A nonprofit in formation.

Mission

Open Adaptive Editions (OAE) is the next generation of content that truly adapts to the reader, with rights-holder permissions that enable new use models, added value for readers, and new value for rights holders.

Open standards. Protected content.

OAE is a standards organization, now in formation, dedicated to the development and promotion of immersive and engaging experiences based on book content, and all that AI can unlock, with the permission of rights holders. The work of OAE will foster and promote the development of open standards for adaptive, AI-enabled reading applications and products that will benefit creators of content, makers of reading systems and consumers.

Unlocking content through adaptive permissions will be a milestone for the value of every written work. It will enable educational outcomes for all readers, letting each person experience a story, a training course or any other content in the way that best suits their needs and preferences. That can be a major boon for literacy at every age: for readers who need support in English or another language, for students who learn best in different ways, and for everyone who wants to use their own voice to guide their reading and experience. Every book can become a door, with guidance along the way whenever a reader needs it.

Everything OAE does is based on supporting copyright law. Every use of a work, whether AI questions and answers, summaries, translation, audio, or an immersive feature, requires specific permission from the work’s rights holders and owners. Where no permission has been given, the use does not happen.

Guiding values

OAE’s key objectives are:

• Literacy for every reader: in every market, at every age.
• Added value for every written work: for readers and for rights holders.

Across trade, education, libraries, and professional and corporate training, and always with the specific permission of rights holders.

OAE welcomes authors, rights holders and their agents, publishers, libraries, educators, software developers and other groups interested in permission-based, AI-enabled reading to take part in its work. The guiding values of OAE are to strive toward:

• Providing a forum for the discussion of issues and technologies related to immersive and AI-enabled experiences based on book content.
• Developing, publishing, and maintaining common specifications for declaring and checking rights-holder permissions and edition versions, and promoting the successful adoption of these specifications.
• Promoting industry-wide participation in permission-based, AI-enabled publishing through training sessions, guidelines, and demonstrations of proven technology.
• Identifying, evaluating and recommending standards created by other bodies related to electronic books, rights and AI, including EPUB.
• Encouraging interoperable implementations of permission-aware reading systems and providing a forum for resolution of interoperability issues.
• Accommodating differences in language, culture, reading and learning styles, and individual abilities.

“Open” describes our standards: anyone may read and implement them. It never means free use of anyone’s content.