Events:
¤ Brown Bag: Content Aggregators in a New Era, 11/17 - NYC
Hal Espo, President of Contextual Connections, LLC, will moderate the next Brown Bag Lunch, which will dissect the myriad changes facing both traditional and new Content Aggregators in a user-based environment. Further details on this session - including registration information - can be found here.

¤ 2006 Content Forum: Steering Committee Volunteers Needed
In anticipation of the 2006 Content Forum, we are seeking volunteers to participate on the steering committee. The 2006 Content Forum will be held May 14 - 16, 2006 at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco, CA. Members interested in participating on this committee should contact Brian McCloskey at 202.789.4482.

¤ SIIA CEO Breakfast: James Casella: Presentation Available!
Vertical Search: The Future of B2B Search
On October 21st, Jim Casella, Chief Executive Officer of Reed Business Information, presented Reed Business Information's vertical search strategy. The presentation was highly insightful and well attended. A copy of Jim's PowerPoint Presentation is available here for members to download. Both your username and password are your email address. If you encounter any problems, please contact Brian McCloskey at 202.789.4482.

¤ SIIA Brown Bag On Demand Webcast\Podcast Replays
SIIA and ScribeStudio are pleased to announce that podcast and webcast archives of recent Brown Bags are available for download:

      • "The Future of Information Outsourcing" (October 19th) Webcast / Podcast

      • "Creating Strategic Partnerships that Work" (September 27) Webcast / Podcast

      • "Information User Behavior Changes" (July 28th) Webcast / Podcast

Access to this On Demand feature is limited to SIIA Members only. The password is "siia" (case sensitive).

¤ Information Industry Summit 2006 – Early Bird Registration Ends 12/16/05!
The agenda is set and speakers have been identified for the Information Industry Summit 2006. To save $300 with early bird registration, register now. You'll join 400 executives from the electronic publishing and content industries, including global thought leaders and tomorrow's innovators…Jason Calcanis (Weblogs), Esther Dyson (CNet) and Jeff Jarvis (BuzzMachine) to name a few. Space and time are limited, so register today!

¤ ABM International Licensing & Partnering Seminar, 11/16 - Chicago
Among business-to-business publishers, the pace of international expansion is quickly accelerating. Publishers see tremendous potential in having a global presence. As advertisers continue their own push to globalize, b-to-b publishers must expand with them. Frank Cutitta, CEO of The Center for Global Branding, will offer his expertise concerning strategic navigation on which markets are critical for revenue growth, during American Business Media’s International Licensing & Partnering seminar November 16th at the Westin River North Hotel, Chicago, IL. See full agenda here.


News:
¤ Kudos to Content Division Board Member David 'Skip' Prichard
The SIIA would like to congratulate Content Division Board Member David 'Skip' Prichard on his recent promotion to President, Higher Education and Library Businesses for Information and Learning, ProQuest Company. Skip is currently serving his second term on the Content Division Board, which he has been an active member of since April 2003. Further details on this achievement can be found in the official Press Release.

¤ Outsell: FutureFacts, Industry Outlook
Each year Outsell publishes its annual information industry outlook and makes it available to the industry. Titled FutureFacts: Information Industry Outlook 2006, it contains an industry forecast through 2008 for eight segments: Search, Aggregation & Distribution Services; Market Research, Reports & Services (IT and non-IT sectors); Education & Training; Company, Credit & Financial; Scientific, Technical & Medical; Legal; News & Trade; and Yellow Pages & Directories.

We are pleased to offer you a download of the report, with Outsell's compliments. Simply click on the link, register, and enjoy the FutureFacts!


Working Groups:
The Content Division’s working groups are a great way to get involved with the SIIA. They provide members a way to learn about current industry issues and afford a chance to work with peers at other companies. Membership in these groups is open to any employee from a member company. Please contact the chairs to find out more.

¤ Business Models Working Group
  Judy Hsieh, BusinessWeek Online (Chair)
The Business Models Working Group focuses on assessing and providing information on best practices for business models for electronic content. The goal is to track and report on how buyers and sellers of data are successfully managing distribution of digital content.

¤ Standards Working Group
  Ken Ficara, Wall Street Journal (Chair)
The Content Standards Working Group serves as a resource to SIIA members who are interested in adopting standards for content format and management, but who are confused by the plethora of choices and confusing claims. This group also brings a business focus to standards discussions, in the hope of influencing standards groups to concentrate on solving the problems that publishers and editors face.

¤ Content Anti-Piracy (CAP) Group
  Keith Kupferschmid, SIIA (Chair)
The CAP group is a collection of content providers who gather under the auspices of SIIA's Anti-Piracy group to address compliance, digital rights management, and data piracy issues.

¤ Online Fraud Prevention Working Group
  Pamela Springer, ECNext, Inc. (Chair)
The objective of this initiative is to review and identify areas of fraud that online publishers need to be aware of and concerned about and develop a short “best practices” guide on Personal Identity Information for online publishers. The guide is aimed at helping to improve internal practices around payment processing in order to mitigate the risk to publishers of fraudulent online purchases – both for themselves and their customers. The group will be kicking off in September 2005.


¤ Government Affairs/Public Policy
SIIA's Government Affairs program aggressively promotes and protects the interests of its member companies in legal and public policy debates by working with state, federal and international policymakers, organizing grassroots activism and participating in landmark legal decisions. SIIA is the leading voice on key issues affecting the software and digital content industry, particularly with regard to electronic commerce and the digital marketplace.

The following updates and commentaries have been posted in the past month:

¤ SIIA Letter to Sen. Judiciary Committee in Support of Budget Reconciliation Proposal Providing Workforce Relief (October 17)
¤ Amicus Brief Urging Federal Circuit to Grant Rehearing of SotrageTek Decision (October 11)
¤ SIIA Policy Update: SEC Solicits Software Industry Input for Helping Manage Interactive Financial Data (October 6)


Edited by Brian McCloskey, Program Manager, Content Division, SIIA, 202.789.4482

Comments are welcome!