Digital Discourse / Archives for Laura Greenback

Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) to Merge with SIIA

September 25, 2012 By

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) and the Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) today announced that they are merging. SIPA was founded as the Newsletter Publishers Association but its members now publish in many media and formats.

SIPA will become a division of SIIA and will continue to offer its membership programs, without change. SIIA will continue to offer all of the same programs and services that are currently available to its members, along with new programs now available through SIPA.

SIPA has represented the international specialized publishing industry for 35 years. It advances the interests of commercial information providers serving niche communities by providing education, training and peer-to-peer learning through online and in-person meetings and events. SIPA’s 295 members range from small one-person newsletters to large publishers such as BLR; Kiplinger; and Congressional Quarterly, an Economist Group Business.

SIPA will become SIIA’s sixth market-focused division, joining Education Technology, Software, Content, the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG), and the Financial Information Services Division (FISD). SIIA also has public policy and anti-piracy arms.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA. Follow the SIIA Public Policy team at @SIIAPolicy.

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Filed Under: Content Tagged With: , ,

SIIA and The McGraw Hill Companies Voice Support for Strong IP Protection in Latest Round of Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks

September 11, 2012 By
Dan Duncan

Dan Duncan, The McGraw Hill Companies

The latest round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks are happening in SIIA’s backyard in Leesburg, VA until Friday, and SIIA and several member companies have attended to voice support for the protection and effective enforcement of intellectual property rights.

SIIA member The McGraw Hill Companies spoke to the value of copyright and knowledge expansion in a presentation before delegates on Sunday. Dan Duncan, Senior Director for Government Affairs at The McGraw Hill Companies, explained that strong IP protections are an essential element in fostering the growth of new content services that will continue to spur innovative technologies and information products.

As online theft of content and software becomes more sophisticated and widespread throughout the world these innovative new products and services are increasingly at risk and the companies that create them are finding it more difficult to continue investing in existing products and funding new ones. Because online piracy has become a global epidemic that is not limited to just one or two countries, it is important for nations across the globe to join together to create a strong, common foundation of adequate and effective copyright protection and enforcement.

The adoption of strong IP protections by all countries in the TPP will more widely promote economic and social benefits for all nine countries partnering in the TPP.

View Dan’s slides:

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA. Follow the SIIA Public Policy team at @SIIAPolicy.

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Filed Under: Content, Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With: ,

SIIA Joins Call of Support for Maintaining Global Internet Freedom

August 15, 2012 By

SIIA and seven other trade groups today urged the Democratic and Republican parties to protect the Internet from unnecessary governmental control. SIIA signed two letters asking the Democratic and Republican National Committees to adopt language that embraces a free and open Internet in their party platforms.

The letters echo a House resolution–supported by SIIA and passed unanimously in early August—that pledges to uphold a global Internet free from unnecessary intergovernmental control.

Bipartisan commitment these ideals is critical, because several countries have offered misguided, potentially harmful Internet governance proposals to be considered at the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications in December. Both parties must work together to preserve and advance the successful multistakeholder model that governs the Internet today, to maintain Internet freedom for the United States and for countries around the world.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA. Follow the SIIA Public Policy team at @SIIAPolicy.

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Filed Under: Policy

5 Key Data Points from IBM’s Big Data Policy Event

June 27, 2012 By

IBM briefed policymakers today on how they can leverage big data to save money and address societal challenges. And the timing couldn’t have been better. Congress and federal agencies are trying to do more with less, and many are looking to a directive Obama announced in March, which allocates more than $200,000 a year to big data research and development projects.

Among other speakers, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), and VP For IBM Research Dr. David McQueeney took the stage to explain the power of big data. Here are five of the most compelling data points from the event:

  1. We create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day–and this number will continue to grow at an exponential rate. About 90 percent of world’s data was created in the last two years alone.
  2. The amount of data generated per hospital will increase from 167 terabytes to 665 terabytes by 2015, due to the incredible growth of medical images and electronic medical records. Big data will help doctors make better predictions by leveraging huge amounts of clinical information.
  3. The GSA stands to save an estimated $15 million a year by reducing power usage at 50 of the agencies highest energy-consuming buildings, with help from IBM software and sensors.
  4. Over 70% of members of the National Center for Manufacturing Services (NCMS) believe increased adoption of advanced computing would lead to competitive advantages. Yet only 6% of small to medium manufacturers in the US are taking full advantage of high performance computing.
  5. The retail industry misses out on $165 billion in sales each year because stores don’t have the right products in stock. Big data could help them analyze sales trends and better predict their needs.

So what should policymakers do with this knowledge? They should push for public-private partnerships and research to better optimize industries. IBM announced one such partnership at today’s event. With the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, IBM will use high performance computing to help solve problems like improving our electric grid, advancing manufacturing, and discovering new materials. The data behind it is clear: big data can help the US compete.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA. Follow the SIIA Public Policy team at @SIIAPolicy.

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Filed Under: Policy, Software Tagged With:

SIIA Op-Ed: Data-Driven Innovation is an Economic Driver

June 21, 2012 By

In a Roll Call op-ed today, SIIA President Ken Wasch explains how data is empowering innovation, and warns policymakers that a fixed regulatory approach could stunt economic growth.

The IT ecosystem is evolving at unprecedented speed, and data is becoming a driver of economic and social growth. Cloud computing, the ubiquity of smartphones, and improved bandwidth are fueling a new era of data-driven innovation, Wasch says.

“A range of previously unimaginable applications of data-driven innovation are already being produced — or will be in the near future. These innovations are making people’s lives better and safer and more prosperous, while also increasing energy efficiency and saving money.”

Wasch’s sentiment echoes a forum hosted earlier this month by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland. Attendees like Google, the National Institutes of Health, and Lockheed Martin came together to discuss the ways data can help address a range of national priorities. The opportunities are vast.

“Right now, hospitals are providing better care by analyzing data about the triage process and using that information to eliminate wasteful steps that prevent patients from getting to the doctor quickly. Traffic-management centers are processing millions of cellphone and GPS signals, combining them with a wide range of other data about car speeds, weather conditions and more to assess road conditions in real time and avoid traffic jams. And financial services companies can collect and integrate customer transaction information in real time to quickly identify questionable patterns and proactively enact new processing rules to reduce fraud.”

But if this technological and economic evolution is to truly take hold, it needs support from policymakers who can ensure that the conversation stays focused on how to best benefit customers and the economy at large. A fixed regulatory approach would only stifle innovation and hurt consumers. If industry and policymakers can work together, we can safeguard consumers and unleash data’s enormous potential for transformative growth.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA. Follow the SIIA Public Policy Team at @SIIAPolicy

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Filed Under: Policy, Policy - Privacy, Software Tagged With: , ,

SIIA Reviews New Domain Applications, Looks Out for IP

June 14, 2012 By

Now that ICANN has announced the 1,930 applications for new top level domains, SIIA is busy reviewing applications and looking for opportunities to protect intellectual property rights.

After a day of review, it’s clear that most of the applications appear to be “speculation” on common, generic terms—similar to the way registrants staked out claims in second-level names in the early days of the .com registry. The remaining applications were community applications, geographic applications, brand owners reserving their “.brand” strings, and some applications that were not translated on the list.

Below are some initial statistics on the applications:
• 1930 total applications, including 1409 unique strings and 754 in conflict or in multiple conflict
• 84 community based designations
• 66 geographic designations
• 116 are not translated on the list
• 911 of the applications came from North America, 675 from Europe, 303 from Asia-Pacific, 24 from Latin American and the Caribbean, 17 from Africa

SIIA’s biggest area of focus moving forward will be on the details of how the domains will be operated, with an eye toward intellectual property rights protection mechanisms, Whois database implementation, and other registration requirements.

SIIA’s Chief Litigation Counsel Scott Bain weighed in on potential areas of concern for IP rights holders:

“ICANN’s program may open up new opportunities, but it also presents a whole new frontier of potential—and likely—abuse by those seeking to profit from the name, reputation, and content of others.” – Washington Post

“They could take registrations on unlimited variations of trademarked names. Or they could have websites selling content without the authorization of the content owner. It just multiplies exponentially the cyber-squatting that already occurs with dot-com.” – SF Chronicle

SIIA will continue to seek out opportunities for public comment and consultation with the US government.

Read the full op-ed.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property, Software

SIIA Public Sector Innovation Group Announces Founding Board of Directors

May 24, 2012 By

SIIA today announced the founding members of the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) Board of Directors. PSIG is a newly formed division of SIIA dedicated to helping technology firms take advantage of the evolving federal investment in cloud-related technologies.

Newly appointed board members are executives from SIIA member companies and will add a critical voice to the ongoing debate on a host of key issues affecting the government IT industry, including cloud computing, FedRAMP, mobility, security, big data, procurement and innovation. The PSIG Board will help develop the Division’s initiatives and determine the projects, activities and events—which will include thought leadership around the implementation of cloud computing and an executive roundtable series with key decision-makers.

The Public Sector Innovation Group Board of Directors will be chaired by Doug Bourgeois, Vice President and Chief Cloud Executive at VMware, Inc.

All executives were appointed to serve one‐year terms.

Public Sector Innovation Group Board of Directors 2012:
• Mike Binko, President and CEO, kloudtrack
• Doug Bourgeois, VP & Chief Cloud Executive, VMware, Inc.
• Bart Epstein, SVP and GM, Military and Federal, Tutor.com
• Mark Forman, Founder, Government Transaction Services
• Tom Gann, Vice President, Government Relations, McAfee
• Gunnar Hellekson, Chief Technology Strategist, RedHat US Public Sector
• Joel Hinzman, Senior Director, Federal Affairs, Oracle
• Robert Hodges, Federal Business Development Lead, Bancroft Technology Group
• John Landwehr, VP Digital Government Solutions, Adobe
• David Lucas, Chief Strategy Officer, Global Computer Enterprises
• Preston McGee, Director of Business Development, Peniel Solutions LLC
• David Mihalchik, Business Development Executive – Federal, Google
• Michelle Rudnicki, VP, Cloud Computing IBM
• Jeff Ward, Vice President – Federal, Fiberlink

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Government, Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, PSIG, Software Tagged With: ,
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