Last year, the Self-Service & Kiosk Association published a set of 12 documents that outlined industry best practices and covered topics ranging from kiosk cash management to ADA compliance to system security. Since then, the Digital Signage Association has added to the collection with "Best Practices: Digital Signage Content." With the merging of the two groups to form the Digital Screenmedia Association this year, the scope has widened for the DSA's committee on Best Practices. On the DSA website, 5th Screen chairman and CEO and Best Practices committee chair Keith Kelsen recently gave a preview of what the group expects to accomplish this year, along with Best Practices co-chair David Oles, whose self-service background helps balance the newly merged committee's perspective. Much like the associations themselves, the chairmen say, the goals of the Best Practices committee have begun to evolve — moving forward, the committee's publications will cover topics from across the self-service, kiosk and digital signage industries. "The committee brings forth information and education for creating content for digital signage in the three sectors: point of wait, point of sale and point of transit," Kelsen said. "But the near-term goal of the committee is to provide white papers on each segment, while tying in kiosk and digital signage content best practices that our members can benefit from." In the immediate future, Kelsen says, the committee plans to create a new set of documents for members, and then its focus will shift to providing a complete and inclusive resource for all things kiosk and digital signage. "We need qualified content individuals that have experience and knowledge to help us complete the next phase of white papers, which will be on content best practices for point-of-sale networks," he said. "Then, we are looking to tie kiosk content and digital signage content together to come from one single, comprehensive source." And the Best Practices committee won't limit itself to simply publishing white papers for members. Kelsen says the group will broaden its reach down the road. "The long-term goals are to provide educational seminars for creating content on an ongoing basis for the association," he said.
Oles says feedback from the association's members will be important to the growth and evolution of the committee as it works to span the self-service, kiosk and digital signage spectrums. "The Best Practices Committee was formed to create and publish best practices documents that serve as valuable resources for self-service and kiosk manufacturers and deployers," Oles said. "Our near-term and long-term goals are focused on growing the portfolio of best practices documents, increasing awareness and continuously soliciting feedback for new topics and improvements." Oles says the committee already has experienced impressive growth, which will help it accomplish those goals this year. "The committee became active in 2007, and we set a goal to finalize 10 documents before making them public. We accomplished that goal by mid-2008," he said. "In 2009, we grew the committee from three to eight members, and we're receiving excellent membership support. We now have 12 documents in the portfolio and several in progress. We plan to add at least two documents to the portfolio in 2010."
This article is the combination of two blog posts about the committee's work found on the Digital Screenmedia Association website, edited for clarity.
