Digital Discourse / Archives for Laura Greenback

SIIA Launches Public Sector Innovation Group to Address Changes to the IT Acquisition Environment

March 15, 2012 By

SIIA today announced the launch of a new membership group to help technology firms take advantage of the evolving Federal investment in cloud-related technologies. SIIA also announced that it has brought on Mike Hettinger, a Capitol Hill veteran and leading expert on public sector management, to direct the new division.

Called the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG), this new membership division will help cloud service providers and Third Party Assessment Organizations (3PAO) take advantage of the evolving Federal investment in cloud-related technologies. PSIG is the only organization of its kind to serve this innovative segment of the public sector technology market. While SIIA been a leader for years in guiding tech companies in the government procurement process, the formation of PSIG reflects the dramatically changed government marketplace.

The move to the cloud is an enormous opportunity for many government contractors. The creation of PSIG will help SIIA members understand the changing landscape, seize upon new government initiatives, and generally be better positioned for success with Federal IT procurement.

SIIA has been guiding our members through this process for six years, with our annual Cloud/Gov conference at the centerpiece. When the Federal government issued its ‘Cloud First’ policy last year and adopted the FedRAMP Concept of Operations, we knew it was time to do more to help our members understand the impact of changes to the IT acquisition environment.

Hettinger most recently served as Executive Director overseeing Strategic Planning and Market Development in Grant Thornton’s Global Public Sector Practice, where he was responsible for firm-wide strategic business planning, federal marketing, and external relations. Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Hettinger was the staff director of the House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on Government Management, Finance and Accountability. Hettinger also has an extensive background in public affairs, having served as a Public Policy Counselor at Patton Boggs LLP, where he oversaw large-scale lobbying and public affairs campaigns. Prior to joining Patton Boggs, Hettinger was Chief of Staff to Representative Tom Davis of Virginia.

Read more about PSIG in today’s Government Computer News feature.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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

London Stock Exchange named Best of the Best for Financial Information Commercial Policies by FISD Consumer Constituency Group

March 8, 2012 By

FISD’s Consumer Constituency Group today honored the London Stock Exchange with the first-ever “Best of the Best” Award for Excellence in Financial Information Commercial Policies. The award, presented today in Paris, is given on an ad-hoc basis when a supplier demonstrates excellence in the development and roll-out of new administrative policies.

The London Stock Exchange was selected for the first-ever ‘Bobbie’ award for its dedication to responding to customer needs, development of a simple, standardized administrative process, and adherence to industry best practices.

The CCG was particularly impressed with the introduction of a per-user model, which allows netting across vendors. It simplifies the unit of count, which allows for the introduction of a new non-display charge, along with its new non-display policy. It is the hope of the group that the award will serve as an incentive for all suppliers to implement their policies with equal clarity and reasonableness.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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Filed Under: FISD Blog Tagged With: , ,

Dispatch from Cloud/Gov: Perfect Storm for Cloud and the Public Sector

February 23, 2012 By

Government officials and cloud vendors were enthusiastic when sharing their case studies and predictions for public sector cloud adoption at  last week’s Cloud/Gov conference in Washington, DC. Here are a few media highlights:

Government Moves Toward Cloud Computing ‘Perfect Storm’ (CIO Magazine)

In his opening keynote, GSA’s David McClure discussed the factors that have aligned to make this the best possible environment for public sector cloud computing adoption:

“I think we now have a perfect storm. We have a budget crisis, a new wave of technology that’s actually entered in [to the government]. We have a new generation of CIO and IT leadership in the federal government that I think is very open to this kind of environment.”

GSA creating cloud marketplace for federal services (Federal News Radio)

McClure took it a step further, sharing news about plans for a federal cloud marketplace:

“We want to create a robust environment so that the government is maximizing the use of its computing environment, which is not occurring and which has not occurred historically,” McClure said after a speech Thursday at the Cloud/Gov 2012 event sponsored by the Software and Information Industry Association in Washington. “We are talking to government entities that we think are natural candidates to be in that provisioning space. The second step we have to do is to address the policy, security and all those other things that from a government-to-government interaction, that we have a process in place that is quick, efficient and used the same across government.”

Salesforce.com: ‘Cloud computing debate Is over’ for public sector (IT World)

Cloud and IT vendors from Google, IBM, Red Hat and Salesforce.com were candid about cloud computing security goals.

“You need to evaluate the security controls that are in place and not just say, ‘Oh I’ve got a private cloud so it much be secure,’” said [David] Mihalchik [of Google], who argued by way of analogy that a private plane, say a two-seat Cessna, is not necessarily as safe as a commercial, “multi-tenant” jetliner available to the public.

 

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Cloud/Gov, Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, PSIG, Software, Software Events

SIIA Names Kathy Greenler Sexton to Lead Content Division

February 2, 2012 By

Kathy Greenler SextonSIIA today named Kathy Greenler Sexton as Vice President and General Manager of the Content Division. Sexton will lead SIIA’s efforts to shape and support leading information and media companies by providing leadership, advocacy, critical market information, and business development opportunities.

“Kathy is a dynamic, strategic and hands-on executive with deep experience serving information, Internet and media companies,” said Ken Wasch, President of SIIA. “Using her deep digital content experience, Kathy will support our member companies—which provide the content, software and other enabling technologies that drive the content industry—helping them identify business and partnership opportunities, understand disruptive technologies, maximize their monetization models, connect emerging companies with capital, and educate them on the fast-changing policy initiatives in Washington that could impact their bottom-lines. I look forward to working with Kathy to enhance both the leading and emerging media and information companies that are part of our membership.”

“The information market is in the middle of a transformation unleashed by the internet, digital, mobile technology and the proliferation of data,” said Sexton. “These changes are impacting everything from business models to service delivery and operations, and they represent both disruptions and opportunities for our member companies. I am honored to lead the SIIA Content Division, and I look forward to helping our members successfully navigate these market challenges.”

Sexton has had a history of continued success in the digital content industry. After working in broadcast television and international marketing roles, Sexton was a founding member, lead marketer and publisher for the web-based search engine pioneer AltaVista. She established the company one of the top five globally trafficked sites. She also grew Individual.com into a top online news property, successfully selling to Office.com/Winstar, a leading brand and number one e-commerce site for small business. Sexton also launched HighBeam Research, dramatically growing revenue, traffic and subscribers and positioned it for sale to Gale/Cengage. She also successfully transitioned BLR from traditional publisher to a streamlined online information provider and re-launched ZoomInfo, establishing it as a leader in the competitive B2B information market. Sexton earned a BA in communications from Boston College.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Content, Content VIA Platforms, Events Tagged With: ,

First-Ever Peter Jackson Innovation Award Goes to Internet Archive Founder Brewster Kahle

January 25, 2012 By

Yesterday, SIIA unveiled the first-ever Peter Jackson Innovation Award and presented it to Brewster Kahle, digital librarian and founder of the Internet Archive. The award honors the late Thomson Reuters vice president and chief scientist, and his profound impact on the B2B publishing industry. Dr. Jackson was an active board member of the SIIA Content Division.

SIIA created the Peter Jackson Innovation Award to recognize individuals who are an inspiration to the entire digital content industry. Brewster Kahle is an industry pioneer who has dedicated his career to philanthropy and efforts to improve and preserve digital content.

Because of Brewster’s work, the Internet Archive now offers a staggering 85 billion pieces of web geology. His unyielding vision and creativity has made it possible for our society to chronicle the growth of the Internet and continually celebrate the lasting impact of digital content. In the same spirit as Dr. Jackson, Brewster has demonstrated tremendous commitment to advancing digital media, and in doing so, has been an inspiration to so many of us.

The Peter Jackson Innovation Award was given to Kahle during the SIIA’s annual CODiE Awards dinner, held in conjunction with the Information Industry Summit. In addition to the award, a donation of $1,000 will be made in Kahle’s name to the Peter Jackson Fund for Keyboard and Guitar at the MacPhail Center for Music. The Peter Jackson Fund for Keyboard and Guitar recognizes the profound impact of music on Dr. Jackson’s life by providing music lessons for disadvantaged children.

Beyond his achievements with the Internet Archive, Kahle has worked in other areas of digital content and technology, including the Open Content Alliance, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the GNU Project. His academic studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were in the area of artificial intelligence—an area of interest also shared by Dr. Jackson.

View the memorial video for Peter, which was shown during the reception:

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Content, Information Industry Summit Tagged With: , ,

SIIA Announces CODiE Award Winners for Digital Content Industry

January 25, 2012 By

SIIA announced the winners of the 2012 CODiE Awards in the digital content industry during a special awards reception and dinner yesterday. Fourteen winners were recognized for products and services deployed specifically for the digital content market, in conjunction with SIIA’s 11th annual Information Industry Summit, held Jan 24-25 in New York City.

IIS Jan 2012 NYC-218

View SIIA and John Blossom‘s pictures from the awards reception.

The 89 nominated products and services were first reviewed by third-party judges, whose evaluations determined the 52 finalists. SIIA members then reviewed these finalists and voted to select the winners.

The CODiE Awards, originally called the Excellence in Software Awards, were established in 1986 by the Software Publishers Association (SPA), now SIIA, so pioneers of the then-nascent software industry could evaluate and honor each other’s work. Since being established in 1986, the CODiE Awards program has recognized more than 1,000 companies for achieving greatness in the software and information industries.

Check out tweets, photos and more from the awards reception on the CODiE Awards Storify.

The 2012 CODiE Award Winners, listed by category, product/service and company, include:

Best Consumer Information Resource
Safari Books Online – Safari Books Online

Best Content Aggregation Service
ProQuest – The Vogue Archive

Best Digital Rights Management Solution
SafeNet, Inc. – SRM Group – Sentinel Cloud

Best Financial/Market Data Information Service
PitchBook Data, Inc. – PitchBook

Best Governance, Risk & Compliance Information Solution
Bloomberg Government – Bloomberg Government (BGOV)

Best Lead Generation Service
NetProspex – NetProspex B2B Contact Solutions

Best Legal Solution
LexisNexis Group – LexisNexis Client Center

Best Medical and Health Information Product
Leadership Directories, Inc. – Leadership Health Focus

Best Online Business Information Service
Cision – Cision

Best Online News Service
Thomson Reuters – Thomson Reuters Multimedia Center

Best Online Science or Technology Service
Reprints Desk, Inc. – Bibliogo

Best Political Information Resource
LexisNexis Group – Nexis

Best Sales & Marketing Intelligence
Eloqua Corporation – Eloqua Revenue Suite

Best Solution Integrating Content Into Workflow
NetProspex – NetProspex B2B Contact Solutions

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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Filed Under: CODiEs, Content, Information Industry Summit Tagged With: , ,

D.C. Court Decision is a Victory for Piracy Whistleblowers and the First Amendment

January 18, 2012 By

The D.C. Court of Appeals ruled last week that a person who reported alleged software piracy to SIIA is entitled to remain anonymous, a decision that sets a First Amendment precedent that will protect people who report piracy or other alleged corporate misconduct.

The case centered on the efforts of Solers Inc. to unmask an anonymous informant who had accused it of software piracy and filed a report with SIIA. Solers, a Virginia-based technology company, complained of defamation, and served a subpoena upon SIIA that demanded the identity of the informant.

SIIA contested the subpoena, noting that in the two-decade history of its anti-piracy program, it has never disclosed the identity of any informant that wished to remain anonymous. SIIA asserted that Solers’ allegations did not trump the anonymous speech rights of the informant, and the appellate court agreed, ruling that Solers’ allegations of defamation were insufficient to overcome the First Amendment rights of an individual (“John Doe”) to engage in anonymous criticism.

The appellate decision is an important vindication of the First Amendment speech rights of informants or whistleblowers. SIIA’s sources take risks in reporting software piracy and we take very seriously the significant concerns they may have about their identities being disclosed. As the Solers case demonstrates, SIIA will stop at nothing to protect the identities of those who report software and content piracy to SIIA in confidence.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy Tagged With: ,
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