Digital Discourse / Archives for global

10 digital media trends you cannot ignore

September 13, 2013 By

Digital Content & Media Summit

As traditional publishing transitions to digital content, whether web, mobile, social, video, data, events or communities, so the rules of the game are changing. Publishers need to look outside their own experience and industry and learn new skills from technology and entertainment businesses.

In the last two weeks, I have spoken to twenty media and technology innovators, who are all speaking at the forthcoming  SIIA Digital Content & Media Summit, taking place 23-25 Sept in London.

These are ten digital media trends that they are already exploiting and that publishers cannot ignore.
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Filed Under: Content Events, Digital Content & Media Summit, SIIA UK Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

SIPAlert Daily – Not always best to focus on just one thing

August 21, 2013 By

Last night I was sure that I lost my card to get into our building. I was bemoaning the red tape I would encounter today to get a new one when it turned up at the bottom of my briefcase. (It’s usually in my pocket.) So this morning all I could think about was that card and the firm grip I had on it. Alas, I emerged from the D.C. Metro and realized I had left my phone home.

The moral: Focusing on just one thing may cause you to lose sight of some others. Here are five tips in five areas of your business. Email me if one rings true; might not be best to call or text me today.

1. Build trust with an audience. Ben Heald, CEO of Sift Digital—who will be speaking at SIIA’s Digital Content & Media Summit next month in London—wants you to be more open when you speak to colleagues and audiences. He recounts a talk he gave to local start-up entrepreneurs where he spoke about the issues and mistakes that his company had dealt with. “I could easily have given them a glossier version of events, in which we smoothly got to 130 staff and £8m revenue, but the learning experience wouldn’t have been nearly so strong,” he wrote in his blog. “The audience seemed to be interested—loads of questions and comments, good chats afterwards, LinkedIn requests, personal emails and even an invitation to repeat the talk in Manchester. …once again it was a reminder that if you want to build trust with an audience you need to put your real self out there.”

2. Think global. From Elana Fine, managing director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business: “Understand every business is a global business. I repeat. Understand every business is a global business and every entrepreneur is a global entrepreneur. For those of you who use the business model canvas as a planning tool—think of your canvas and look at which box represents a global opportunity. Is it a customer segment, a manufacturing partner or a distribution channel?”

3. Market to inspire participation. Ariana Huffington on what Jeff Bezos should do with The Washington Post (from an article in the Washington City Paper): “The first thing…is start to bring the incredible level of consumer engagement that he created at Amazon to the paper. I’ve always said the future of journalism is going to be a hybrid future—one that combines the best tools of traditional media…with the best tools of the digital world, like speed and engagement. Journalism is moving from a mode of presentation to participation.”

4. Improve meetings. Speaking of Bezos, Daniel Pink writes in his book, To Sell Is Human, that the Amazon founder often includes an empty chair at the table in important planning meetings. It represents the customer: “Seeing it encourages meeting attendees to take the perspective of the invisible but essential person. What’s going through her mind? What desires and concerns? What would she think of the ideas we are putting forward?” While you’re looking at that empty chair,” writes Jill Geisler of Poynter, “remember to make sure you think of every possible customer that could occupy it—not just those who look and sound like the colleagues in the room with you.

5. Truly commit to digital first. Writing on the Poynter site, Cory Bergman, GM of NBC’s Breaking News, chronicled Facebook’s mobile turnaround. ”Even at a thriving Silicon Valley startup full of employees in their twenties and thirties, [CEO Mark] Zuckerberg battled a desktop-centric culture. He backed up his ‘mobile first’ declaration with his own behavior. He removed his desktop monitor from his desk. Whenever someone pitched him an idea, he would ask, ‘What does that look like on mobile?’ He urged staff to ditch their iPhones for Android phones to more closely mirror the population of Facebook mobile users.” Note: 85% of Breaking News’ visits now originate from a mobile device.

 

To subscribe to the SIPAlert Daily, create or update your SIIA User profile and select “SIPA interest.”

Ronn LevineRonn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at @SIPAOnline

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Filed Under: SIPA, SIPAlert Daily, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Ed Tech Opportunities in China

November 9, 2012 By

The large population and growing attention to education make China an enticing and interesting market for education technology expansion. SIIA’s recent webinar on China  outlined opportunities and challenges associated with entering this market.  Thought leaders Charles Callis(Vice President, Waterford) , Chris Livaccari(Associate Director of Education and Chinese Language Initiatives, The Asia Society) and Jim Teicher(President,  Cybersmart! Education Company) spoke in depth about their experiences with the Chinese market and country.

Five takeaways from the webinar:


  1. Do not think of China as one homogenous market. The country is geographically diverse, and each region is, in effect, its own market. In addition to geographical segmentation, there are differences between schools and grades, as well as between institutions and informal learning outside of school. Much of the purchasing is done on a local level, and large scale purchases by provinces is not common.


  2. English language learning is a huge market in China. There are approximately the same number of English speakers in China as there are in the US.  China and the United States are becoming more intertwined and shared language exchange is key in the view of many Chinese.


  3. Among the biggest drivers in the Chinese market are parents. With the one child policy and other cultural norms, it is common that parents will invest their own resources heavily in their child’s education.  These investments include private schooling (in the US and China) as well as heavy investment in after school study tools and programs.


  4. Tablets are increasingly popular in China because of their lower price point and enhanced capabilities, but infrastructure is the more challenging part of the equation.  Finding quality content to place on the tablets is increasingly important.


  5. In the near future, 70% of the population of China will be urban, causing stress on city schools and infrastructure and forcing options for distance and computer-based learning to become more common.

 

The SIIA Global Working group produces country specific webinars on a regular basis to expand SIIA members’ knowledge of global trends in education.  Any SIIA member interested in learning more about the China market or any prior spotlight country should visit our webinar archive.

 

 

Lindsay HarmanLindsay Harman is Market and Policy Analyst for the SIIA Education Division.

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Filed Under: Education, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

SIIA Applauds Resolution to Promote Global Internet Free from Government Control

May 31, 2012 By

SIIA lauds the bi-partisan House Resolution (H. Con. Res. 127) introduced introduced by House Commerce Committee leadership yesterday, which reaffirmed “the consistent and unequivocal policy of the United States to promote a global Internet free from government control and preserve and advance the successful multi-stakeholder model that governs the Internet today.” This was followed by a hearing in the House Commerce Committee airing the problems in international regulation of the Internet.

The concern is that control over the Internet might move to international bodies that could be hostile to today’s reality of Internet freedom. Last year, for example, Russia, China, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan proposed a code of conduct for information security on the Internet at the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly. The code said many sensible things including an injunction to “fully respect rights and freedom in information space, including rights and freedom to search for, acquire and disseminate information on the premise of complying with relevant national laws and regulations.”

It also said that “policy authority for Internet-related public issues is the sovereign right of States, which have rights and responsibilities for international Internet-related public policy issues.” Many government agencies, especially law enforcement and national security departments, but also consumer protection agencies, would readily agree that their jurisdiction extends to actions on the Internet.

The real worry is that in the application of these broad principles countries or international agencies acting on their behalf could effectively limit the ability of individuals and firms to exchange Internet traffic across borders and create what amount to digital trade barriers of the 21st century. All countries have benefited from the open, transparent character of the Internet, and will continue to do so under the current multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance.

SIIA applauds Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), along with Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), and Ranking Member Anna Eshoo (D-CA) for their sponsorship of this important resolution defending Internet freedom.

Mark MacCarthy, Vice President, Public Policy at SIIA, directs SIIA’s public policy initiatives in the areas of intellectual property enforcement, information privacy, cybersecurity, cloud computing and the promotion of educational technology.

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Filed Under: Policy Tagged With: ,