Leveraging the New Normal

February 17, 2012 By Mark Schneiderman Leave a Comment
As outlined by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan more than a year ago, the New Normal in education is the challenge of “doing more with less” in our pK-20 education system. But as Duncan — and others including SIIA would respond – “this challenge can, and should be, embraced as an opportunity to make dramatic improvements . . . [E]normous opportunities for improving the productivity of our education system lie ahead if we are smart, innovative, and courageous in rethinking the status quo.”

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) continues to support our education system’s efforts to reimagine and retool by personalizing learning and leveraging technology and digital learning. SIIA’s latest effort is the March 7-8 Ed Tech Government Forum, which will bring SIIA member technology and education entrepreneurs together with national, state and local education leaders to dialogue about the policies of the New Normal digital age in education. 

The following keynote speakers will share how at the local, state and college levels, they are removing outdated policy barriers and modernizing practices to better meet the individual needs of their students through digital learning:
- Jorea Marple, State Superintendent of Schools, West Virginia Department of Education
- Kaya Henderson, Chancellor, Washington DC Public Schools
- Jay Box, Chancellor, Kentucky Community and Technical College System

We will share examples of how agencies and institutions are Doing More w/Less through Technology and eLearning, featuring Michael Casserly (Council of Great City Schools), Amber Winkler (Thomas B. Fordham Institute) and Todd Wirt (Mooresville, NC Graded School District) which was recently featured in the NY Times. 

And senior officials from state agencies in TN, OH, KY, GA and UT will share their initiatives in digital and open content, online assessment, virtual learning and data systems to meet the goals of Race to the Top and other state policies and ensure students meet the Common Core State Standards.

Throughout, this members-only SIIA forum will support two-way dialogue, enabling technology and digital learning providers to understand the needs of our pK-20 education system, while also providing learning opportunity for education leaders to understand the vision and innovative learning technologies coming from the private sector.

SIIA members not yet plannign to attend, please review the full agenda and speakers and register. For all, SIIA will be sure to help attendees and presenters leverage the results of this discussion to further support all stakeholders in Leveraging the New Normal to improve education and our students’ college and career readiness.

Mark SchneidermanMark Schneiderman is Senior Director of Education Policy at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Government Forum, Education, Education Events, Education Policies, Education Policy, Events, Personalized Learning, Policy, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , ,

What is Next for US Federal Cloud Implementation?

February 15, 2012 By SIIA Leave a Comment

By Andras Szakal, vice president and chief technology officer for IBM U.S. Federal

The government is making steady progress in executing the reforms outlined in its 25-Point Plan, delivering many ahead of schedule. At the core of this is the shift to cloud-oriented shared services, which hold great promise for government. Avoiding the redundancy of having each department’s IT shop develop its own software for managing personnel or dealing with public-information requests accounts for nearly half the $932 million in IT savings it has identified through its TechStat program for reviewing IT.

New Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) security standards are an important step to make it easy for agencies to purchase cloud and other services from approved vendors. They outline ways to standardize security requirements and contract language for implementing cloud-based IT applications. But they are just that — an outline — rather than a detailed roadmap to cloud implementation.

To be sure, cloud won’t be a one size fits all approach when it comes to government implementation. In most cases, a combination of different approaches — private clouds, hybrid clouds and public clouds — should all be examined to determine which approach makes the most sense for the specific need that is being met.

Applications like e-mail, content management, and back-up have been relatively easy to move to the cloud. But using cloud architectures to improve core functions and make development of processes quicker, while reducing duplication of effort will require careful analysis of each application to determine the best migration path.

Functions that are common to many agencies are natural fits for a traditional cloud model, while unique, dedicated functions are often better managed in dedicated systems that allow the flexibility to adapt to underlying business flows. Law enforcement case management and intelligence analysis systems, for example, require unique capabilities and security needs, which require greater agency control and dedicated systems support.

In cases like these, it often makes sense to use virtualization technologies inside government data centers. Many government programs have security needs that are easier to secure internally. Agencies can achieve some of the cost-cutting benefits of cloud technology by adopting “private clouds,” which are easier to secure because information never moves outside of a dedicated data center.

The coming year is an exciting time for Federal IT, as FedRAMP and the move to shared services — whether in the form of public or private clouds — provide the structure that will help new projects for cost cutting take root, ultimately saving taxpayers money by helping government become more efficient.

Andras Szakal is participating in a panel on the U.S. Government’s efforts to reform and improve the operational efficiency of its massive IT infrastructure tomorrow at CloudGov.

Andras Szakal is responsible for IBM’s industry solution technology strategy in support of the U.S. Federal customer.

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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, Cloud Computing, Cloud/Gov, Government, Policy, Policy - Cloud Computing, Software Tagged With: ,

This Week in IP Enforcement

February 15, 2012 By Keith Kupferschmid Leave a Comment

Google Books Lawsuit Lurches Forward (paidContent)
The Authors Guild revived a class-action lawsuit over Google’s massive book scanning project in new filings this week demanding Google pay authors for scanning their works without permission.

AP Sues Meltwater News Claiming Copyright Offense (Bloomberg)
The Associated Press is suing digital news distributor, Meltwater News, for infringing on AP copyrights by illegally selling and distributing content created by the AP.

Copyright Tribunal Says Businesses Need License to Use Google News (Wired)
In a long running case between the Newspaper Licensing Association and media-monitoring service Meltwater, the Copyright Tribunal ruled that Meltwater must hold a license to use media aggregators like Google News and Alerts. In the same trial, the Tribunal also decreased the NLA’s proposed fee increases.

Pinterest: Is it a Facebook or a Grokster? (paidContent)
While Pinterest’s soaring popularity has led it to be dubbed the “next Facebook,” all the hype has also brought attention from angry copyright owners who are complaining that their images are being used without permission by users on Pinterest’s site.

Pirate Bay to Replace All Torrent Files with Magnet Links (Herald Sun)
The Pirate Bay announced it will be deleting all torrent files (but they would remain available through magnet links) in order to become more resistant to being shut down, since the content would no longer be downloaded directly from the Pirate Bay’s servers.

Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With:

Ed-Tech Innovators: We want you!

February 15, 2012 By Karen Billings Leave a Comment

SIIA’s Education Division is now seeking applications for its Innovation Incubator program. Developers of innovative K‐12 and postsecondary, technology‐based educational products or services will be reviewed, and ten participants (along with one alternate) will be selected to participate in the annual Ed Tech Industry Summit this spring. The deadline for applications is March 9, 2012.

The Innovation Incubator Program connects developers of promising new technologies with industry leaders, potential investors, and established companies seeking partnerships or acquisition candidates. The program is open to applicants from academic and non‐profit institutions, pre‐revenue and early‐stage companies, and long‐ standing companies with newly developed educational technologies.

While prototypes and very early‐stage innovations will be considered, products or services submitted must be past the conceptual phase. Applicants will be assessed on a broad range of selection criteria.

Participants selected for the program will present their innovations during the Business Profiles Presentations that open the Ed Tech Industry Summit in San Francisco on May 6. Immediately following these presentations, they will be on hand to provide product demonstrations during the Innovation Showcase & Welcome Reception. Throughout the Summit, Innovation Incubator participants will receive recognition, peer‐to‐peer mentorship, and access to hand‐ selected prospects for partnership, acquisition, financing, and veteran advice.

SIIA is again partnering with Blackboard Inc., lead Innovation Incubator sponsor, to give elevated visibility and support to the finalist that best exemplifies technology innovation in service to education. One Innovation Incubator participant will be selected by Blackboard to receive a year‐long membership as a Blackboard Building Blocks partner in the Blackboard Partnerships program, subject to additional terms and conditions.

The program is also sponsored by Texthelp Systems.

Karen BillingsKaren Billings is Vice President for the Education Division at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Industry Summit, Education Tagged With: ,

SIIA Applauds Progress of Senate Cybersecurity Legislation

February 14, 2012 By Ken Wasch Leave a Comment

With cyber threats more sophisticated and targeted than ever, and growing at an unprecedented rate, now is the time to act on critical cybersecurity legislative priorities. We are pleased to see that Sens. Lieberman, Collins, Rockefeller and Feinstein have made significant progress in striking a balance between preserving innovation and identifying and regulating critical infrastructure.

SIIA continues to believe that cybersecurity legislation could potentially do more harm than good if not done carefully. A regulatory approach would not necessarily make organizations more secure, just more compliant. It is imperative that Congress preserves the ability of technology companies to quickly develop and deploy technology that can detect, prevent and mitigate cybersecurity threats.

We urge swift, bipartisan support for legislation that advances critical cybersecurity priorities and immediately enhances our preparedness. As we identified in a recent letter to Sen. Reid, there are multiple cybersecurity objectives that enjoy strong bipartisan support in the House and Senate, such as enhancing information-sharing between the public and private sectors, reforming FISMA, encouraging increased cybersecurity research and ensuring that law enforcement has the adequate tools and criminal penalties for to protect against cyber crimes.

SIIA is committed to the goal of enacting legislation that will establish a meaningful national framework for data security and for breach notification, and we look forward to continuing to work with Congressional leaders to reach consensus.

Katie CarlsonKen Wasch is President of SIIA.

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Filed Under: Government, Policy, Policy - Cybersecurity, Software Tagged With: ,

SIIA’s Corporate End-User Anti-Piracy Program: 2011 in Review

February 13, 2012 By Keith Kupferschmid Leave a Comment

In the last year, 24 companies settled software and content infringement cases with SIIA through its Corporate Anti-Piracy Program, which combats software and content piracy in the workplace. SIIA received 197 reports of alleged corporate end user software piracy in 2011. Of the 197 reports, 46 (or 23%) were judged sufficiently reliable to pursue, illustrating SIIA’s conservative approach. Nearly 84% of the reports were made online on SIIA’s web reporting forms, and 12% were reported through SIIA’s Anti-Piracy hotline. The remaining share came in through fax, e-mail and postal mail.

Most reports come from former IT staff – these are the people who typically witness the illegal use of software firsthand. 78% of all reports come from IT staff or managers and 22% from the company’s senior management. More than 52% of those reporting are no longer employed by the target company. In fact, many of SIIA’s sources report that their primary reason for leaving the target company was the company’s lack of ethical behavior related to compliance.

Cases are not concentrated by industry – 17% involved retail and education while 8% involved IT. Most corporate cases pursued by SIIA represent mid-size companies – the average number of employees is over 650 with average annual sales of nearly $26 million.

According to SIIA enforcement audits, 38% of the software audited was found to be unlicensed. The category with the largest percentage of software titles pirated is Security software. This share is the percent of total titles audited in each category that were found to be unlicensed. The share of pirated software varies by category.

Software type and share of pirated titles from SIIA audits in 2011:
Security: 34%
Utilities: 22%
Creative: 21%
Document Management: 16%
Media Management: 4%
Accounting: 1%
Development: 1%
Productivity: 1%
Other: 1%

SIIA receives reports from people who are aware of organizations that have illegal software or content installed or are illegally distributing content or software within or outside the organization. These reports come in one of three ways: through SIIA’s website at www.siia.net/piracy/report, by e-mail at piracy@siia.net or calls to SIIA’s Anti-Piracy hotline at (800) 388-7478. Those who report piracy may be eligible for a reward through SIIA’s Reward Program – paying up to $1,000,000 for verifiable reports of corporate piracy. In 2011, SIIA paid out 14 rewards totaling $73,000.

See the full 2011 Anti-Piracy Year in Review.

Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.
 

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy

Reply to Chertoff: Do Not Let the Perfect be the Enemy of the Good on Privacy and the Cloud

February 10, 2012 By Mark MacCarthy Leave a Comment

In his recent op-ed (Cloud computing and the looming global privacy battle, February 9, 2012), Michael Chertoff properly worries about privacy in the cloud. But he’s wrong to think that all problems are equally important or that they all must be solved at once.

We shouldn’t wait for harmonized privacy regimes before making progress on cross border data flows. The priority going forward should be a system of clear and simple procedures that allow global companies to comply with substantively different privacy regimes. In the absence of simple compliance procedures, millions of dollars will be spent on unnecessary bureaucratic paper shuffling instead of on productive investments that can generate economic growth and jobs. Eliminating this waste must be a priority, especially given the worldwide economic challenges.

One way forward is through international agreements that put streamlined compliance procedures in place. To accomplish this, countries have to be willing to approve data transfers across borders when companies demonstrate that they are in compliance with local rules. Mechanisms adopted by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group move in this direction. Proposals tabled in the Trans Pacific Partnership trade discussions also contain this key idea. And the European Union’s proposed data protection regulation provides that compliance can be based on contracts, binding corporate rules or codes of conduct approved by single EU member regulator.

Deep integration of privacy regimes is a worthy, but distant goal. Fostering interoperability and cross border data flows are urgent immediate needs. We shouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

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: All About the Cloud, Cloud Computing, Cloud/Gov, Policy, Policy - Privacy, Software Tagged With: ,
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