¤ 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:

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

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

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

¤ SIIA CEO Breakfast: James Casella, Reed Business Information - 10/21 in NYC
Vertical Search: The Future of B2B Search
James Casella, Chief Executive Officer of Reed Business Information, will discuss their vertical search strategy at the next installment of SIIA's CEO Breakfast Series. The Series showcases the innovation and thought leadership of SIIA members speaking on salient industry issues to an audience of influential New York-area executives. More information on Jim's presentation, as well as registration information, can be found here.

¤ Brown Bag: The Future of Information Outsourcing, 10/19 - NYC
Steven Sieck, Managing Partner at EPS-USA, will moderate the next Brown Bag Lunch, which will look ahead to the future of content and application outsourcing in the information industry. Further details on this "Members-Only" session - including registration information - can be found here. Anyone interested in participating as a panelist should contact Brian McCloskey at 202.789.4482.

¤ 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.

¤ The 21st Annual SIIA Codie Awards: Nominations Due October 14th
Help SIIA celebrate 21 years of excellence in the software industry. Nominate for the 21st Annual Codie Awards, the leading honor for the software and information industry’s finest products and services.

Don’t miss out on your company’s chance to gain instant prestige, industry recognition and media attention! Learn more about the 15 content industry-specific Codie Awards categories and nominate online here.

The deadline for all nominations is October 14, 2005. Finalists will be announced in January 2006 and winners will be revealed in May.

Questions? Contact Leila Rao at 202.789.4458.

¤ Information Industry Summit 2006 - NYC
SIIA's Content Division invites executives from the electronic publishing and content industries to attend an exclusive two-day Summit to discuss the strategic outlook for the industry. Confirmed speakers include: Terry McGraw (McGraw-Hill Companies), Dick Harrington (Thomson Corporation), Don Katz (Audible), Joe Mansueto (Morningstar) and Paul Sagan (Akamai). These industry leaders will offer their unique perspective on how users are taking control of their purchase, usage, storage and sharing of content. Details and registration information can be found here.


¤ Working Groups
The Content Division’s working groups are a great way to get involved with the SIIA. It provides members a way to learn about current industry issues and affords you a chance to work with peers at other companies. Membership to 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 Files Joint Amicus Brief Urging Supreme Court to Clarify Standard for Granting Injunctions in Patent Casts (eBay v MercExchange) (September 26)
¤ SIIA Analysis of House E&C Discussion Draft of Sept. 15th (September 19)
¤ SIIA Letter to California Gov. Schwarzenegger urging Veto of SB 833 (September 19)
¤ SIIA Letter to Department of Treasury and IRS Re: Treatment of Computer Software for Purpose of Section 199 (September 14)
¤ SIIA Intellectual Property Update (September 6)
¤ Government Affairs Council Briefing Book (July 26)


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

Comments are welcome!