Transcript: The Year’s Best from CCC’s Velocity of Content Blog

CCC’s Velocity of Content Blog – A Review of 2018’s Best

For podcast release Wednesday, December 19, 2018

KENNEALLY: A space to explore trends, changes and challenges in the information industry – from digital transformation, copyright and ethics, to search and discovery, analytics and big data.

Welcome. I’m Christopher Kenneally for Copyright Clearance Center.

The Velocity of Content blog on copyright.com features a mix of industry experts and CCC’s own internal thought leaders. Joining me to share highlights from posts published throughout 2018 are Jill Shuman, Director, Product Engagement and Chuck Hemenway, Director, Business Development. Welcome to you both.

Digital transformation was undoubtedly one of the biggest areas of conversation on the Velocity of Content blog this year. Digital transformation is more than a trend or buzzword – it’s a systemic shift in the way we all do business – and how we live our lives. We learned from Dr. Deborah Soule that digital transformation breaks down to three areas.

SHUMAN: That’s right. Dr. Deborah Soule, who most recently has partnered with MIT for digital transformation research projects, sees digital transformation this way —

First, it’s about changing mindsets. These are new attitudes, beliefs, and values towards digital tools, information, organization, management, workers and the work itself.
Next, think about changing practices, like moving toward data-driven decision making and collaborative learning.
And finally, changing resources and focusing on technology investments.

HEMENWAY: Building upon what Jill has said, we were able to dive deeper into specific best practices for publishers.

Digital tools for organizing documents, for version control, and for collaborative workflows can expedite the production process in getting new content to market.

Hefty metadata can allow content to be surfaced through smart search, and then repurposed in innovative ways – for example in special issues, omnibus ebooks, anthologies or course packs.

Digital transformation optimizes the content ecosystem for publishers. Each piece of content can be published faster, cleaner, with a wide reach and a long lifespan. This is especially relevant for publishers with decades or even centuries of backlist content.

KENNEALLY: In the life sciences realm, digital transformation is slow-moving, but the seed has been planted. And the good news is, we’ve seen a lot of studies this year that suggest that change is coming. Share with us a few of the more interesting findings, Jill.

SHUMAN: New research, conducted at the end of last year by TayganPoint Consulting Group and PharmaVoice, reveals that more than one in four life science companies expect large-scale transformation in the next three years.

A survey of 350 life science professionals released by the Pistoia Alliance earlier this year showed that 44% are experimenting with AI-based solutions, like natural language processing and machine learning.

And, Deloitte’s annual report suggests that innovative tools and technology offer the pharma companies the opportunity to buck the trend of declining R&D revenues. It highlights artificial intelligence, real-world evidence and robotic and cognitive automation as technologies which could help improve R&D efficiency.

This goes back to the overarching theme of digital transformation, though. Dr. Deborah Soule put it perfectly: “Tools are important – but they’ll only go so far if your organization lacks overall digital dexterity. Organizations that will be successful in digitally transforming need to rely on a strong combination of people, process and technology.”

KENNEALLY: In scholarly publishing, Open Access certainly dominated the headlines. CCC blog posts covered a wide range of challenges ahead: For example, what are the ethics of open access? Can the publishing industry survive in a large-scale open access environment? But as you learned in October at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Chuck, the big story came down to a single letter – S.

HEMENWAY: In the latter half of the year, there is no doubt that the conversation was dominated by the funder-driven initiative that came out of Europe, Plan S, which we covered extensively, including the post “Get Smart About Plan S with Rob Johnson.”

An initiative of 13 European national research funding organizations, “Plan S” puts pressure on Open Access publishing business models by capping article fees, ending embargoes and withdrawing support for “hybrid” OA journals. The “S” in “Plan S” can stand for “science, speed, solution, shock,” says Robert-Jan Smits, the European Commission’s OA special envoy. But we hope that our posts helped readers feel smart about it.

At the broadest level, the information industry continues to struggle with the migration from traditional subscription publishing to Open Access publishing (and open science and open data more broadly). The stakeholders – authors, publishers, institutions, and funding agencies (including government bodies) – consider Open Access from very different perspectives.

KENNEALLY: Over 2018, CCC’s Velocity of Content blog covered many important developments in copyright law, including

the Marrakech Treaty Implementation Act to increase access to literature for the visually impaired;
the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act, which could allow a simpler system for creators to protect their intellectual property;
the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act to modernize the Copyright Office of the United States;
and of course, the European Union’s Copyright Directive, which changes the way content can be shared in print and online for European citizens.

One of the most popular legislative stories we have followed this year has been the Music Modernization Act, which became law on October 11.

Streaming music services like Spotify and Apple Music provide unlimited online access to music for their customers, though not downloadable copies of albums or individual tracks. This popular innovation has outstripped the ways creators and performers are paid for these new uses of their works. But that is about to change.

The Music Modernization Act requires a new blanket license for streaming to be created and managed by a non-profit collecting society dedicated to this one purpose.

The new law— which is the first substantial copyright legislation to pass in decades—accomplishes three main changes:

The use of music by streaming services will now (more about that in a minute) be paid for in a regular royalty arrangement;
Audio producers and engineers who participated in musical recordings will start to be paid when their recordings are played on online and satellite radio services;
Digital services will have to pay for their use of songs recorded and released before 1972 ([which] were not previously protected by copyright law).

That’s our 2018 year-in-review from CCC’s Velocity of Content blog. Briefly, let’s look ahead into 2019 and call out a few upcoming blog posts. Jill, what are you working on?

SHUMAN: In the works are “New Year’s Resolutions for a More Copyright Compliant Org in 2019” and “Why Targeted Search Needs to be a 2019 Priority.”

HEMENWAY: I’m expecting continued coverage of Plan S, from the industry-wide repercussions to suggestions for how your organization can be ready for the January 2020 compliance deadline.

KENNEALLY: As for me, I’m watching for the annual rundown of top stories in copyright and intellectual property law from Keith Kupferschmid, CEO of the Copyright Alliance. His look-back on 2018 will appear just after the New Year. Every year, it’s one of our most-read posts.

Jill Shuman, thank you for joining me today. And Chuck Hemenway, thank you as well.

Our program today was co-developed with CCC’s Lexie Winslow and Molly Buccini. If you have an idea for a post to be published on CCC’s Velocity of Content or would like to comment on something you’ve read, write us at

I’m Christopher Kenneally. For all of us at Copyright Clearance Center, thanks for listening and best wishes for 2019.