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.

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.

With all the discussion about job creation and a difficult economy in Washington, it’s hard to see the positive outliers on the edges. STEM positions, as reported by Mel Schiavelli at the US News and World Report, are being created every day for those lucky enough to have the education necessary to take on the task. Unfortunately STEM, short for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, is the greatest weakness of the US education system. Ranking 35th in math literacy and 29th in science (according to the Institute of Education Sciences), we as a nation not only risk not filling our open technical positions but have already begun to struggle against international competition. Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, claims the US’s worrisome STEM rankings are caused by a fear of failure. As he tells the US News and World Report:

“I think we’ve created a society that is so risk-averse that kids are taught—”Whatever you do, don’t fail.” A consequence of being unwilling to fail is that you’ll never try really big, bold things. Once you define success as loss of failure, we’ve lost innovation, we’ve lost our edge.”

Kamen is right, but there’s a difference between being right and being easy to implement. In an underfunded school what little laboratory equipment they have is expensive, delicate, and difficult to replace. Teachers fear losing their resources in the classroom, which prevents students from having complete and open access to hands-on lessons in the sciences. Innovation, while not outright forbidden, can not adequately flourish in this environment.

So what’s the solution? Have you checked in with a computer game lately?

The educational technology sector has seen potential in utilizing video games since their inception; the interest has only grown stronger and broader over time. The Education Game or Simulation category proved to be one of the most popular for entrants at this year’s CODiE Awards. If you look at the list of finalists, the popularity is no wonder. Game developers have created an unprecedented number of educational games for a bevy of diverse audiences, from small children to high schoolers and beyond the traditional K-12 system. For instance, the 2011 CODiE winner Hospitality and Tourism Interactive uses an interactive and online virtual world to encourage college students to explore career paths in the hospitality industry.

While controversy remains on to what extent educational and serious video games can teach children one thing is certain – in a video game you really learn how to fail. James Paul Gee called this the “Psychosocial Moratorium Principle” in his landmark book What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. Put simply, in a video game your consequences for failing are far lower than in a real world environment; thus the player feels more comfortable with taking risks and innovating in a virtual space. While “death” is a common trope in almost all games, most still save your progress with only some token punishment for whatever error caused your loss of life (such as a loss of experience, lowered health, or the loss of a certain amount of progress). Even the most major losses can be rectified by starting again. Pride is the only loss one might endure in the “real” world. If only students felt the same way when playing with a chemistry set or trying to practically apply Newton’s 3 Laws.

With a virtual lab, students could play with all the different disciplines in the STEM spectrum without fearing reprisal for failure. Meanwhile, parents and teachers would not have to fear injury as a result of a lab experiment. While in a real world classroom students would not be allowed to use a Bunsen burner alone, in a virtual environment the same students could mix any number of chemicals and see the results, both the desired and the undesirable. This idea extends far past traditional K-12 schools. Carnegie Mellon and Stanford are working together on EteRNA, a game environment for simulating and experimenting with RNA molecules. Through this powerful application gamers are not only learning about RNA but helping scientists uncover new breakthroughs in how the tiny cells behave. Innovation might be scary in the real world, but in a virtual environment even the impossible can be tested and played with – and made a form of entertainment as well.

See also:
Second Avenue’s Cygames
Muzzy Lane’s Clear Lab Project

SIIA announced finalists for its Digital Content CODiE Awards categories on December 1. Winners will be announced at a special CODiE Awards dinner on January 24 at the 2012 Information Industry Summit in New York City.

Digital Content award nominees include applications, products, and services that are developed by data and content publishers, as well as platform providers, for use in business, government, academic, or other organizational settings. Digital Content nominees are competing for 14 different awards, including Best Consumer Information Service, Best Lead Generation Service, Best Legal Solution, Best Medical and Health Information Product, Best Online News Service, and Best Online Science or Technology Service. Finalists enter the last phase of judging in which SIIA members review and cast their votes.

SIIA CODiE Awards are the industry’s only peer-reviewed rewards program. All nominated products were first reviewed by volunteer judges who are leaders in their field and represent the content industry ecosystem. Judge scoring, based on category-specific criteria, is the basis for selecting finalists.

2012 Digital Content CODiE Awards Finalists:

Best Consumer Information Resource
Safari Books Online – Safari Books Online
LexisNexis Group – Lawyers.com
Environmental Data Resources – Environmental Issues Report (EIR)

Best Content Aggregation Service
ProQuest – The Vogue Archive
Moreover Technologies – Newsdesk
LexisNexis Group – Nexist Digital Rights Management Solution
Reportlinker – Reportlinker
Courseload, Inc. – Courseload

Best Content Aggregation Service
ProQuest – The Vogue Archive
Moreover Technologies – Newsdesk
LexisNexis Group – Nexis
Reportlinker – Reportlinker
Courseload, Inc. – Courseload

Best Digital Rights Management Solution
SafeNet, Inc. – SRM Group – Sentinel Cloud
iCopyright – iCopyright Article Tools + Syndication
Verance Corporation – Cinavia

Best Financial/Market Data Information Service
PitchBook Data, Inc. – PitchBook
ZUVINOVA – TTR – Transactional Track Record
Narrative Science – Authoring Engine
Thomson Reuters – Thomson Reuters Multimedia Center

Best Governance, Risk & Compliance Information Solution
Bloomberg Government – Bloomberg Government (BGOV)
Wolters Kluwer Financial Services – ARC Logics
Dow Jones & Company – Dow Jones Risk & Compliance

Best Lead Generation Service
NetProspex – NetProspex B2B Contact Solutions
OneSource Information Services – OneSource iSell
LexisNexis Group – Lawyers.com

Best Legal Solution
LexisNexis Group – LexisNexis® Client Center
Bloomberg Law – Bloomberg Law
LexisNexis Group – Lexis for Microsoft Office

Best Medical and Health Information Product
Leadership Directories, Inc. – Leadership® Health Focus
Davita VillageHealth – Capella Integrated Care Management
Wolters Kluwer Health – UpToDate for iPhone

Best Online Business Information Service
Cision – Cision
InfoDesk – InfoViewer
LexisNexis Group – LexisNexis Dossier
LexisNexis Group – LexisNexis Corporate Affiliations
Zoom Information Inc. – ZoomInfo Pro

Best Online News Service
Thomson Reuters – Thomson Reuters Multimedia Center
Narrative Science – Authoring Engine
Thomson Reuters – Thomson Reuters News & Insight on Checkpoint
Acquire Media – NewsEdge.com

Best Online Science or Technology Service
Reprints Desk, Inc. – Bibliogo
Elsevier BV – SciVal Spotlight
Pubget, Inc. – pubget.com
Safari Books Online – Safari Books Online

Best Political Information Resource
LexisNexis Group – Nexis
Bloomberg Government – Bloomberg Government (BGOV)
Business and Legal Resources (BLR) – Tennessee Legislation Service

Best Sales & Marketing Intelligence
Eloqua Corporation – Eloqua Revenue Suite
OneSource Information Services – OneSource iSell
Boardroom Insiders – Boardroom Insiders
InsideView – InsideView

Best Solution Integrating Content into Workflow
NetProspex – NetProspex B2B Contact Solutions
Cision – Cision
Elsevier, Science and Medical – SciVerse Applications
LexisNexis Group – Lexis for Microsoft Office
Wolters Kluwer Health – UpToDate for iPhone

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

Nominations are now open for the 2012 CODiE Awards – until October 7th. Nominate today and check out the 2012 CODiE website for more information.

Nominations are now open for the 2012 CODiE Awards – until October 7th. Nominate today and check out the 2012 CODiE website for more information.

Nominations are now open for 2012 CODiE Awards – until October 7th. Be sure to nominate today – and check out the announcement video and the CODiE website!

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.

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.

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:

• Adobe Acrobat X, Adobe Systems, Inc.

• iAPPS Content Manager, Bridgeline Software, Inc.

• EQUELLA, EQUELLA

• LexisNexis Publisher, LexisNexis Group

• Luxid, TEMIS

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:

• Calpont InfiniDB, Calpont

• Cvent Supplier Network, Cvent

• MarkLogic Server, MarkLogic Corporation

• TrackVia Cloud Application Platform, TrackVia

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

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:

• MimioStudio 7 Software, DYMO/Mimio ITT

• VizZle, Monarch Teaching Technologies

• SuccessMaker Collaborate, Pearson

• ActivInspire, Promethean Inc.

• Securexam Remote Proctor, Software Secure, Inc.

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:

• Gaggle.Net, Gaggle.Net, Inc.

• EasyTech, Learning.com

• Livemocha Active Courses, Livemocha

• Big Bus 2, Sherston Software

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

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:

• CloudStack, Cloud.com

• Informatica Cloud, Informatica Corporation

• NetSuite, NetSuite, Inc.

• Plex Online, Plex Systems, Inc.

• RightScale Cloud Management Platform, RightScale, Inc.

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:

• CCH KnowledgeConnect, CCH, a Wolters Kluwer Business

• commonground, Environmental Data Resources

• Salesforce Chatter, Salesforce.com

• journ(i)e, TH(i)NQ Ed

• Wimba Collaboration Suite, Wimba, Inc.

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