Minutes of the DAISY Consortium General Meeting

Held on Thursday, the 3rd of May 2007
Melbourne, Australia

Scribe: Lynn Leith
Status: For final approval at the General Meeting 2008, Oslo, Norway
Web site: Posted to the Web site August, 2007
Published: August, 2007

1. Welcome and Arrangements

1.1 Welcome from Elsebeth Tank, President of the DAISY Consortium

Elsebeth Tank introduced herself and noted that later in the morning the election of the President for the coming term would take place. She explained that the recent Board meeting was held in Auckland, hosted by RNZFB. Ms Tank thanked ANZAIG for the invitation, thanked Vision Australia which is hosting the DAISY Consortium's Annual General Meeting, and asked Tim Evans to give welcoming remarks.

1.2 Welcome to Melbourne, Tim Evans, General Manager, Vision Australia Library Services and DAISY Board of Directors

Tim Evans welcomed those from far distant places. Australia is in the most significant draught in its history, this being the 10th year of draught. He celebrated the rain this morning. Mr. Evans introduced himself. He is the General Manager of Business Development for Vision Australia, and a Board member of the DAISY Consortium. He is a member of the ANZAIG group and represents them in the DAISY Consortium.

Vision Australia is the largest provider of blindness and low vision services in Australia. There are 3.7 million people in Melbourne. Mr. Evans provided overview of the city and its features. The tallest skyscraper in the southern hemisphere is in Melbourne which has been labeled the world's most livable city. Australians embrace 3 things with passion: Sport, fashion and festivals, and the changeable weather. Vision Australia has produced a DAISY book on CD called "accessing Melbourne" an accessible guide to Melbourne, available at the Vision Australia stand at this meeting.

1.3 General announcements

Morning break: 10:30
Lunch: noon
Presentations by Members and Friends: 1:00
Afternoon tea: 2:30

Trade booths are set up at the back of the room for the day. Vision Australia, Plextor, HumanWare, Objective Systems and Solutions Radio each have an exhibit stand.

Mr. Evans noted that Vision Australia has a radio service and that the meeting will be recorded. A photographer will be here during the presentations after lunch. A guide is available for those who need assistance. Wireless Internet access is available in the meeting room. Mr. Evans closed by saying that he hopes that everyone has an informative day and an enjoyable stay in Melbourne.

2. Attendance

The Board Members introduced themselves to the GM.

The Board had earlier determined that it would be appropriate for Friends to attend the General Meeting, and ET stated that the Board is pleased that so many of the DC Friends were able to attend. She explained that attendance of Friends at the GM is not included in the Articles of Association.

2.1 Members and Friends Present

Australia

Brazil

Canada

Denmark

Germany

Japan

The Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

South Africa

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

United Kingdom

United States

Elsebeth Tank extended a warm welcome to all.

2.2 Noted Absences

3. Confirmations

3.1 Confirmation of the Voting Delegates

Twelve of the fourteen Full Members were present. The General Meeting had a quorum.

The voting Member representatives present were:

3.2 Acceptance of the Agenda for the 2007 General Meeting (paper 01)

ET proposed that 13.2, Decision of the membership fees for 2008, be added to the agenda, and noted that a change in the agenda item numbering is required (Project Updates becoming item 12, and following items renumbered). She also stated that the Full Member Round Table will provide an overview of activities in the organizations represented by the Board Members. This has not been done previously at a DAISY General Meeting, and asked that participants provide feedback on its usefulness.

The agenda was approved with the noted changes.

3.3 Confirmation of scribe

Lynn Leith was confirmed as the scribe.

3.4 Minutes of the Previous General Meeting, held in Princeton, USA, April 29th 2006 (paper 02)

RESOLUTION: That the minutes of the previous General Meeting, held in Princeton April 29, 2006, be confirmed.

The minutes were confirmed.

4. DAISY Consortium Annual Report for 2006 (paper 03)

ET noted that the Annual Report had been distributed prior to the General Meeting, that it is intended to express the top priorities and activities of 2006, and to tell of our achievements during the year. A great deal has been accomplished, as indicated in Annual Report. In the introduction ET had written that the DC must lay out track while the train is running. The train is running faster and faster, and we must go faster and faster. ET pointed out specifically that we have built a strong Consortium, celebrating our 10th year anniversary last year and that DAISY technology is the most widely adopted assistive technology in world. However, there are many millions of people who should benefit from DAISY technology - there is still a long way to go. Accessibility is on the world agenda.

It is the Members who are the core of the DC, and membership fees are the core income. We are also striving harder to get funding as membership fees cannot cover all that must be done. Funding from alternative sources is being sought. We are grateful to and acknowledge the Nippon Foundation which has very generously provided the DC with funding for DAISY For All over several years. ET thanked to HK for his efforts seeking Nippon Foundation funding. We hope to receive funding from Nippon for further endeavours in developing countries in the coming years. Also in 2006 we received funding from National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities (NRCD) in Japan. ET thanked NRCD for this funding for the Urakawa project. In 2007 the RNIB in the United Kingdom will provide the DC with funding of $100,000 for the DAISY Online delivery project, which is of significant importance to the future of this technology. ET thanked these organizations for these contributions, without which we could not move forward.

ET thanked LEL who wrote the Annual Report. It is slightly different from previous years. We will continue to develop the Annual Report. She asked for comments on Annual Report, none were forthcoming.

RESOLUTION: That the Annual Report for the year 2006 be adopted.

The resolution was adopted.

5. Financial Reports and Auditors Report

5.1 Financial Report for 2006 (paper 04) and Statement of Accounts for the year 2006 (paper 05)

5.2 Balance Sheet for year end 2006 (paper 06)

5.3 Auditor's Report for 2006 (paper 07)

BH explained that in the GM papers, the financial pack is composed of 3 documents: the Balance Sheet, the Statement of Income and Expense and the Auditor's Report.

Financial highlights were noted by BH. At the end of 2005, capital was nearly $500,000 US. At the end 2006, capital was $577,000 US, that is, operating income and expense in 2006 produced a surplus of $77,000 US. In the budget a negative balance of $200,000 was projected. The actual positive result in 2006 is due to three factors: $92,000 lower staff costs than budgeted, $129,000 lower project costs, and $25,000 more income than budgeted.

BH noted that in 2006 the DC introduced time tracking for employees who record the time spent on the DAISY projects. This allows the DC to allocate staff costs to projects. This system improves the financial documentation. We will continue to utilize this tracking system. A breakdown and summary of percentage of staff time spent on various projects and activities is as follows:

More than 90% of the funds contributed by Members flows directly into projects. Overhead costs are minimal.

BH concluded by saying that the DC is moving forward in the right way, and is gaining more and more consistency in the development of standards and their application. This is also true in respect to finances and documentation, and gives stability. He asked for comments and questions. None were forthcoming.

ET announced that BH has been taking care of finances for the DC for more than 10 years and that he should be celebrated.

RESOLUTION: That the Auditor's Report be received, and that the Annual Accounts and Balance Sheet for the year 2006 be adopted.

The resolution was adopted.

6. Discharge of the Board

The meaning of discharging the Board was explained; it is a legal requirement by Swiss law. By discharging the Board, the General Meeting takes responsibility for the work and the decisions made by the Board in 2006.

RESOLUTION: That the General Meeting discharges the Board for the year 2006.

The resolution was adopted.

7. New Members and Friends in 2006

7.1 Full Members

RESOLUTION: To recognize these two organizations as new Full Members of the DAISY Consortium in 2006.

The resolution was adopted.

7.2 Associate Members

ET welcomed the new Associate Members, in particular welcoming the new Member organizations from Brazil and Australia, both of which were represented at the GM.

RESOLUTION: That the decision of the President, to accept these organizations as Associate Members of the DAISY Consortium in 2006, be ratified.

The decision of the President was ratified, the resolution was adopted.

7.3 Friends

ET welcomed the new Friends, in particular Objective Systems, Solutions Radio and xml-tekst which were present.

RESOLUTION: That the companies identified as joining as DAISY Friends in 2006 are noted with pleasure.

The resolution was adopted.

7.4 Individual Supporters

ET explained that this is a new category of Friend of the Consortium, established in 2006.

RESOLUTION: That these individuals as listed as Individual Supporters are noted with pleasure.

The resolution was adopted.

8. Election of the President of the DAISY Consortium

One candidate, Elsebeth Tank, was presented by the Board to the General Meeting for the position of President for the next term. The General Meeting was in agreement with ET as the person put forward by the Board for the position of President.

ET accepted the position, stating that the DC is about a fundamental human right, that is, equal access to information, and about using new technologies in creative way. DAISY is about a global community of people who collaborate creatively to benefit those unable to read standard print. It is made up of a wide range of institutions; they are the foundation of the Consortium. There are a growing number of commercial partners playing an essential role to make the vision come true. The DC has made good progress in the first ten years, but there is still a long way to go. We are rethinking our strategy. ET assured the General Meeting that the DC has the board and staff to move the Consortium forward. She stated that she is privileged to serve one more term as president. She expressed her thanks to everyone for their confidence.

The DC is developing and growing as an international body with a strong voice internationally. To do this and ensure that the DC becomes a stronger international body, the DAISY Board has given a new appointment to Hiroshi Kawamura, and has asked him to take an important role. Recognizing the strategically important role and functions of Hiroshi Kawamura as a representative of the DAISY Consortium in the United Nations concerning international relations, the Board requests that he use the title "Chairman" in international contexts. The Board also reconfirms that the appointment of the "Chairman" does not have any legal effect on the structure and procedures of the DAISY Consortium set out in its constitutional documents. In making this important appointment, the DC is taking the next step to move forward. ET concluded by saying that we are grateful to Hiroshi Kawamura for taking this role.

9. Confirmation of Members of the Board of Directors

RESOLUTION: That the names of the thirteen persons serving on the DAISY Board of Directors and the Full Members which they represent are noted as follows:

The resolution was adopted.

10. Full Member Round Table

Members of the Board representing Full Members of the Consortium provided a brief update of significant activities that have taken place over the past year within their organizations. A point form summary of each follows.

Swiss DAISY Consortium - Bernhard Heinser

Vision Australia - Tim Evans

Canadian DAISY Consortium - Margaret McGrory

Recording for the Blind Dyslexic - John Churchill

Royal National Institute of the Blind - Stephen King

ANZAIG - Mary Schnackenberg

Mary Schnackenberg was asked to provide a summary of RNZFB and ANZAIG activities for 2006

Swedish DAISY Consortium - Kjell Hansson

The Swedish DAISY Consortium is made up of 35 members, mainly county libraries and university libraries. KH provided a summary of activities at TPB, the Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille.

Media Association for Blind and Vision Impaired People - MediBuS - Elke Dittmer

Members of this association include producers of braille books, braille libraries, talking book libraries and associations for the blind of the German speaking areas in Europe.

Dedicon - Maarten Verboom

DAISY audio production and service today:

Producing and reading DAISY text

Co-operation with publishers

Exchange with other producing organizations and libraries for the print impaired

On-line distribution

Japanese DAISY Consortium - Hiroshi Kawamura

Spanish National Organisation of the Blind - Francisco Martinez Calvo

Norwegian DAISY Consortium - Arne Krykjebø

There are six organizations in the Norwegian DAISY Consortium. AK reported on the Library of Talking Books and Braille only.

Danish National Library for the Blind - Elsebeth Tank

DBB is government owned and is a "lab" for creative thinking and developing. Denmark is a small country. DBB is reaching out to public and research libraries to share information about DAISY. Lobbying activities are increasing.

Agenda Sequence

NOTE: Due to time limitations, some of the updates on 2006 activities by Full Members were presented in the morning, some in the afternoon following the other agenda items. For continuity they have been provided in the minutes in sequence and the other agenda items that were presented in the morning follow below.

11. Project Updates - GK

Website

The DAISY Web site will be ported from TPB. It will be hosted through commercial services with 24/7 support. We are looking at accessible CMS so that people can update information on the DAISY site with individual logins. Information on tools, organizations, companies will be updatable by Members and Friends. The DC is also looking into web blogs, surveys, podcasting, and RSS Feeds for implementation in 2007.

Standards

The DAISY Consortium is the maintenance agency for DAISY/NISO. The Standard is stable. XML content is of huge importance. There is interest in upgrading the Standard to support different profiles, for example, a "DAISY audio profile" (an audio book with structure only) and a "text-centric" approach (text profile), DAISY multimedia with audio and text remaining as the most enhanced profile. These alternatives could lead to lower cost production and delivery. The revision of the Standard is in its initial phase.

The DC has begun formalizing the Working Group (WG) policies and procedures. We are looking at the formation of interest groups for different activities. An interest group may form a charter and develop into a formal WG, having core members with a commitment to attend face-to-face meetings and participate in calls. These formalized policies and procedures will be published in next couple of months.

Participation in other standards organizations

IDPF

IDPF is adopting XML in DAISY and the DAISY navigation model (similar to a DAISY text profile). This is under public comment now, and we expect to see implementation in ebooks in the next several months.

SMIL

The W3C is adding a DAISY profile to SMIL. Standard SMIL players will play DAISY books. This work should be completed by the end of 2007.

Licensing

It is important to note that the DAISY Board has endorsed a licensing policy under the Lesser GNU license; it is business friendly. DC software will be available to commercial and non-commercial companies and organization to incorporate into their tools. The end result will be higher quality tools, lower costs, and it should encourage a wider variety of manufactures. It will also help DAISY Friends to produce software under this policy.

Urakawa

Within the Urakawa Project, the multimedia data model we have developed is under LGPL and developed an SDK. We are in the process of completing Obi, an "audio-centric" DAISY/NISO production tool. Work on the text-centric tool, Tobi, will begin this summer. These are the next generation of production tools for the DAISY Consortium.

DAISY Pipeline

The DAISY Pipeline will be launched this June. It provides flexibility in transforming content, Word, RTF, Open Office, etc., into Dtbook content. This tool will allow us to enhance our production, including generation of synthetic speech. Many organizations are now using the Pipeline, for example, TPB Narrator. The Pipeline supports the downgrade of content from DAISY/NISO to DAISY 2.02. There are also possibilities for braille production, etc.

DAISY Online

The DAISY Online WG is established and work has begun. The first face to face meeting will be held in June.

MathML

MathML is approved as recommendation. It is now a specification, and sample content and playback tools that support it need to be developed.

Validator

The DAISY Validator continues to be developed; the DC will maintain it.

Other Projects

Some projects are moving more slowly. Formal WG procedures should help with this.

We expect to be able to get sample content from the DAISY Pipeline for the DAISY OK Project so that it can move forward.

SVG in DAISY is stalled. We will try to get rolling again.

There will be some changes to the Braille in DAISY WG, and we expect it to move forward.

We will be publishing updated work plans in next six months.

12. Strategic Directions: 2008 – 2011

A new strategy for the Future Directions of the DAISY Consortium will be developed and is scheduled to be in place as of the spring 2008 General Meeting. The presentation on DC Strategic Directions given by ET is available on the DAISY Web site.

13. Finance and Budget

13.1 Budget for 2007 (paper 08) and the Provisional Budget for 2008 (paper 09)

BH noted that there was US$577,000 capital at the end of 2006 and stated that the DC may want to invest part of the accumulated capital in projects and developments in 2007 and 2008. START: The total budgeted income for 2007 is US$1,277,000.00, and the total budgeted expense is US$1,506,000.00. This results in a Balance of approximately US$230,000.00 and remaining capital of approximately US$350,000.00 at the close of 2007. The 2007 income is similar in structure to 2006, but on the expense side, staff costs and project costs are higher. This is the consequence of the DC commitment to go quickly forward with projects. Overhead costs increase slightly by US$6,000.00. BH asked for questions and comments. None forthcoming.

13.2 Decision on the Membership Fees for 2008

For the 2008 provisional budget, it is necessary to fix membership fees for that year. The Board recommends for 2008 that membership fees will remain the same as they were set for 2007: Full Member fee of US$26,250.00, with an entrance fee of US$30,000.00; Associate Member fee of US$2,625.00, with fees for developing countries reduced in relation to the World Bank Classification; Friend and Developer membership fee of US$2,625.00; Publisher, Educator, and Advocate membership fee of US$1,000.00; and, Individual Supporter fee of US$150.00.

RESOLUTION: That the proposed membership fees for 2008 be adopted.

The resolution for 2008 membership fees was adopted.

RESOLUTION: That the budget for 2007 and the provisional budget for 2008, be received.

The resolution was adopted, and the budget for 2007 and the provisional budget for 2008 were received.

ET noted that with membership fees remaining the same for 2008, the capital at the end of 2008 will be approximately US$243,000.00. The decision at the recent Board Meeting that the capital should not be less than US$200,000.00 for any year, was relayed.

14. DAISY For All - Hiroshi Kawamura

DFA will be in its fifth year beginning this June. Funding of $600,000 for this final year of the five year project is anticipated. To date more than $3 million have been provided and spent. As a result, DAISY has been introduced in many countries, largely in Asia. Tool developments including AMIS, Tobi and Obi, all are open source, powered by the DFA project to reach out with the best tools for developing countries. More than one third of DFA funding will be spend on open source tool development. There will be a presentation on DFA given by Misako Nomura in the afternoon.

15. Location of the Next General Meeting

The 2008 General Meeting will be held in Norway, hosted by the Norwegian DAISY Consortium. It will take place in early June. The specific date in June will be made available on the DAISY Web site and will be communicated to the DAISY lists.

RESOLUTION: That the invitation to the 2008 General Meeting be accepted.

The resolution was adopted.

16. Close of the DAISY General Meeting

ET thanked everyone for their attention and thanked Sue Oriander, LEL and TE for the meeting arrangements.

Presentations by Members and Friends about advances in tools and/or services followed the General Meeting in the afternoon.