"[L]egislators don't know the technology nearly as well as you do."

That, in a nutshell, is why we could end up with overly-broad RFID laws in the United States -- laws that will stifle innovation and wider adoption of the technology.

This phrase was uttered by a Commerce Department official during a panel discussion last week at the American Electronics Association, as reported over at ZDNet.

The panel discussed the fear of legislators who are unschooled in RFID with little understanding of the technology, hastily enacting laws.

So how do you fight this fear? The panelists suggested education and transparency were key. Another solution floated by some panelists was encryption mechanisms for RFID data transmissions.

In my view, it all starts with education. Making balanced RFID information available, in a fashion understandable by non-technical people, is a very real need.

And in my view, any education needs to be a three-part platform targeting three different constituencies:

(1) Consumers - Legislative initiatives tend to be the result of concerned consumers who write to their legislators demanding action. It all starts with the public's perception of RFID. I'd like to see the large organizations like EPCGlobal step up their education efforts to the general public. I see more plain-English information about RFID being disseminated now than a year ago, but the communication programs are still remarkably low key.

(2) Media - Certain publications do a nice job explaining RFID in context, in a balanced way. Some of my favorite media sources are RFID Journal, RFID Insights by InformationWeek, and MoreRFID.com. But I also keep running into journalists and editors who are struggling -- valiantly -- to understand RFID technology enough to write about it intelligently. It would make sense for some of the RFID organizations and the big companies with a vested interest in RFID to offer media outreach campaigns to educate the media about this technology.

(3) Legislators - When legislation is being considered, there needs to be a fast response. Someone has to present a balanced view of RFID. For instance, high-profile industry individuals must be willing to testify at legislative hearings. And, dare I mention the power of letter-writing (er, I mean, email writing) campaigns to legislators by their local constituents? Maybe it's there... but I don't see the kind of coordinated response to pending legislative efforts that I know the industry can present.

Tags: RFID; Business