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

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We are now running the daily MoreRFID.com featured article here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page -- see it there? This will be an ongoing regular feature.

If you haven't been to MoreRFID.com, do check it out. I am very impressed with the site.

It is a news aggregation site, but unlike most such sites which are a dump of links that simply add to information overload, MoreRFID.com is designed intelligently. It includes news headlines from various places, and categorizes the information for intuitive and easy scanning.

In addition to the English-language site, there are two Chinese sites. One is in Simplified Chinese and serves readers in China. The other is a Hong Kong site in Traditional Chinese, serving readers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Southeast Asia.

As part of the partnership, our daily post from here at the RFID Weblog appears on MoreRFID.com, too.

Many thanks to David Zhou of MoreRFID.com and also to Raik Hoffmann here at Creative Weblogging, who works tirelessly behind the scenes pushing the envelope of new blogging approaches.

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I recently watched a nice talk on RFID on Research Channel. Its not one of those boring talks by folks from CS schools around universities. This guy especially had a really funny way of describing as to how the whole thing works.

You can watch it here - http://www.researchchannel.org/program/displayevent.asp?rid=2616

I agree with Mallipeddi. The presenter, Chris Diorio, manages to be interesting even with a dry subject. Sample line "Fact: some tags are heavy sleepers" -- well, OK, I guess you had to be there.... But the video is interesting and at times entertaining.

Tags: RFID; Business

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The site has an extremely thorough and up-to-date section on RFID. For the most part, the information appears reliable and balanced, and shows a remarkable understanding of the technology and its implications.

Answers.com used to be called GuruNet. It is unlike traditional search engines, because it puts together information from various sources into a single-page, user-friendly narrative. Think of it as part search engine and part encyclopedia.

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Now, DeVry University and RFID Technical Institute have teamed up to offer RFID education, aimed primarily at those in the workplace who need RFID education for a planned deployment. The courses will be vendor neutral. Initially they are focused on meeting demand for end users involved in Department of Defense and pharmaceutical industry deployments.

Full story at RFID Journal.

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"We're starting to see a lot of non-supply-chain applications worldwide," [Robert W. Baird Co.] analyst Reik Read says. "Exploration efforts from Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense are starting to pan out in the form of applications you would have never expected."

Simple, single-application uses are the ones being implemented:

The RFID-enabled products coming out now aren't of the Microsoft "home of the future" variety, where a microwave scans a box of macaroni and cheese for the correct time and temperature for cooking. Says Mike Willis, VP and general manager of RFID technologies at Intermec Technologies Corp., "Today the simple applications are the ones making the most impact."

Read the whole article. While you are at it, check out The News Show. It's a new online video of technology news by the editors and writers of InformationWeek, TechWeb and Network Computing. Editor John Soat of InformationWeek appears to be the "anchorman" -- or at least he was in the version I watched. You can find it on the home page of InformationWeek.

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"Radio-frequency identification tags aren't just for the supply chain. Robert Bosch Tool Corp. has begun selling tools with embedded RFID tags and asset-tracking software to help businesses protect tools from theft.

The company's Digital Power Tools division is tagging 66 tools--things like circular and reciprocator saws and hammer drills--that are typically sold to businesses for construction work. The RFID-tagged tools are part of a new anti-theft service from Bosch called Safe & Sound. Customers who opt for the service will have to pay a little more for their tools, but with the service "it's less likely the tools will grow feet and walk off the job site," said Gregg Mangialardi, RFID project lead in the accessories division at Robert Bosch, speaking last week at Intermec Technologies Corp.'s I-Comm user conference.

Job-site equipment theft cost the construction industry last year between $300 million and $1 billion, with 71,873 reports of theft in the United States and less than 10% of the stolen equipment recovered, according to the National Equipment Register Inc., which keeps a database of registered and stolen equipment."

Sounds to me like this form of asset-tracking isn't so much about finding lost equipment on the job site, but more about knowing who was the last person to sign out a tool.

This application uses Intermec tags/readers and Blue Dot software.

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"The GAO report is flawed and provides a relatively unfavorable, potentially damaging view of RFID. The report cites several security-related issues that RFID can present, such as tracking individual movements, preferences, confidential personal information, etc."

The column takes a puzzling veiwpoint, if you ask me. I did not interpret the GAO report as being negative. If anything, the report seems to validate the importance of RFID, because it shows how many governmental agencies are considering, evaluating, testing or deploying RFID. I thought the report was straight forward and matter-of-fact -- not disapproving of RFID at all.

Negativity -- like beauty -- must be in the eye of the beholder.

[Read the 41-page GAO report (PDF) here -- we report, you decide.]

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(1) I've learned that a surprising amount of commentary and even news reports about RFID are uninformed... and sometimes flat-out wrong. It pays to wait until the facts emerge.

(2) That's doubly true when there is a hint of a privacy issue that can be blown out of proportion for quick PR value.

So it was with great interest that yesterday I stumbled upon two articles written by AIM Global taking the gloves off against a well-known security consultant who has been talking about RFID in driver's licenses and the REAL ID act.

The articles appear on the AIM Global website. They look and feel similar to blog postings, but without the ability for readers to comment. (I wish AIM Global would just implement a blog! Come on guys, "be not afraid.")

In any event, I urge you to read the articles. One is called The Real "REAL ID" Issue and says of the consultant "he proves himself to be less than expert with RFID technology." It goes on to debunk certain misinformation about the REAL ID act.

In another, Editorial: The Ethos of Panic and Doom,
AIM Global does a takeoff on Letterman and offers its own Top Ten list to wannabe technology gurus:

"It seems as if the path to instant notoriety as a technology guru these days is to find fault -- real or imagined -- with some form of RFID. RFID is a hot topic and one that most people don't (or won't) understand, which makes it easy to misrepresent. So, for those who'd like to become an overnight celebrity, herewith, the 10 ten things you need to do to become a messenger of panic and doom."

Both articles bring a much needed voice of sanity to the privacy debates swirling around RFID.

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It's a good read if you are in the IT field and just getting up to speed on RFID and what it will mean to your IT organization and your company.

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The Motion Picture Association of America says the U.S. motion picture industry loses $3 Billion annually due to movie piracy.

So, a group of researchers thinks it may have a way to use RFID to stop digital piracy:

"A group of researchers at UCLA is working on a new RFID application that would provide consumers a means of watching DVDs of movies as soon as they hit the theaters. It could also be used to address one of Hollywood's biggest concerns: piracy of digital content. The group is researching a method of using RFID as a tool for digital rights management (DRM), wherein technologies are employed to protect media files from unauthorized use. Digital rights management is also used to process payment to compensate copyright holders for the use of their intellectual property. Apple computer's iTunes application, which lets users purchase music for 99 cents per song, is an example of a digital rights management platform.

The UCLA research group is developing the software and hardware components of a system that would embed DVDs with an RFID tag and DVD players with an RFID reader so that the tagged DVDs would play only in RFID-enabled players and only if the reader could authenticate the DVD's tag. In order to authenticate, the player would also need to link to some type of online network, similar to the EPCglobal Network, that would associate the DVD with a legal sale. Through this system, the copyright owners (the film production company and any other license-holders of the content) would have digital rights management over the work. But viewers would not be able to play the DVDs without an RFID-enabled player because the tag would essentially lock the disc."

My view? While this might make for interesting research, the application is not very practical.

(1) It won't stop the worst kinds of piracy. The source of most piracy is illegally stolen films leaked by industry insiders, not the average citizen copying a DVD.

(2) Digital downloads of videos will start taking the place of movies distributed on a physical medium like a DVD. By the time this research is completed and a product ready for production, we could be well down that path.

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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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