Great article on National ID Cards. Its unlikely to happen in my mind, but would go a long way toward a uniform interface to authenticate in a large number of ways.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/two-id-cards/
Friday, March 26, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Interoperabe loyalty - why not?
If you are like most people, you have a number of cards in your wallet or purse - all for the purpose of identifying yourself to a merchant and receiving points, discounts, and other things. My wallet is twice as thick as it needs to be, and my girlfriend has at least twice as many cards.....
Why doesn't an entrepeneur create a smart loyalty card or APP that allows people to have one card with all the numbers, identifiers, points totals, etc all in one place? This would be great for consumers, and likely save the merchant a ton of money overall in terms of processing them. As they developed, offers could be loaded into this entity instead of into my work email.
This could be a powerful idea!
Why doesn't an entrepeneur create a smart loyalty card or APP that allows people to have one card with all the numbers, identifiers, points totals, etc all in one place? This would be great for consumers, and likely save the merchant a ton of money overall in terms of processing them. As they developed, offers could be loaded into this entity instead of into my work email.
This could be a powerful idea!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Battery technology
www.autonews.com/article/20100316/VIDEO/303169968/1219
Great video on common battery charging technology - Japan aiming at global standard!
Great video on common battery charging technology - Japan aiming at global standard!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Interoperable Rant.....SUNPASS
One of best government sharing programs is EZ-PASS - throughout almost all East Coast States, paying tolls on the highway is a breeze no matter where you are. You zip through all the toll booths, and the EZ-Pass system takes care of you pretty well in my experience.
Not so in Florida - their "SunPass" is completely incompatible with everything apparently, so I spent the week spending an extra 5 minutes or much more bottled up in a side lane paying manually. No interface to anything.
Come on Florida, get with the 21st Century!
Not so in Florida - their "SunPass" is completely incompatible with everything apparently, so I spent the week spending an extra 5 minutes or much more bottled up in a side lane paying manually. No interface to anything.
Come on Florida, get with the 21st Century!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Next Generation 9-1-1 - anybody seen it?
DOT has been "working" on a Next Generation 9-1-1 for years, with little apparent success or results. If you Google "next generation 911" nothing from DOT is visible. If you go to Google news, nothing from the Federal Government shows up?
I'm going to drill into this - I tried to get involved several years ago, and was basically told that "we have our best people working on it, no need for you to get involved". I was also told that project trials were "on the way" and imminent.
If you don't understand the gravity of the problem, you can only call 9-1-1 on the phone, and even then, if you are using a mobile phone, they might not know where you are. Too many calls to operators at any one call center can overwhelm them, rendering 9-1-1 useless for a period of time while they are cleared. 9-1-1 has no interaction in most cases with 3-1-1 and other community hotlines - causing further confusion.
You can't text 9-1-1, you can't email 9-1-1, and you sure can't twitter 9-1-1 if you see an accident with injuries right in front of your eyes. You also can't be notified digitally if there is a cloud of noxious, poison gas 2 miles down the road - almost all 9-1-1s do not publish their calls for service digitally to either trusted constituents who have been vetted, or to the public.
Houston is one notable exception - their 9-1-1 feed is available to all the community vendors out there. Excellent work on their part, and it should be incorporated into all PSAPs (public service answering points).
Much more to follow, I'm going to make it my part time passion to get some answers on this one.....
I'm going to drill into this - I tried to get involved several years ago, and was basically told that "we have our best people working on it, no need for you to get involved". I was also told that project trials were "on the way" and imminent.
If you don't understand the gravity of the problem, you can only call 9-1-1 on the phone, and even then, if you are using a mobile phone, they might not know where you are. Too many calls to operators at any one call center can overwhelm them, rendering 9-1-1 useless for a period of time while they are cleared. 9-1-1 has no interaction in most cases with 3-1-1 and other community hotlines - causing further confusion.
You can't text 9-1-1, you can't email 9-1-1, and you sure can't twitter 9-1-1 if you see an accident with injuries right in front of your eyes. You also can't be notified digitally if there is a cloud of noxious, poison gas 2 miles down the road - almost all 9-1-1s do not publish their calls for service digitally to either trusted constituents who have been vetted, or to the public.
Houston is one notable exception - their 9-1-1 feed is available to all the community vendors out there. Excellent work on their part, and it should be incorporated into all PSAPs (public service answering points).
Much more to follow, I'm going to make it my part time passion to get some answers on this one.....
Monday, February 22, 2010
One part of government that is working....NIEM
You see a lot of gridlock in government today - health care, spending, partisan bickering, Not very conducive to making anything happen. I won't even start to talk about all the dumb projects that seem to consume dollars but produce no results...but here is a great example of something that is working very well:
I attended a National Information Exchange Model Town Hall last week and the theme was the desire to advance their cause and make the movement of data between governemnt agencies easy at the "plumbing" level. They wanted feedback so they could align their strategic planning session with what was needed by their supporters.
The event harnessed people from all corners - government, commercial, contractors, NGO and many others. There was some good information presented, but the overwhelming amount of time went toward gathering feedback on how NIEM could be more successful, address a greater audience, and gather information on when it is successful.
This has been an organization that has put some very good things in place that will work across government - and is a true collaboration of agencies - DHS and DOJ taking the lead, but many others particpating.
This effort has enormous impacts for saving lives and property, decreasing the friction between agencies when transfering data, and helping transparency efforts in terms of making the data usable once it is accessible.
There were certainly different points of view on what the mission should be, and how the mission should be explained to non-technical participants and would be supporters like Congress, but it was a high energy, well constructed 4 hours. Kudos.
I attended a National Information Exchange Model Town Hall last week and the theme was the desire to advance their cause and make the movement of data between governemnt agencies easy at the "plumbing" level. They wanted feedback so they could align their strategic planning session with what was needed by their supporters.
The event harnessed people from all corners - government, commercial, contractors, NGO and many others. There was some good information presented, but the overwhelming amount of time went toward gathering feedback on how NIEM could be more successful, address a greater audience, and gather information on when it is successful.
This has been an organization that has put some very good things in place that will work across government - and is a true collaboration of agencies - DHS and DOJ taking the lead, but many others particpating.
This effort has enormous impacts for saving lives and property, decreasing the friction between agencies when transfering data, and helping transparency efforts in terms of making the data usable once it is accessible.
There were certainly different points of view on what the mission should be, and how the mission should be explained to non-technical participants and would be supporters like Congress, but it was a high energy, well constructed 4 hours. Kudos.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Universal interoperability - one example
The world is a tough place filled with disconnected, non-interoperable elements.
One standard that works great everywhere I've been is "Thank you", part of XGL (XML Gratitude Language). When expressed sincerely in a bi-directional or even uni-directional manner, it inspires people, makes them glad you showed up, makes you glad you showed up, and generallly improves things greatly!
I'm leaving Australia after 3 intense, action packed work weeks and a little fun. A big "Thank You" to the whole country for a delightful experience.
One standard that works great everywhere I've been is "Thank you", part of XGL (XML Gratitude Language). When expressed sincerely in a bi-directional or even uni-directional manner, it inspires people, makes them glad you showed up, makes you glad you showed up, and generallly improves things greatly!
I'm leaving Australia after 3 intense, action packed work weeks and a little fun. A big "Thank You" to the whole country for a delightful experience.
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