There they go again in California! A bill is quickly moving through the legislature there, proposing to limit RFID tagging in state identity documents. Banned uses for RFID would include student badges, driver's licenses, medical cards and state employee cards.

The bill was drafted by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, the Electronic frontier Foundation, and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

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The Horse magazine reports that the National Institute of Animal Agriculture (NIAA) has recommended RFID tagging as the required form of identification of horses, to best provide disease tracking.

The article quotes the Vice Chair of NIAA Equine Health Committee:

Amy Mann, director of health and regulatory affairs for the American Horse Council and vice chair of the NIAA Equine Health Committee, said, "The NAIS intended to establish a standardized, alpha-numeric system for animal identification. The purpose of such a system is to permit 'trace back' within 48 hours of a confirmed diagnosis of an animal disease."

It is a misconception that there are no equine diseases of significance that require tracking, said Mann.

The plan is to use ISO standards for the microchips used in the RFID tagging, the article notes:

Monica Emmenegger, director of The Crystal Import Corporation in Birmingham, Ala., and Swiss delegate to the International Standards Organization (ISO) committee, thoroughly explained RFID and the necessity of using an ISO compliant chip.

"DATAMARS (an animal identification company based in Switzerland) established ISO standards for animal ID in 1996," began Emmenegger. These standards are referred to as ISO 11784 and 11785, "and guarantee the compatibility of products manufactured by all makers through uniformity of codification, which consists of a 15-numeric digit code, and uniformity in the way the transponders (microchip) and reading devices (scanners) work."

And, by the way, did you know that at least one country (Great Britain) requires passports for horses? RFID microchips are encouraged for the horse passports, too.

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Recently I got a call from Wayne King at Miles Technologies and we had a pleasant chat.

He tells me Miles Technologies offers a low cost RFID labeling solution for under $25,000. The company is pitching the solution as a cost-effective alternative for smaller or cost-conscious businesses needing to comply with a mandate and considering a "slap and ship" solution.

I haven't seen the system in action. But at $25,000 or less, it just might be an RFID solution that small and medium businesses (SMBs) can afford. Just in time for national Small Business Week taking place this week in the U.S.

They've set up a site called RFID Labeling: www.rfidlabeling.com. There is a free white paper you can download by registering at the site.

(In addition to it being small business week, apparently it is turning into white paper week here at the RFID Weblog... even though I didn't intend it that way.)

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RFID Tribe has just launched a new RFID Talent and Careers Center.

Any employer can post jobs. They do not need to be members of RFID Tribe to use the service. However, RFID Tribe members receive discounts off the employer fees.

Job seekers can post their resumes for free. They also can sign up for Job Alerts that send emails when new opportunities pop up that match their search criteria. There is even an anonymous resume posting feature that allows job seekers to job hunt in a protected environment.

The job board meets an unmet need in the marketplace for employers and job seekers. According to Mark Johnson, President of RFID Tribe:

"We had both employers/recruiters and individual job seekers tell us, 'You need to provide a job board.' Employers and recruiters kept pinging RFID Tribe for RFID experts - apparently they see RFID Tribe as a network of RFID technology experts. RFID Tribe did not have a systematic way to track positions, let job seekers easily see those positions, or have places for individuals to post resumes. Now we can provide all those services."

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Looking for an RFID white paper about supply chain implementations? HP recently came with one that is very useful.

It is full of goodies such as checklists, charts and diagrams of all manner. There is even a self-assessment you can take about using RFID in your supply chain.

And then there's the handy chart shown in the image above. It lists the benefits gained from implementing RFID at the pallet level, case level and item level. (Click image to enlarge.)

You can download the RFID white paper here at ZDNet (free registration required).

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In the works: a new, active RFID-based information network to track and manage containerized ocean cargo.

The network will be built jointly by Savi Technology Inc., a venture-backed provider of active RFID supply chain technologies, and port developer and operator Hutchison Port Holdings.

The new company, called Savi Networks LLC, will build the network by installing active RFID equipment and software in participating ports around the world. The RFID asset tracking network will provide users with information on the identity, location and status of their ocean cargo containers as they pass through ports.

The new company will be initially capitalized with an investment of US$50 million from the joint-venture partners.

Savi Networks will function much like a telecommunications network service provider. Savi Networks will own and operate the network's core infrastructure and will provide RFID asset tracking services on a per-container trip basis.

The new company expects to offer customers a family of active RFID tags, including data rich, visibility and sensor tags, based on ISO 18000-7 standards. These tags would be affixed to containers, transforming them into "smart containers" able to communicate with the network, which will enable users to receive information on location, security and environmental conditions, such as temperature, humidity and light, as well as the container's contents.

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ZD Net has kicked off an interesting series of short video clips they call "Whiteboard Videos."

There's one on RFID that talks about the Wynn Casino that's being built with RFID throughout its operations.

Check out the RFID Whiteboard Video.

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When large companies see a good thing in small companies in their industry, what happens?

Today partnerships...tomorrow acquisitions.

That's the conclusion of ABI Research. Recently it noted the growing number of partnerships between large players and small RFID companies:

"...we see, for instance, an OAT Systems partnering with Symbol Technologies, ADT and Hewlett-Packard. Acsis is another example, with its relationships with SAP and HP, Symbol and Intermec.

"These small companies can bring great value to the table," says Michielsen. "They are in a great position to complement their larger partners' skill-sets in broader areas such as enterprise resource planning, warehouse management systems or automatic data capture. They really understand RFID at the network edge and are now partnering with larger organizations that provide more enterprise focus, more company-wide integration services and global customer support. Not only do these smaller companies' products win accolades from end-users, but they themselves have end-user relationships, from earlier work on smaller projects. They must be taken seriously."

But partnerships may only be a way-station for RFID vendors. ABI Research forecasts that out-and-out acquisitions will become more common, and there will be major consolidation as larger vendors better understand where these small companies fit into their portfolios."

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Is Las Vegas going to stop being the place where "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas"?:

"What happens in Vegas, STAYS in Vegas." Holy crap. Are there any words more magical than these?? This slogan is a get-out-of-your-crappy-mediocre-life free card, paving the way for the average, hopelessly bored working stiff to enjoy a precious few days of moral bankruptcy, rampant drug use and unprotected anonymous sex with multiple partners - and it's working like a charm, bringing people back to the city in droves.

Will RFID put a stop to all the fun, turning Vegas into a place where a tourist's every move is scanned and watched?

In most casinos, probably not right away. Instead, casinos may be watching their employees more closely than the tourists.

At least one casino is putting tags on waitresses, as this excerpt from Silicon.com indicates:

Tim Stanley, CIO of Harrah's Entertainment, told silicon.com his company is now fitting waitresses with the tags on their name badges in order to ensure drinks get to customers more quickly and to ensure that areas of the casino don't go unserviced.

He said it's not been without its problems -- most notably some opposition among the staff themselves -- especially as anybody slacking on the job will be exposed far more quickly.

And Stanley told silicon.com that is exactly what happened almost on day one of the trial, with one employee caught "loafing" and disciplined accordingly.

"Now, that person we caught probably won't be happy about it, but their co-workers should be," said Stanley.

"If this enables us to staff the casino properly and realise when and where we're under-resourced, then our waitresses aren't killing themselves out on the floor and can earn more tips and our customers are happier."

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The big U.S. RFID event -- RFID Journal Live -- has wrapped up. It's interesting that the concluding keynote speaker was not a technologist or a corporate executive, but a futurist.

Paul Saffo sees RFID as a media technology and pointed out some ways it will change our lives -- within most of our lifetimes:

"Over the next 10 years, he said, RFID, wireless communications and robotics will each play an important role in what he calls the sensor revolution. Saffo said sensors are creating an early phase of "smartifacts," or intelligent artifacts, that are "observing the world on our behalf and increasingly manipulating it on our behalf. This is why I view RFID as a media technology. This is where I think the opportunities are for you."

He also sees an important opportunity for RFID in robotics, because RFID readers and other sensors will allow robotics to operate autonomously. He said robotics, such as the Roomba vacuum cleaner, are already starting to change the way we interact with technology and sensors, and he predicts a significant growth in personal home robotics over the next 10 years."

Read the whole thing over at RFID Journal.

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