For those in the New York city area who want to learn more about the
emerging ebook options, I thought I would pass along information about an
upcoming conference in April in mid-town Manhattan.  It is a one-day
conference about ebooks in education sponsored by the Open ebook Forum.
Speakers include people from the education, library, publishing,ebook
industry, and disability interests.  The agenda is posted below.  At $79 it
is a little pricey but it includes breakfast and a full lunch.  For more
information about the conference see:

http://www.openebook.org/education/

Kelly







Conference Agenda

Thursday, April 14th, 2005
The McGraw-Hill Auditorium at 1221 Avenue of the Americas (bet. 48th and
49th St,), 2nd Floor
New York City



8:00 - 8:45 a.m.
Registration and FREE Continental Breakfast

8:45 - 9:00 a.m.
Greetings & Opening Remarks

Welcoming remarks and a summary review of the development involving eBooks
in schools and education. This presentation will include statistics on the
size
of the education market for eBooks, an update on OeBF Industry findings, and
other information on relevant developments.

Presenter: Steve Potash, President,
OeBF

9:00 - 9:45 a.m.
Panel:  Industry Update on Digital Book and Reading technologies

Panelist: Mike Violano, Vice President & General Manager,
eReader.com

Panelist: Stephen Pendergrast, CTO & President,
Fictionwise, Inc.

Panelist: Joel Domino, President,
Kent Displays

Panelist: Darren Bischoff, Senior Marketing Manager,
E Ink Corporation

9:45 - 10:30 a.m.
Panel:  Case Study:  Digital Materials in the Classroom K-12

PDA, Notebooks and Tablet PCs are becoming tools of the student in a growing
number of schools. Instructors bringing digital texts into the classroom
will
discuss the issues and share their experiences.

Panelist: Tim Magner, Deputy Director,
Department of Education

Panelist: Ruth Adams, Dean of Curriculum and Instruction,
Virtual High School

10:30 - 11:00 a.m.
Networking Break & Exhibits

11:00 - 12:00 a.m.
Panel:  Case Studies - Digital Materials in Higher and Continuing Education

Undergrad, Graduate and Continuing Education uses of digital textbooks,
curriculum, supplemental materials and distance learning.

Panelist: Ted J. Gaiser, Ph.D., Director, Academic & Research Services,
Boston College

Panelist: Isabella Hinds, Senior Director, Business Development,
WebCT

12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
LUNCH AND NETWORKING SESSION IN EXHIBIT AREA (free with registration)

1:00 - 1:45 p.m.
Keynote: TBD



1:45 - 2:45 p.m.
Panel:  Higher Ed ePublishing Initiatives and New Media Products

Leading publishers and distributors on the potential of the eTextbook,
curriculum & supplemental content. What people are working on for the
future.

Moderator: James Lichtenberg, President,
Lightspeed LLC

Panelist: Kevin McKiernan, Director of Business Development,
MBS Direct, LLC

Panelist: Karen Iannone, Product Manager,
Houghton Mifflin College

Panelist: Pat Sabosik, VP & General Manager,
Thomson Learning Labs

Panelist: Ginny Moffat, Vice-President for Course Content Delivery,
McGraw-Hill Higher Education

2:45 - 3:45 p.m.
Panel:  Legislative Update, Accessibility & National Repository

A panel discussion on multimedia eBooks for persons with disabilities, the
Library of Congress' DMCA Exception, reauthorization of IDEA and higher
education
initiatives.  Also discussion of the NIMAS file format, a national file
repository and reading preferences of persons with disabilities.

Moderator: George Kerscher, Secretary General,
Daisy Consortium

Panelist: Ed McCoyd, Director of Digital Policy,
Association of American Publishers

Panelist: Noel Duffy, Managing Director,
Dolphin Computer Access

Panelist: Chuck Hitchcock, Chief Education Technology Officer,
CAST

3:45 - 4:15 p.m.
Networking Break & Exhibits

4:15 - 5:15pm
Panel:  Panel: K-12 ePublishing Initiatives and New Media Products

Publishers display mixed media titles, interactive lesson plans and
activities for K-12 schools.

Panelist: Byron Preiss, CEO,
iPicturebooks.com

Panelist: Ron Zevy, CEO,
Tumblebooks

Panelist: Michelle Yeauger, Director of eBusiness,
School Specialty Publishing

Panelist: Bonnie Hawkwood, eBook Program Director,
Thomson Gale

5:15 p.m.
Closing Remarks


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html