The FastTrack Board in Toronto (March, 14th) had a lot of important decisions to take and topics to discuss...
The first decision concerned the election of the new Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mike O’Neill, the President and CEO of BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.), has been chosen to succeed Hein van der Ree, who stepped down from the position after a nearly three-year tenure. Eric Baptiste, who was reconfirmed as Vice-Chair of the FastTrack Board of Directors, has accurately commented this change:
"FastTrack has elected a formidable Chairman in Mike O'Neill, who I have enjoyed working with for many years, but he knows that he follows in Hein van der Ree’s deep footprints. While we are all sorry to see Hein move on, we look forward to the positive imprint that I’m certain Mike will make on our important initiative."
Another major topic on the agenda was to provide the Board with an update on the Cross-Industry tools and solutions projects. It was reminded that in mid-December 2015, FastTrack delivered a technical solution for ISWC Resolution Service and now a users acceptance test is in progress. At the same time CISAC is working on the legal aspects of it in order to be able to disseminate ISWCs. The Board advised Societies to verify if they have signed the contract between Societies and CISAC (ISWC Dissemination Addendum).
As far as the "CIS-Net Right Holders Access" (the online search engine for Creators and Publishers from a single access point) is concerned the Board has given its favor and strongly encouraged further developments of this tool. The decision resulted from a discussion on the results of the analysis provided by the project team (Creators, Publishers and Societies), which after their second round of Collaborative Opt-in Feasibility study concluded that the tool could bring the expected business benefits.
The Board has also approved and given its support for the development of the on-line IPI look-up service, which will facilitate the IPI data dissemination.
Furthermore, FastTrack was delighted to announce that the project team, with the help of business experts, has completed the specification phase. The Single Work Dashboard is to be delivered with the upcoming CIS-Net release in June 2016.
FastTrack projects were also part of the discussions in Toronto. The New Framework and Graphic User Interface, which offers a security upgrade, an enhanced user's experience and a 2016 look and feel, was enthusiastically welcomed by the Board.
Moreover, FastTrack was glad to inform about an ongoing Data Clean-up & Integrity (DCI) Project bulk assessment with the participation of 29 Societies. Its results were revealed on the 21st of March and will be analyzed by Societies documentation teams. Simultaneously, the DCI Project team is specifying an on-demand assessment facility of the project.
Besides, due to the new legal framework in Europe the topic of CIS-Net security adaptation was raised. It has been agreed that enhanced security policies, a stronger authentication, an end-to-end encryption of data and an IP trusting must be implemented to the CIS-Net 5 release in June.
Last but not least, the "Blockchain Technology", which seems to be the future, was a subject of discussion. The Board expressed its strong interest in this technology but asked to firstly proceed with a global research on the "Blockchain Technology" and on its long lasting consequences for our business.
Michel Allain, Director General
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