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Epubcheck Development Update and Maintenance Request for Proposal
The Publishing Business Group (PBG) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) seeks a developer/technical lead to oversee enhancements, developments, maintenance, and future direction of the epubcheck validation tool. Epubcheck is the industry standard tool used to validate epub files by authors, publishers, retailers, and vendors.
Release stages and schedule will be agreed upon in the contract stage.
- Release version of epubcheck that supports EPUB 3.2 within days of spec release
- Update licensing information so that it is uniform
- Prioritizing pending issues and bugs to be resolved in the update of the tool
- Addressing new issues that are opened on a semi-regular basis
- Select method for moving forward, such as behavior-driven testing and adjust the suite accordingly
- Organize and clean up test suite (including removal, integration, and normalizing of code contributions)
- API Cleanup to stabilize public API and make epubcheck easier to use and integrate into other projects
- Create Code Documentation to enable developers new to epubcheck to join in with limited effort
- Tool refactoring can but does not have to include rewriting the code or changing the programming language
- HTML Validation, potentially in coordination with the W3C validation services
- Better checking of Media Overlays
- Additional new features may be requested and will need to be assessed for relevance and necessity
See epubcheck Work Plan for details. The page is not complete and we welcome responses from those bidding that include recommendations for the future developments not outlined in this RFP or on this Work Plan.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. Led by Web inventor and Director Tim Berners-Lee and CEO Jeffrey Jaffe, W3C's mission is to lead the Web to its full potential. Contact W3C for more information.
Publishing@W3C, which includes three groups, is committed to continuing to develop and promote EPUB 3 as the packaged accessible interchange and delivery format for digital publications. The longer-term vision of publishing@W3C is to establish Web-native Web Publications: online/offline, packaged/distributed, browser/app. It works to advance the overall Open Web platform to meet industry needs across segments.
The mission of the Publishing Working Group, one of the three entities of Publishing@W3C, is to enable all Web Publications — with all their specificities and traditions — to become first-class entities on the Web. The WG will provide the necessary technologies on the Open Web Platform to make the combination of traditional publishing and the Web complete in terms of accessibility, usability, portability, distribution, archiving, offline access, and reliable cross-referencing.
There is also an EPUB 3 Community Group (“EPUB 3 CG”) that provides a forum for ongoing technical development of EPUB 3 and related extension specifications and ancillary deliverables.
The third group, the Publishing Business Group, fosters ongoing participation by members of the publishing industry and overall publishing ecosystem and serves as a conduit for feedback between the publishing ecosystem and W3C.
To be determined based on "level of effort" analysis as defined by the project scope.
Below is a proposed schedule for the RFP process. Note candidate interviews may be held earlier if an RFP is submitted earlier.
- RFP request: June 15, 2018
- Submission deadline: July 16, 2018
- Final reviews: August 15, 2018
- Selection: August 27, 2018
- Work begins: September 2018
W3C Publishing Steering Committee note well: email posted to this address is visible to the public.
Please provide any relevant work samples via URL.
Companies and individuals will be notified via email and phone for additional information, formal presentations and the outcome of the selection process. Designating a single contact person is highly desirable.
Applicants will primarily be evaluated on their ability to provide clear vision forward for an existing tool suite. Evaluation will be completed by the Publishing Steering Committee of the W3C.
- Familiarity with existing tool
- Ability to work on large-scale automation and testing
- Ability to document code for others’ use
- Prior experience with EPUB
- Cost
- Training experience and resources
- Provide contact information for the principal individual(s) to be contacted regarding the information in this RFP.
- Provide a brief company history, years in business, number of employees and office locations.
- Describe the company’s custom solutions and how they fit with other company offerings.
- List top clients and services provided.
- List any awards or industry recognition.
- Provide relevant work samples and/or demonstrations.
- Describe the software and/or tooling that will be employed/necessary in the design, architecture, and implementation of this solution.
- Describe the skill set required to effectively implement the solution.
- Define deliverables, review process, and timeline for full solution implementation.
- Define project management approach.
- Provide a breakdown of the project costs aligned with the proposed solution.
- Provide any standard terms of agreement.
- Proposed schedule for completion including major milestones
- Proposed contract terms including period, extensions (and conditions for extensions), and preferred payment method and frequency of payment
Please provide three references of organizations that have utilized your services. Include the contact name, title, company name, address, phone number and email address for each reference.
- Contact
- Title
- Company
- Address
- Phone
Please attach any additional information about your company’s capabilities and proposed solution.