Thursday 22 October 2009

SCNF Transport Workshop

The SCNF has received an excellent response from Local Authorities for the Transport Workshop on 11th Nov in London. Places are being taken up rapidly.

At the meeting members will be discussing the implications and opportunities when authorities start issuing concessionary passes on the Desfire smart card platform. As most authorities appear to have chosen this card type as the successor to Mifare which starts to be phased out in January, it is possible to plan for other applications and the wider use of the concession card.

The workshop will cover the background to the changes, specification for encoding Mifare cards, applications supported, implementation guidelines, learning from existing schemes, business case implications and testing facilities. A number of existing multi-application schemes will be represented, so we expect a very informative exchange of ideas and experience.

There are limited places at the workshop which are already 60% taken up, which is very encouraging. For more information, see the website and email events@scnf.org.uk.

Kevin Farquharson
Co-Chair SCNF
www.scnf.org.uk

Friday 9 October 2009

Smartcard Specification for Multi-application Published

At last week’s conference in Cambridge, SCNF announced to its members that the LASSeO (Local Authority Smartcard Standards e-Organisation) specification has been ratified for the Phillips Desfire card type which most Transport Executives are intending to issue from January.

In 2010, concessionary card holders could be using their transport smart card to access services
at their library, leisure centre, community centre and town hall.

Ron Hetherington from Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council and SCNF Treasurer remarked: "Local Authorities have been holding back on the development of new applications for their smartcards because of uncertainty about the de-facto industry standard. Now that an industry specification has been developed, Local Authorities will be able to push forward their smartcard strategy more confidently.”

Following a technical agreement between ITSO (Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation)
and LASSeO last month, LASSeO has published their specification for encoding multiple
applications on a transport card. The specification includes basic cardholder information, cash
collection, parking, identity, e-purse and entitlement.

For more information about the specification, SCNF plans to run a workshop in London on 11th November and the new specification can found on the following public page:
http://www.scnf.org.uk/nscp.html

Kevin Farquharson
Co-Chair SCNF
www.scnf.org.uk

Monday 5 October 2009

Excellent ID and Libraries Event

Members of the SCNF enjoyed one of the best events we have run according to their feedback. Our members were among 250 attendees at the RFID Europe event in Cambridge last week.

The programme was compact yet encompassed 8 well informed speakers who all had new information and ideas to share with our audience. We are indebted to Axiell for sponsoring the event.

Members learnt about DWP's planned support for smartcard application trials, research outcome from Yorcard (DfT sponsored), Hillingdon scheme early results, Dudley RFID implementation, LASSeO agreement with ITSO on encoding concessionary passes for multiple applications, Lord Erroll on ID security and Dr John Gill on special needs applications.

Those present also had an opportunity to give their views on future SCNF events and initiatives to help SCNF members.

SCNF members can access all the presentation and feedback from the event at www.scnf.org.uk. For further information on the SCNF, please email chair@scnf.org.uk.

Kevin Farquharson
Co-Chair SCNF
www.scnf.org.uk