TAB/PSPB Products & Services Committee Minutes November 2008

Review and Adoption of Agenda.   The  agenda was approved  as  amended. (Attachment 2)

II.  

Approval of19 June 2008 Meeting Minutes. The minutes of the 19 June 2008 meeting were approved as submitted.

III.

Opening Remarks.  Mr. Rahman gave a brief overview of some of the key items to be discussed at the meeting.

IV.

Sales and Marketing Update.  Mr. Dahl provided an update on 2008 sales, projections for 2009, and sales by territory and market (with particular attention on successes within the corporate market). He also provided an update on IEEE Sales & Marketing’s implementation of the member misuse criteria approved by TAB in November 2007.  The original recommendation included referring third-time violators to the IEEE Ethics Committee. 

Mr. Dahl reported that the IEEE Ethics  Committee has since indicated they are not the appropriate  venue for this  type of matter.   (Attachment 3)

 A Motion was made to:

Approve modifying the policy on member abuse of SMDLs such that 3rd violations will result in a 6-month suspension of access with adequate notification and 4th violations will result in permanent suspension of access.

The Motion passed.

V. 

Publishing Industry Update.  Ms. Lange reported on several developments in the STM industry and the impacts they have on IEEE, particularly open access business models, increased focus on corporate markets, and the growing importance of innovation in  content delivery and analysis.   (Attachment 4)

VI.

IEEE Xplore®.  Mr. Grenier reported on several Xplore developments, including a hardware upgrade, upcoming releases, and a new search engine. (Attachment 5)

VII.

Action Items

A. 

Content Definition for IEEE Xplore.  Mr. Rahman raised a concern about the elements included in the IEEE Xplore reports being used to determine the usage portion of revenue distribution amounts.  In particular, items such as tables of contents and other such non-original content are included in those reports.  However, it was felt that items such as those should not be included.  During discussion, it was mentioned that the reports used for the content portion of the All-Society Periodicals Package (ASPP) revenue distribution limited the elements to a set of pre-defined items.(Attachment 6)

A Motion was made to:

Endorse that the content elements included in the usage reports generated for the ASPP and conference publications revenue distributions be the same as those included in the content reports for those distributions.

The Motion passed.  Mr. Dunlop and Mr. Varian abstained.

B.

Distribution Methodologies for New Digital Library Offerings.  Ms. McLean provided an update on the request by the PSC in June 2008 that staff review the distribution methodology suggested for several new digital libraries and recommend an alternative.  A review of the methodology determined that the suggested approach did, in fact, overcompensate sponsoring Societies.  As a result, staff developed a new recommendation, which includes the creation of reports that are specific to the usage related to each offering. (Attachment 7)

A Motion was made to:

Endorse that new Society-specific offerings (such as IEEE Computing Library and IEEE Communications Library) utilize the Enterprise distribution model in their first year of distribution and offering-specific usage reports in subsequent years. This applies to the portion of the distribution that is not paid directly to the sponsoring Societies.

C.

Adding American Institute of Physics (AIP) Applied Physics Package to IEEE Xplore.  Ms. Lange presented a proposal for offering AIP content via IEEE Xplore.  This content would be offered on an article basis or as an add-on to existing Xplore offerings.  The business plan projects over $500k in additional revenue for IEEE over the first three years. (Attachments 8a,8b)

A Motion was made to:

Approve the AIP business plan, which would provide access to AIP applied physics journal content via IEEE Xplore.

D. 

Adding IEEE Press Books to IEEE Xplore. Mr. Moore presented a proposal for adding IEEE Press Book content to IEEE Xplore.  The business plan includes providing IEEE members with free access to titles more than three (3) years old. (Attachments 9a,9b)

A Motion was made to:

Approve the development of IEEE Press e-books for introduction via IEEE Xplore in 2009.

IEEE Xplore Release Process. Ms. Lange presented a new process for managing IEEE Xplore releases.  The plan includes the implementation of formal teams and tracking tools to enable planning for predictable quarterly releases. (Attachment 10)

A Motion was made to:

Approve the IEEE Xplore release management process based on the principles of stage-gate review that, with best efforts, will result in predictable, quarterly releases.

Publishing R&D Projects. Ms. Lange presented an update on several key publishing research and development projects, including articles in context, author gateway, and delivering IEEE Xplore via mobile devices. (Attachment 12 )

IEEE Product Management Update.  Ms. Lange presented an update on several product management related activities. (Attachment 14)

IEEE Member Digital Library (MDL) Product Configuration. Ms. Mclean reported that implementation of a new MDL configuration is on hold until a resolution on including free PDFs with IEEE Membership is complete.  An impact analysis and updated product recommendation will be presented in February 2009. (Attachment 15 )

Society Offerings

1. IEEE Computer Society. Ms. Carter provided an update on the IEEE Computer Society Digital Library (CSDL) offerings. (Attachment 17 )
2. IEEE Communications Society. Mr. Howell provided an update on the IEEE Communications Society Wireless Communication Engineering Technologies (WCET) certification program. (Attachment 18)