Greetings -
OPDS (Open Publication Distribution System) was first launched
approximately one year ago (http://blogs.adobe.com/billmccoy/2009/04/announcing_open.html), and today the OPDS community is very
pleased to announce a call for comments on the first draft spec
version, 0.9.
The OPDS Catalogs 0.9 draft at
http://code.google.com/p/openpub/wiki/CatalogSpecDraft is ready for
public review and we are soliciting feedback and comments.
Please submit any and all critiques or comments to the openpub mailing
list (http://groups.google.com/group/openpub) or add an issue
(http://code.google.com/p/openpub/issues/entry) by *19 May 2010*.
What are OPDS Catalogs?
OPDS Catalogs enable the aggregation, distribution, and discovery of
books, journals, and other digital content by any user, from any
source, in any electronic format, on any device. The OPDS Catalogs
specification is based on the Atom syndication format and prioritizes
simplicity and speed.
Are there any current implementers of this standard?
The OPDS Catalogs 0.9 draft is based on a lot of existing,
in-production software and collaboration between ebook reading
systems, publishers, and distributors. Feedbooks, for example,
distributes more than 2 million ebooks every month using its OPDS
Catalogs (http://feedbooks.com/catalog.atom) and ebook readers like
Aldiko, Stanza, QuickReader, FBReader, Ibis Reader, and others already
support the evolving specification. Publishers and libraries have been
early adopters of the OPDS Catalogs as the specification has evolved
toward 0.9 as well.
Some highlights:
* Internet Archive (1.8 million free books,
http://bookserver.archive.org/catalog/)
* O'Reilly Media (hundreds of technical ebooks,
http://catalog.oreilly.com/aldiko/main.xml)
* PragPub Magazine, from The Pragmatic Programmers
(http://pragprog.com/magazines.opds)
* Smashwords
(http://www.smashwords.com/atom)
OPDS Catalogs are the first component in the Internet Archive’s
BookServer Project (http://www.archive.org/bookserver).
Thanks for your feedback,
The openpub community
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