European platform for right information management in digitization projects. The system has been recently endorsed by the European Directive on orphan works as selected source of information in the diligent search. AIE recently create the LIA Foundation aimed at promoting and increasing the diffusion of digital accessible EPUB e-books for visually disabled readers.