The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) is a trade association dedicated to the entertainment, consumer and business software industries. Established in 1984 as the Software Publishers Association (SPA), the SIIA took its new name when it merged with the related Information Industry Association on January 1, 1999. The joint enterprise was headed by Software Publishers Association founder Ken Wasch and operated out of the SPA's existing offices. The SPA was active in lobbying, industry research and anti-piracy efforts. Its head of research, Ann Stephens, went on to found PC Data in 1991. By 1995, the SPA had over 1,100 software companies in its membership and according to '' Wired'' was among "the most powerful computer-related trade groups" before its merger with the Information Industry Association. While Microsoft became a member of the SPA in 1986, it split with the SIIA in 2000 after the group sided against Microsoft in ''

United States v. Microsoft Corp. ''United States v. Microsoft Corporation'', 253 F.3d 34 (D.C. Cir. 2001), was a landmark American antitrust law case at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The U.S. government accused Microsoft of illegally ...

'' The '' Wall Street Journal'' described Microsoft as the SIIA's "largest member" before the departure. Until 1999, the Software Publishers Association hosted the SPA Annual Conference for software companies. It was renamed the InfoSoft Essentials conference in 1999.

Divisions

Public Policy ~ legal and public policy
IP Protection ~ protecting software content
Connectiv ~ business information
ETIN ~ Education Technology
FISD ~ Financial & Information
SIPA ~ Specialized Information Publishers
SSD ~ Software & Services

Advocacy

SIIA filed briefs in

Allen v. Cooper The Copyright Remedy Clarification Act (CRCA) is a United States copyright law that attempted to abrogate sovereign immunity of states for copyright infringement. The CRCA amended 17 USC 511(a): Unconstitutionality The CRCA has been struck ...

, which was decided in 2020: the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

abrogated the

Copyright Remedy Clarification Act The Copyright Remedy Clarification Act (CRCA) is a United States copyright law that attempted to abrogate sovereign immunity of states for copyright infringement. The CRCA amended 17 USC 511(a): Unconstitutionality The CRCA has been struck ...

as unconstitutional, SIIA had argued the opposite view.

CODiE Awards

Beginning in 1986, the Software Publishers Association hosted the "Excellence in Software Awards" ceremony, an annual

black-tie Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element fo ...

event that '' The Washington Post'' and '' Los Angeles Times'' compared to the Academy Awards. The Excellence in Software Awards were later renamed the "CODiE Awards", and are now presented by the Software and Information Industry Association. The CODiE are awards to two broad categories: business technology and education technology. There are awards in more than 75 categories, advertised with the statement, "With a grand total of more than 75 different categories, you're sure to find several to meet your marketing/PR objectives!". Notable past winners include companies such as

Adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...

, BrainPOP, Google,

Knewton Knewton is an adaptive learning company that has developed a platform to personalize educational content as well as has developed courseware for higher education concentrated in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The ...

McGraw-Hill Education McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referenc ...

Jigsaw Jigsaw may refer to: * Jigsaw (tool), a tool used for cutting arbitrary curves * Jigsaw puzzle, a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of interlocking pieces Arts and media Comics * Jigsaw (Marvel Comics), a supervillain and arch-enemy of ...

, Netsuite,

Red Hat Red Hat, Inc. is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, with other offices worldwide. Red Hat has become ass ...

, Rosetta Stone, Salesforce.com,

Digimind Digimind is a global social media monitoring and competitive intelligence company that provides information on businesses' competitive standing in the market. Digimind was founded in 1998 and has been profitable ever since. As of 2019, the company ...

, Scribe Software, Vocus, WSJ.com
codemantra
IXL Learning,

itslearning itslearning is a digital learning management system developed by the Norwegian company itslearning AS. It is designed for both K12 and higher education. The LMS allows teachers to deliver materials to students, including assessments, Office 365 ...

, and more.

Jesse H. Neal Awards

The Jesse H. Neal Awards were created in 1955 for editorial excellence in business Media and named after Jesse H. Neal, Connectiv's first managing director. Nations Restaurant News says winning the Neal Award is like winning the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

for

Business-to-business Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This typically occurs when: * A business is sourcing materials for their production process for output (e.g., a ...

(B2B) platforms. Entries are judged in three areas ~ editorial craftsmanship, extent of service to the field and journalistic enterprise. Out of the 21 categories one winner will be selected for The Grand Neal Award. As of 2018 there have been 23 winners of The Grand Neal Award. In 2019 John Heltman, Business and Finance

Reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

with American Banker and SourceMedia won with Nobody's Home

References

External links