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Council and Task Force Report
Alliance Members: Participation in all current councils is open to any Smart Card Alliance member who wishes to contribute to the council projects. If you are interested in participating in any of the active councils, please contact Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org).
Transportation Council
- The Transportation Council has elected its 2008 officers. The Council has elected Paul Korczak, NYC Transit, as chair, Craig Roberts, Utah Transit Authority, as vice chair - transit, Thomas Wunk, Scheidt & Bachmann, as vice chair - parking, and Ernest Tollerson, MTA, as vice chair - tolling. Also elected were representatives to open Steering Committee seats: Michael Laezza, Thales; Doug Deckert, WMATA; Larry Weissbach, ERG Group.
- The Transportation Council and Contactless Payment Council are holding a joint Payments Summit in Salt Lake City, UT, from Feb. 27-29, 2008. This 2 day, in-person members-only meeting will focus on exciting new trends and projects that are accelerating the widespread acceptance, usage and application of contactless payments technology for transportation applications and general retail payments. Additional information about this meeting will be distributed to the Council email lists.
- The Council is working on a white paper that will provide an overview of an approach for transit/financial payment convergence that leverages co-branding card business models and the multi-application capabilities provided by smart card technology. Please contact Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org) if you'd like to participate in this project.
- The Council is working on a white paper on serving the unbanked and underbanked. This white paper will provide an educational overview of the various methods available for providing and re-loading fare media to people who do not have credit or debit cards, nor checking or savings accounts, and generally lack relationships with traditional banking institutions. Please contact Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org) if you'd like to participate in this projects.
- If you are interested in participating in the Transportation Council, please contact the Council chair, Paul Korczak (paul.korczak@nyct.com), vice chairs, Craig Roberts (croberts@uta.cog.ut.us) and Ian Newberg (inewberg@moorestown.parkeon.com), or Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org).
Physical Access Council
- The Physical Access Council will be showcasing Council and member activities at ISC West in April. The Alliance will have a panel, "HSPD-12 Physical Security Migration Strategy," and feature an integrated FIPS 201 demo in the Alliance booth.
- The Council is working on a collaborative project with the RTCA Special Committee 207 to provide comments on a standard, DO-230b, which addresses integrated airport access systems. If you are interested in participating in this project, please contact Steve Howard (steve.howard@thalesesec.com), who is leading this effort, or Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org).
- If you are interested in participating in the Physical Access Council, please contact Council chair, Roger Roehr (rroehr@tycoint.com), vice chair Bob Merkert (rmerkert@scmmicro.com), secretary Lolie Kull (lolie.kull@eds.com) or Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org).
Healthcare Council
- The Healthcare Council has elected its 2008 officers. The Council has elected Paul Contino, Mount Sinai Medical Center, as chair, Aaron Zitzer, Siemens, as vice chair, and Michael Magrath, Gemalto, as secretary.
- The Healthcare Council is planning a Council event at the HIMSS Conference in February where industry stakeholders will be brought together to have an in-depth roundtable discussion of the challenges in healthcare and the role that smart cards play in addressing those challenges.
- If you are interested in participating in the Healthcare Council, please contact Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org).
Contactless Payments Council
- The Transportation Council and Contactless Payment Council are holding a joint Payments Summit in Salt Lake City, UT, from Feb. 27-29, 2008. This 2 day, in-person members-only meeting will focus on exciting new trends and projects that are accelerating the widespread acceptance, usage and application of contactless payments technology for transportation applications and general retail payments. Additional information about this meeting will be distributed to the Council email lists.
- The Contactless Payments Council has set up four new work groups to define and work on next activities. Work groups are: merchant business case, consumer education and awareness, security and mobile payments.
- The Consumer Education and Awareness Work Group is defining a project to document merchant best practices for improving the customer experience with contactless payments.
- The Merchant Business Case Work Group is working on two key activities: a web survey to get merchant input on attitudes to and experience with contactless payments and interviews to develop short profiles of merchants who are successfully accepting contactless payments.
- The Mobile Payments Work Group is engaged in a project to interview industry stakeholders to get their perspectives on emerging mobile payments business model scenarios.
- The Security Work group is defining a new white paper to describe the security features that are available with smart card technology.
- If you are interested in participating in the Contactless Payments Council, please contact the Council co-chairs, Mohammad Khan (khanm@vivotech.com), or Charles Walton (cwalton@insidefr.com), or Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org).
Identity Council
Other Councils
- A members-only council web site is available at http://www.sca-councils.org. This is a password-protected site that contains council working documents and contact lists. Each Council area has a separate password since Councils may have different membership policies. If you are a Smart Card Alliance member and would like access to the council site, please contact Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org).
- If you are interested in forming or participating in an Alliance council, contact Cathy Medich (cmedich@smartcardalliance.org). Click here to download a description of the council structure, proposal process and council interest feedback form.
New Members
AWID, Morgan Hill, CA www.awid.com
Membership Level: General
Member Contact: Bill Kuypers, Vice President
Description: Designer and manufacturer of RFID cards and readers in LF, HF, and UHF frequencies
Vanguard ID Systems, West Chester, PA www.vanguardid.com
Membership Level: General
Member Contact: Richard Warther, President/CEO
Description: Inventor of numerous unique ID solutions in barcode, mag stripe, and RFID technologies
Southeastern PA Transportation Authority (SEPTA), Philadelphia, PA www.septa.org
Membership Level: Government
Member Contact: Jerry Kane, Manager, Capital Programs
Description: Fifth largest U.S. transit provider serving Greater Philadelphia Region
Web Site News
Updated web content
December 2007 web statistics
- 68,343 visitor sessions for the month
- 2,204 visitor sessions per day
- 418,608 total page views for the month
- 48,212 Industry News items viewed
- 3,091 Card Reader Catalog items displayed
- 4,903 PDF downloads
- 37,618 Product and Service Directory page views
If you have any suggestions on content that you'd like to see on the Alliance web site, please send them to info@smartcardalliance.org.
Alliance in the News
The Alliance has an active communications program to promote industry messages in business, vertical market, and technology publications. Coverage results from both Alliance press releases and interviews with publications writing articles about smart cards. Selected recent coverage is shown below with links to online articles.
January 2008
- ATM Marketplace.com, 1/9/2008, EMV and the States’ reluctance to embrace it
- Earthtimes.org, 1/14/2008, Smart Card Alliance Latin America Announces Executive Leadership for 2008 and 2009
- Fox Business News, 1/14/2008, Smart Card Alliance Latin America Announces Executive Leadership for 2008 and 2009
- Government Technology, 1/15/2008, Federal Ruling Gives States Power to Set Higher Standards for REAL ID Driver’s License, Says Industry Group
- Grand Forks Herald, 1/1/2008, New ‘Passport Cards’ Called Flawed; Some Worry Data May Be Intercepted [ link not available ]
- The Green Sheet, 1/14/2008, Hot, hotter contactless and mobile
- The Green Sheet, 1/14/2008, Health care: When will payments stake its claim
- The News Tribune, 1/1/2008, Passport cards nearly ready but not foolproof
- RFID Update, 1/8/2008, US Gov Sets Controversial RFID Passport Card Specs
- Santa Fe New Mexican, 1/1/2008, Advocates say new passports are flawed, raise security issues
- SecureID News, 1/14/2008, Smart Card Alliance weighs in on REAL ID standards
- Security, 1/1/2008, Access Control, the Government Version
- Security Document World, 1/15/2008, REAL ID brings new opportunities
- Security Products, 1/15/2008, Smart Card Alliance Says REAL ID Ruling Gives States Power To Set Higher Standards For Driver’s Licenses
- Street Insider, 1/14/2008, Smart Card Alliance Says REAL ID Ruling Gives States Power To Set Higher Standards For Driver’s Licenses
- Sys-con media, 1/14/2008, Federal Ruling Gives States Power to Set Higher Standards for REAL ID Driver’s License, Says Smart Card Alliance
- The Washington Post, 1/1/2008, Electronic Passports Raise Privacy Issues
December 2007
SCA Latin America News
The Smart Card Alliance Latin America project kicked off on October 19, 2004 with the presentation of the Department of Commerce Market Developer Cooperator Program (MDCP) award totaling $288,000 that forms a partnering effort between the International Trade Administration and SCA to develop international trade and support education, training, and resource development for smart cards in Mexico, Brazil, and the Caribbean Islands. The Alliance staff has held organizing meetings with ITA field office personnel in Mexico and Brazil to discuss ways to bring smart card awareness and education to the government and commercial markets in those countries. The Alliance has also met with ITA personnel based in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and Miami who are in support roles and are prepared to assist the Alliance's Latin American project.
In July 2005 the Latin America Chapter was launched. Organizations with smart card-related business interests in all Latin American countries and the Caribbean, plus any organization based in North America or internationally with interests in the Latin America markets, should contact Edgar Betts, Manager Business Development – Latin America at 1-954-642-8969 or ebetts@smartcardalliance.org. Memberships are available for Leadership Council, General, Government, and Associate levels.
In May, 2007 the Smart Card Alliance held the first smart card business conference and exhibition in Mexico City. The two day event, developed jointly with the GlobalPlatform organization featured drew more than 200 attendees and featured industry experts from across the Latin American region representing the government ID and security markets and the bank card and mobile payments markets. The event was the first of many future educational and business networking events planned to unite the suppliers and issuers of smart card technology together under the guidance of the Smart Card Alliance Latin American Chapter.
A recent report released by Frost & Sullivan called The Americas Smart Card Market Analysis projected microprocessor smart card shipments of 136.4 million in 2005, and with over a 59 percent annual growth rate projected through 2010. The Latin American smart card market growth is due to many market factors including the migration of mobile telecommunications operators to GSM technology, the migration to EMV in the financial sector, the move to smart transit fare cards and new government and commercial secure identification initiatives. Responding to these market factors, the Smart Card Alliance today announced the formation of a new Latin American chapter to bring together smart card suppliers, partners and customers in order to address the challenges facing smart card deployment in the region.
“The Latin American smart card market is now emerging and could develop more rapidly than other markets by effectively learning from similar smart card initiatives and by forming business partnerships that can quickly deliver successful implementations,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance.
The main mission of the Smart Card Alliance Latin American chapter is in line with the overall goal of the Alliance: to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart cards. The Alliance plans to use specific projects such as bi-lingual education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums to keep Latin American chapter organization members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought.
“The Smart Card Alliance has played a valuable role in developing the U.S. market in both the public and private sector. Our organization provides an educational and collaborative forum in which all of the stakeholders—manufacturers, issuers and end users—can work together to develop the cross-industry real-world solutions needed to deploy smart card systems. Our organization is uniquely positioned to bring a collective energy and focus to this technology in Latin America,” said Vanderhoof.
Next Steps:
Below is a summary of the important Latin America Chapter programs and industry activities planned for 2008.
- SCALA Elects 2008 – 2009 Advisory Council. The leadership council members of the Latin America Chapter held elections in December, 2007 to elect the leadership of the SCALA organization for the next two years.
- Chair (active first year, supportive second year), Marcelo Bellini Garcia, sales and marketing director, Sagem Orga of Brazil
- Chair (supportive first year, active second year), Humberto de la Vega, vice-president of sales, Latin America and the Caribbean, HID Global
- Vice Chair, Ismael Dykman, government sales, Latin America, DataCard Group
- Secretary, Luis Cohen, commercial director, Gemalto
- Cards 2008 Brasil. The Smart Card Alliance is accepting applications from organizations wishing to exhibit in the Smart Card Pavilion. Cards 2008 Brasil is the largest card industry event in Brazil. In addition to the pavilion, SCALA will be holding an Educational Institute training course during the conference and assisting in the development of topics presented in the Transportation track during the conference. Contact Edgar Betts (ebetts@smartcardalliance.org) for more details.
- Expanded Website. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) website was redesigned with all new content in 2007. The new web site URL is http://latinamerica.smartcardalliance.org; or you can select “Latin America Chapter” from the Smart Card Alliance home page. In the coming months, additional white papers, event listings, member profiles, and news stories will be added to the site.
- White Paper translation. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) has translated five white papers into Spanish and Portuguese to allow the local markets to have access to valuable information in their language. The selection of the white paper to be translated was important in order to be significant to the local markets of Latin America. This action helps the Alliance create an image of not only a U.S. focused institution, but an international and local.
- Online Educational Program. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) in its efforts to expand its website deliverables to the market it has agreed to host a member online educational program. The program contains information about smart cards in both Spanish and English, covering from basic to some advanced knowledge.
- Educational Institute – Certification Course. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) Physical Access Council has worked on developing an Educational Institute (E.I.) course that will be used at Expo Seguridad Mexico conference in April 2007 on the use of smart cards for physical access. This course will be a classroom style course provided to the attendees of Expo Seguridad Mexico in the security market. It is intended to be a follow-up course to the physical access course that is provided by The Latin American Security Association (ALAS) at their conference events.
- Educational/Promotional Video. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) has held meetings with The Latin American Security Association (ALAS) and Obraweb to create online videos for the SCALA website. The idea would be to film one of SCALA’s Educational Institutes (E.I.) in high quality video to provide industry information and promote attendance to the Alliance.
- Member invitation. The Smart Card Alliance Latin America (SCALA) with the leadership of the Transportation Council has developed a list of organizations in the transportation industry to send a formal invitation to join the Alliance and the transportation council. Due to the limited response of organizations in the region to join the Alliance and participate, the leadership of this council has agreed to use the contacts that the Alliance has acquired and invite them behalf of the transportation council to join our organization.
- Articles for targeted industry magazines. The Alliance Latin America, Media Outreach Council has established several meeting in Brazil with other participating member organizations to organize the direction and responsibility of the council. As the council achieved it organizational logistics it began developing articles for publishing at identified magazines on behalf of the Alliance.
How to get involved:
If you would like to get involved in any of the Latin American activities listed above or wish to be added to the contact list for future announcements, please send an email to info@smartcardalliance.org.
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