Digital Discourse / Archives for Angel Scott

Behind the Scenes of the CODiE Awards: A Conversation with the Coordinator

August 16, 2012 By

The kickoff of the 2013 SIIA CODiE Awards marks my second year as the awards program coordinator here at SIIA. Since I’ve been through the whole process from start to finish, I wanted to give you an inside look into how I manage each phase of the awards season.

The CODiE Awards are about recognizing excellence, but they’re also about creating and maintaining relationships. Since I’m the person both judges and nominees interact with most, it’s important for me to be available, and make sure the process runs smoothly for everyone. With this blog post, and the ones to follow, I want judges and nominees to get to know me, so they can feel comfortable coming to me when they have questions or concerns, or just want to share their excitement about the CODiE Awards!

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It’s August… and that means nominations are open! That’s right, the CODiE Awards are already in full swing. It’s hard to believe sometimes, especially since the last two awards presentations were just a few months ago in May. It may seem like there’s only a small reprieve after the presentations, but we always get started immediately, planning for the next cycle. One of the first and most important steps we take each year is revisiting all of the categories. We make updates and create new categories based on what’s happening in the content, software and ed tech industries. (This year, there are 27 new and updated categories.)

Once nominations are open, it’s fun to see which company nominates first, and in which category. I get a kick out of telling our president, Ken Wasch, when the first nomination comes in because he can hardly contain his excitement. Nominations usually come in slowly in the first couple weeks of the nomination period, but I receive many emails and phone calls from companies, with questions ranging from process clarification to help determining which category is the best fit for a product. I encourage companies to ask as many questions as they’d like. That’s what I’m here for!

While I enjoy checking out all of the various companies that nominate, I especially enjoy learning about the ed tech companies. I completed my master’s just a year ago, so I’m not far removed from the classroom. I frequently come across products that I wish had been around when I was going through school, especially in middle and high school. Some of the math and science solutions would have come in handy (since those were not my favorite subjects–I suppose that’s why I majored in public relations and Spanish.)

I am also interested in each division’s “social” categories. Software has Best Social Business Solution, in Content there is Best Social Media Platform, and in Education there is Best Education Community Solution. They each target different audiences and serve different purposes, but it’s interesting to see how social media and digital communities are incorporated.

The Best Education Community Solution category is intriguing to me this year, because it focuses on social media solutions geared toward the classroom. The progression of social learning and social networks has been amazing and it’s interesting to see how ed tech companies are creating social communities for the classroom at all levels. I’m very much looking forward to seeing which companies nominate in this category.

Overall, I’m just excited for all of the nominations to come in! With more than 75 categories this year, there will definitely be a large variety of products and solutions. Remember, if you’re looking to judge or nominate, I’m here for you. Ask me anything! It doesn’t even need to be related to the CODiE Awards. Ask me where I’m from (Pennsylvania, if you’re curious), or what brought me to DC (grad school), even my favorite football team (San Diego Chargers)! The CODiE Awards are really about the relationships. I’m here to make sure your CODiE Awards experience is the best it can be.

Wendy Tanner Wendy Tanner is CODiE Awards Coordinator. Follow the CODiE Awards on Twitter @CODiEAwards

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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, CODiEs, Content, Ed Tech Industry Summit, Education, Information Industry Summit, Software, Uncategorized

Nominations Now Open for the 28th Annual SIIA CODiE Awards

August 15, 2012 By

Nominations are now open for the 2013 SIIA CODiE Awards. This year’s CODiE Awards feature 27 new and updated categories, reflecting the dramatic changes in technology and business models impacting the software and information industries.

The CODiE Awards have been the premier award for the software and information industries for 28 years. The awards program has three tracks organized by industry focus: Content, Software and Education.

Highlights of this year’s program:

Content: The Content CODiE Awards showcase the information industry’s finest products, technology and services created by, or for, media, publishers and information services providers.

* Fourteen new and updated categories reflect new technology and business models in the content industry including: Best Crowd Sourced Solution, Best Editorial Outsourcing Solution, Best Semantic Technology Solution and Best Social Media Platform
* The Content CODiE Awards will be presented Jan. 31, 2013 during the Content Division’s annual conference for information industry leaders, the Information Industry Summit

Education: The Education CODiE Awards showcase applications, products and services from developers of educational software, digital content, online learning services, and related technologies across the K-20 sector.

* The new Best Personalized Learning Solution category highlights the major educational shift toward individual, tailored learning plans for students. Three new top-level categories will reward the best of the best of PK-12, postsecondary, and overall education nominees.
* Education winners will be announced in San Francisco on May 6, 2013 during the Ed Tech Industry Summit.

Business: The Software CODiE Awards showcase applications, products and services that are developed by independent software vendors (ISVs) for use in business, government, academic, or other organizational settings.

* Twelve new and updated categories reflect the continued growth and evolution of cloud computing, mobile, big data, and video. Highlights include: Best Cloud Platform as a Service Solution, Best Big Data Solution, Best Mobile Device Application for Consumers, Best Mobile Device Application for Enterprise, and Best Video Tool.
* Software winners will be announced in San Francisco on May 9, 2013 during the software industry’s premier ISV conference, All About the Cloud.

Learn more about the nomination process.

Wendy Tanner Wendy Tanner is CODiE Awards Coordinator. Follow the CODiE Awards on Twitter @CODiEAwards

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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, Cloud Computing, CODiEs, Content, Ed Tech Industry Summit, Education, Education Events, Information Industry Summit, Mobile: Education, Mobility, Personalized Learning, Postsecondary, Social Media, Software, Software Events, Uncategorized

An Industry that Never Stands Still: The History and Future of the SIIA CODiE Awards

August 1, 2012 By

Now in its 28th year, the 2013 CODiE Awards will be launching Monday. I sat down with SIIA President and CODiE Awards founder, Ken Wasch, to discuss why the program is so meaningful to the industry and what contributes to its success. Since this is my second year as the program coordinator, I wanted to find out why Ken has invested a great deal into the program and why he gets so excited at the start of each CODiE Awards season.

Why did you start the CODiE Awards?

Every industry should have an opportunity to celebrate its own achievements, and the CODiE Awards were the very first peer recognized awards in the personal computer/software industry. Over the years, we modified the categories to reflect the dynamic changes in the industry, but what we never changed was the fact that it was a peer reviewed program.

What’s important about peer review?

Unlike awards that are based on sales, what’s important about peer review is that there’s a leveling of the playing field. Great products from smaller companies have an equal shot at winning a CODiE Award. If you have an awards program that is based on sales, obviously the industry giants will always win them. And so, awards that are based on sales reflect the marketing muscle of the publisher, not necessarily the intrinsic innovation of the product. The CODiE Awards sometimes recognize great products that may not achieve great commercial success.

Why do companies nominate for the CODiE Awards?

The hallmark of our industry is the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of software developers who are hard at work, innovating in a way that was unimaginable a few years ago. It’s good for the industry, it’s good for the customers, and it’s good for developers themselves to be recognized for that innovation.

What do you love about the CODiE Awards?

This time of year, it’s very exciting to see all the new products. I love the CODiE Awards season. It lasts from early August to mid-October, when all the nominations for the next year come in, and I’m always blown away by some of the new products that are nominated. It’s an industry that never stands still.

How have the CODiE Awards changed over the last 28 years?

There are so many different categories. The CODiE Awards have grown in scope from initially 20 categories, to 79 categories. Originally, the awards were largely focused on entertainment and education, and they expanded to a broad range of business and information categories. You know, the words software and information have become so broad they touch almost every human endeavor, so there are almost an unlimited number of categories we could establish. This year, we have limited the categories to the 79 where we believe there’s a critical mass of companies that we can reach.

The nominees have changed so much. I remember one CODiE Award winner 20 years ago. It was a product called Coupon Clipper, where you would take the coupons that you get from the newspaper and enter them into a database. It would keep a record, so before you went to the supermarket, you would know which coupons are about to expire, and how you might adjust your shopping so you get maximum impact from your coupon collection. The product won a CODiE Award, but I thought anyone who would use this product has too much time on their hands. It was too much work to manage it! But, even though the product didn’t do well in the market, because our program recognizes great products, and not sales, it was recognized for its innovation.

What is the future of the CODiE Awards?

When something has been around as long as this–28 years–it has stood the test of time. We have been smart enough to freshen the program every year or two. The CODiE Awards will thrive if we keep modifying the categories to keep current where the industry is innovating. The categories can’t remain static.

A decade ago, the word cloud meant something totally different. The cloud categories have now become mainstream. The mobility categories cut across all of information and all of software, and the development and distribution of video products has become a mainstream new category. On the ed tech side, the use of technology in education is nothing new. What is new is the multiplication of devices within an educational environment, whether it’s mobile, tablets, laptops, desktops, or electronic whiteboards. The number and diversity of devices is spurring innovation in the software applications that run on them.

Why do you think companies should nominate for the CODiE Awards?

For small and medium-sized companies that want to distinguish themselves from their competitors, the CODiE Awards provide a great opportunity to set themselves apart from other innovators. It’s a great reward for the developers, but it also has significant payoff in terms of bragging rights in a CODiE Award winner’s market.

Wendy Tanner Wendy Tanner is CODiE Awards Coordinator. Follow the CODiE Awards on Twitter @CODiEAwards

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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, CODiEs, Content, Ed Tech Industry Summit, Education, Information Industry Summit, Software, Software Events Tagged With:

Personal Mobile Devices in the Enterprise: What IT Needs to Know

May 17, 2011 By

By John Herrema, Good Technology

In today’s fast-paced world, smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices are essential in the enterprise. While some of these devices – laptops, Blackberrys, and even tablets – are provided by the company, many are not. The fastest growing mobile device categories, such as Android smartphones and tablets, iPhones, and iPads, are often purchased by employees at their own expense. These employees, who may own two or three mobile devices and insist on using them for work-related tasks, require attention from the IT department.

Organizations must accept this “bring your own device”, or BYOD, new reality and adopt policies and tools to allow employees to use a range of mobile devices securely within the organization. Fortunately, protecting data and networks while giving employees a choice of mobile tools to access Intranets, Web-enabled enterprise applications, collaboration tools, corporate instant messaging services, and to share documents, are not mutually exclusive objectives.

If you’re struggling to support the demand for user-owned devices while still protecting your network and data, you’re not alone. A study by Good Technology and independent research firm Vanson Bourne found that half of IT directors in large enterprises are being pressured to support personal devices at work, and 80% of IT departments routinely get requests to implement enterprise apps and emails on employees’ personal mobile devices. That said, only 10% of IT departments have comprehensive BYOD policies to fully support business use of personal mobile devices.

Even companies that do have BYOD policies are challenged when employees either unwittingly, or with the best of intentions, purposely disregard it. At one time or another, in the normal course of meeting their work objectives, most employees will forward work emails to a personal email account, or copy documents to an online repository. All too often, someone might accidentally leave a smartphone loaded with corporate data on a bus, airplane, or in a restaurant, or have an iPad stolen from a car.

And, of course, employees of companies without any BYOD policies in place are virtually guaranteed to use their mobile devices to access corporate apps and data anyway. This is especially true for enterprises that allow Web-based access to email (e.g., through Outlook Web Access or iNotes), or allow users to install third-party productivity applications such as Dropbox on company-owned laptops, desktops, or tablets.

How can IT departments meet the security challenges of this BYOD world? Once a company acknowledges and accepts that these new gadgets are already entering the workplace and almost certainly accessing its network and data, the first step is to proactively define a BYOD policy. If you don’t set a policy, then by default your employees are doing it for you.

Second, you need a centralized management platform that allows administrators to enforce policies and control mobile access at the both the application and device level. Third, companies must also consider “containerizing” company data and apps to ensure that sensitive or proprietary data does not leak to other apps and from there, onto social networking sites and other unsecure Web-based services. By containerizing enterprise data, companies can leave employees’ private information untouched, secure corporate data in a strongly protected environment, and enforce compliance and data loss prevention policies at the application level. By taking these three steps, IT can simultaneously embrace device choice and ensure enterprise security, data integrity, and compliance.

IT departments can no longer afford to bury their heads in the sand, or take a hodgepodge, device-by-device approach to mobile data and application management. The benefits of a consistent and company-wide BYOD policy supported by tools and processes are clear:

  • Higher productivity because employees use their mobile devices to work at all hours of the day;
  • Increased employee satisfaction when employees are allowed to choose their own devices based on personal preferences, and;
  • Potentially lower overall costs when employees buy their own mobile devices and pay for their own monthly service plans.
Consumers will continue to buy more and more personal gadgets and it’s fruitless for CIOs and IT managers to pretend they can keep them at bay. The only viable strategy is to embrace, not fight, this mobile device revolution. The key is to do so proactively, consistently, and with a keen focus on security, data loss prevention, and compliance.
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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, Cloud Computing, CODiEs, Finalists Tagged With:

CODiE Finalists: Content Management Solution & Database Solution

April 22, 2011 By

Congratulations to the 2011 CODiE Awards finalists in Best Content Management Solution and Best Database Solution!

Best Content Management Solution recognizes the best software or platform that enables the creation, management and modification of information on the web, intranet, or other information resource. It includes content creation, categorization, workflow, publishing and delivery tools.

Finalists are:

Best Database Solution recognizes the best solution for the storage, organization, management, search and retrieval of large quantities of data in a business environment for any range or combination of activities, including financial, contact, records management, research, documents, and other sources.

Finalists are:

  • Cvent Supplier Network, Cvent
  • TrackVia Cloud Application Platform, TrackVia

All winners will be announced at All About the Cloud on May 25th.

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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, Cloud Computing, CODiEs, Finalists, Software, Software Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

CODiE Finalists: Ed Use of a Device-Specific Application & Instructional Solution in Other Curriculum Areas

April 21, 2011 By

Congratulations to the finalists in Best Educational Use of a Device-Specific Application and Best Instructional Solution in Other Curriculum Areas!

Best Educational Use of a Device-Specific Application recognizes the best educational software solution, either curriculum or administrative, designed for integration and use with unique devices. Such devices include interactive white boards, testing/diagnostic equipment, etc. This solution may be designed for the K-12 or postsecondary markets or both.

Finalists are:

  • SuccessMaker Collaborate, Pearson

Best Instructional Solution in Other Curriculum Areas recognizes the best teaching application focusing in non-core curriculum areas for students in the K-12 market. These areas include art, foreign language, music, technology or multi-disciplinary topics.

Finalists are:

Join SIIA at the 2011 Ed Tech Industry Summit CODiE Awards Dinner on Monday, May 23rd where the winners will be announced!

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CODiE Finalists: Cloud Management Solution & Collaboration/Social Networking Solution

April 19, 2011 By

Congratulations to the CODiE Awards finalists in Best Cloud Management Solution and Best Collaboration/Social Networking Solution!

Best Cloud Management Solution recognizes the best application or service used for managing operations or management programs, services, or applications in a cloud computing environment.

Finalists are:

Best Collaboration/Social Networking Solution recognizes the best application for facilitating group interaction via the Internet. Includes groupware, real-time conferencing, social networking applications and other services that allow for collaboration over the Web. This category also includes digital communities.

Finalists are:

Winners will be announced during a special luncheon at All About the Cloud on May 25th.

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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, Cloud Computing, CODiEs, Finalists, Social Media, Software, Software Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
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