Maybe IDPF and W3C Should *Compete* in Ebook Standards

A controversy has been brewing in the world of ebook standards. The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) have proposed to combine. At first glance, this seems a sensible thing to do; IDPF's EPUB work leans heavily on W3C's HTML5 standard, and IDPF has been over-achieving with limited infrastructure and resources.

Not everyone I've talked to thinks the combination is a good idea. In the publishing world, there is fear that the giants of the internet who dominate the W3C will not be responsive to the idiosyncratic needs of more traditional publishing businesses.