Nick Bogaty wrote:

>Dear eBook Community List,
>
>The IDPF's Unified OEBPS Container Format Working Group released a working
>draft specification, OEBPS Container Format (OCF) 0.6, for public
>distribution today. The OEBPS Container Format (OCF) 0.6 working draft
>specification can be found at:
>
>http://www.idpf.org/doc_library/informationaldocs.htm
>
>
As many of you know, the IDPF, née OEBF, has recently started an effort
to create a single-file encapsulation format for e-books conforming to
the Open eBook Publication Structure
(http://www.idpf.org/oebps/oebps1.2/index.htm). The goals of the format
are two-fold: to provide a single file that can encapsulate all the
disparate files and formats that make up an OEBPS publication, and to do
so in a way that a conforming publication can be rendered on any User
Agent that supports the format. Needless to say, some of the guiding
principles behind the effort are that the format should, to the greatest
extent possible, use existing technologies; be open for anyone to study
and use, without restrictions; and be free from claims of intellectual
property.

As noted above by Mr. Bogaty, a first draft of the specification has
been published for review and comment. While the IDPF considers itself a
"standards organization", it has had little experience facilitating
public input on its proposed specifications, and unfortunately does not
yet have any effective means for accepting feedback or promoting public
discussion.

On April 25 Bill McCoy blogged about the new container specification,
and has graciously allowed us to use the comments section of that blog
entry to discuss the new specification. I would encourage everyone who
is interested in e-book formats to review the draft specification and
post any comments you may have, whether about the technical details of
the specification or about the presentation of those details, as
comments to Bill's blog entry at
http://blogs.adobe.com/billmccoy/2006/04/open_container.html.