Media Library (73)

SIIA Letter on Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022

SIIA provided feedback on the draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022 (ITB), circulated for public comment on 21 September 2022. SIIA full letter can be read here. 

 

SIIA’s joint industry statement with ACT | The App Association, Asia Internet Coalition, Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) ,Japan Business Machine and Information System Industries Association (JBMIA), United States Council for International Business (USCIB), and U.S.India Strategic Partnership Forum can be read here

 

 

translatlantic

Transatlantic Business Associations Join in Strong Support of EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework

Today, SIIA joined a coalition of associations representing the transatlantic business community, appreciate the U.S. Administration’s recently published Executive Order (EO) and accompanying Department of Justice (DOJ) regulations that set out the significant legal changes the U.S. has instituted to implement its commitments under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. The full letter can be found here.

 

 

Q&A - AM&P Network (3)

‘Within Those Gaps Lies Opportunity’; BIMS Speaker Henry Howard’s American Legion Way

This is the second in a series of BIMS 2023 Speaker Q&A Previews. We hope you get a taste for what these speakers will deliver IN PERSON on Feb. 23-24 in Orlando and choose to join us. Register here for this much-anticipated summit event! 

In this Q&A, Henry Howard, deputy director of media & communications for The American Legion, gives a sleek preview of his session at BIMS 2023 titled Content as Product: How Editorial Leaders Are an Often Untapped Source of Great Ideas. In the 2½ years since the launch of their Tango Alpha Lima podcast, growth, revenue and membership, especially younger, have substantially increased.

Tony Silber: From podcasts to research, and from events to spinoff brands, today’s senior content producers are frequently the best “intrapreneurs” in the organization. Why is that? Editors are supposedly not versed and not interested in the business side.
Henry Howard: Editors—at least the strong ones—know their audience. They lead teams to create content that fits that audience niche. In gaining that knowledge, they are also able to identify gaps. It is within those gaps that lies opportunity. And those are opportunities for serving not only the reader but the advertisers as well.

Silber: Why are content producers a leading edge for intelligence in the market?
Howard: Content producers have access to instant data to judge the relevance of their stories, videos and other media. There is much more reliable data in the digital world than we ever had in the print world. We can see data that show the number of impressions of a tweet, how a newsletter subject line affected open rates, when our audience is most likely to visit our website and so much more. With all of this data, content producers are now able to be more strategic with their content in not only the creation, but the timing and vehicle for its delivery.

Silber: Can and should content producers convert stories and sources into focus groups and new products?
Howard: Sure, why not? We engaged a focus group of younger veterans to get their honest assessment of our media program. Through those discussions, our Tango Alpha Lima podcast was born. In the 2½ years since its launch, its growth has skyrocketed, while increasing revenue and engaging younger members and potential members.

Silber: What’s a marquee success at your organization? How is it measured?
Howard: The aforementioned podcast. During the first six months of 2022, the number of downloads increased 108% over the same time frame a year earlier. Additionally, the podcast won three major awards for its special series commemorating the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Silber: Thanks, Henry. Looking forward to seeing you at BIMS.

Postscript: Tango Alpha Lima won a 2022 bronze EXCEL Award for Best Podcast Series. It included that series called 20/20/20—20 episodes leading up to the 20 days marking 20 years since the “attacks that changed the world.” In one episode, they remember 9/11 with motivational speaker USMC Cpl. Josh Bleill (especially poignant with Veterans Day just having passed).

Working a corporate job in Indianapolis on Sept. 11, 2001, Bleill was so moved by that day that he soon found himself “following in his father’s yellow bootsteps at Marine Corps bootcamp. During a deployment to Fallujah, Iraq in 2006, a bomb exploded under the vehicle Josh was riding in. He woke up five days later to the realization that he had lost two friends and both of his legs in the blast. [His] journey through recovery led him to a new role as a motivational speaker, trying to help veterans and civilians alike move forward with positivity by taking just one step at a time.”

Statement on NetChoice v. Paxton (1080 × 1080 px)

SIIA Statement on Federal Trade Commission Policing Unfair Methods of Competition

This statement can be attributed to Chris Mohr, President, Software & Information Industry Association.

SIIA is extremely concerned by the direction the Federal Trade Commission is taking in the policy statement issued this morning advancing a completely novel approach to policing unfair methods of competition (UMC).  It represents a dramatic shift from established precedent and exceeds the Commission’s enforcement authority.

The Commission’s statement will affect businesses of all sizes in many industries, not just the tech and information industries. The new policy:

  • Violates the FTC Act by assuming powers that the Congress has never granted, either explicitly or implicitly;
  • Fails to provide clear guidance to businesses about how to navigate the new boundaries of what may or may not constitute illegal conduct;
  • Reflects a radical shift for the Commission away from its decade-long focus on protecting the welfare of consumers; and
  • Raises doubts about the current FTC majority’s commitment to due process and the rule of law.

Chair Kahn has publicly committed to transparency. It is therefore deeply concerning that the Commission has issued this statement without any input from the public and dramatically shifted the Commission’s approach in a manner that creates significant business and consumer uncertainty. We strongly recommend that the Commission commence a formal process to seek input from consumer and business stakeholders and rescind the statement pending public input.

Ronn Graphics

In Search of the ‘Virtual Water Cooler’; How Remote Workers Can Find True Collaboration

“I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.”
—Alice Paul, suffragist leader

That quote begins a film by my friend Jaclyn O’Laughlin titled How Long Must We Wait. It’s a historical documentary about the 72-year battle that women fought to get the right to vote in the United States—and it’s especially resonant on this Election Day week. The hour-long film just won best documentary feature at the Arlington International Film Festival just outside Boston. You can watch it here.)

Jaclyn put together the film during the pandemic when she started working remotely, which she still does, now as a videographer for the ALS organization. She’s not alone, of course. As of late September, 21.6 million people in the United States worked remotely five days a week, while 32.3 million worked at the office at least one day.

In an article from the MIT Sloan School of Management titled 3 Reminders for Managers in a Hybrid Work Environment, Meredith Somers writes that “more than 80% of executives say they are worried about their remote employees’ ability to collaborate fully on team efforts and build relationships with their colleagues.”

While remote productivity has been hard to question, how we are collaborating can be. Somers offers three pieces of advice:

Encourage team autonomy but give new employees extra support. Don’t establish one overarching hybrid work rule for an entire organization. Most firms are made up of different groups with different functions that require different onsite and remote expectations, said Robert Pozen, author of Remote, Inc.

Set expectations for hybrid interactions and make them meaningful. While the actual work is important, it’s also important leaders encourage team bonding—such as facilitating a virtual group activity like wine tasting or playing a game—while ensuring each employee feels included.

Ensure all voices are heard. In every group or individual meeting, try to ensure someone is monitoring, listening, and intervening on behalf of the voices not being heard, said Thomas Kochan, an expert in employment policies and labor-management relations.

Here are three other tips for keeping remote employees engaged.

Create virtual “connection points” for employees. “Is there a platform in which employees are encouraged to chat with each other?” Danielle Abril of The Washington Post’s Help Desk asked. “Are there regular calls? Are there opportunities to team up with employees from different teams for something that might resemble a virtual water cooler?”

Encourage two-way conversations. U.S. CEO of Edelman public relations, Lisa Osborne Ross, spoke of the importance of “two-way conversation” during the pandemic. “I think managers had to change. Managers had to realize they were not managing for work, but you’re managing for people, which again, is something we should have been doing all along. And I think this two-way conversation is asking people, what you think.

“We do a thing called ‘P-Can’ [phonetic]. We’re doing it every three months during the pandemic, and then we started doing it generally. It was six months. But it was asking people, what are your needs? What are your tech needs? What are your emotional needs?” A recent study by Deloitte found that one in three employees and executives are constantly struggling with fatigue and poor mental health, with an enormous dichotomy between perception and reality.

Are you taking into consideration… “Remote workers say they enjoy connecting with nature, exploring the world and spending more time with family, noting that their outlook on work has changed forever,” Danielle Abril wrote recently in the Post. “But it’s not rosy all the time: Some say their new lifestyles have introduced complications like time-zone coordination [especially when we change the clocks], a different approach to connecting with colleagues, slow internet connectivity, the fear of missing out in-person, and sorting out international health care and travel restrictions.”

One of our upcoming webinar speakers has a newborn baby at home. We are happy to work around her schedule.