(NEWS)

The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) will later this year formally launch a new European headquarters in Paris, France. IDPF Europe will be co-located with European headquarters for the affiliated Readium Foundation (Readium.org), hosted by a newly created European Digital Reading Lab (EDRL). EDRL has been formed with the support of the French government and industry stakeholders, with 1.5 million Euros of incremental funding already committed. The overall goal of the initiative is to promote EPUB and Web technologies for publishing, fostering open standards and open source development in order to improve availability, accessibility, and interoperability of digital publications. The European Digital Reading Lab will be located in central Paris within the facilities of Cap Digital, an innovation and business accelerator dedicated to the development of the digital economy in France and the Paris region. EDRL has already begun to recruit key staff, beginning with its CTO.

IBPA Executive Director Angela Bole serves as Treasurer on the IDPF board of directors. IBPA supports the EPUB standard and all open source developments that improve availability, accessibility, and interoperability of digital publications.