Alexandria, VA – Idealliance, the leading developer of industry specifications in the media industry and a global industry association of media creators and technology companies, announces a new role for Dianne Kennedy following her retirement as VP of Digital Media and Emerging Technologies.  As newly named Idealliance XML, Metadata and Digital Media Evangelist Emeritus, Kennedy will continue to support and extend the Idealliance Digital Portfolio of media industry information technology specifications and assist the industry with the implementation of these foundational standards. Specifically, Ms. Kennedy will continue to serve as editor and facilitator for core Idealliance XML specifications including, PRISM, the Print Quality eXchange (PQX) and Mail.XML.

Ms. Kennedy has had a long-term relationship with the Association spanning 30+ years.  In 1984, she was one of the first Association instructors for SGML, an ISO Standard then under development.  In the late 1980’s Kennedy served as chairperson for SAE’s J2008 SGML Specification and actively participated in both the CALS and ATA 100 SGML specification development activities.  She later acted as editor for ISO 12083, Electronic Manuscript Preparation and Markup on behalf of Idealliance and developed an XML version of ISO 12083 in cooperation with NISO. 

In 1999 and 2000, Kennedy acted as Chair for the Idealliance XML Conference and served on the Idealliance Board of Directors.  In 2003, Kennedy officially joined the staff of Idealliance as V.P. of Media Technologies. During that time she worked as Program Director and Editor for ICE 2.0 (Information and Content Exchange), Mail.XML and the PRISM Metadata Specification. She was actively involved in developing the PRISM Aggregator Message (PAM), the PRISM Source Vocabulary (PSV) and pamP, a new aggregator message developed jointly with the Japanese Magazine Publishing Association. In 2006, she directed the development and launch of the now industry-leading series of Idealliance G7 certification programs.

According to David Steinhardt, President and CEO of Idealliance, “Dianne Kennedy has played a pivotal role in the Association’s rich history of fostering the development of information technology specifications to support the automation of the end-to-end media supply chain.”  Steinhardt stated that in her new role, Kennedy will continue to be responsible for the ongoing technical development and editorial tasks for the Idealliance PRISM Specification, the Print Quality eXchange (PQX) and Mail.XML efforts. The Association will also be seeking a new staff person to assume the development and management of the Idealliance digital portfolio in the future. Those interested in receiving a copy of the new Idealliance Digital Portfolio Development position description, should email David Steinhardt at [email protected].

“XML was a little understood technology in 1999,” commented Peter Meirs, Director of Content Systems & Operations Strategy at Consumer Reports and longtime collaborator of Ms. Kennedy. “Over the past 15 years, Dianne Kennedy’s vision, technical expertise, guidance and leadership have made PRISM the industry's premiere XML-based metadata standard for expressing article content related to images, advertising, and digital rights.” Shawn P. Baldwin, Director of Architecture, for BCC Software, LLC, said, “Through Dianne's guidance, the Mail.XML specification has remained relevant over the years by evolving to meet the industry needs of the complete mail supply chain, from the mail owner to the United States Postal Service.”

Dianne Kennedy responded, “I look forward to my ongoing relationship with Idealliance and being able to concentrate on the work I love, developing XML and Metadata schemas to support real world requirements of the publishing and printing industry.  In my new role, I look forward to advancing Idealliance specifications for global use as international standards and supporting its members and industry in implementing technology standards.”  All contact information for Dianne Kennedy will remain the same.