Nice to be back! Hope you all had a nice summer (winter, for those of you who are down under).
I must admit that I have neglected the blog lately. Well, it was summer; the weather was nice (it is still 26 C. right now in Ottawa); I got sidetracked on ”other stuff”, etc. And I also had to deal with a major spam issue with the blog, which has now been resolved thanks to my son Jean-François (who provides the technical sanity to this operation).
Here is a copy of the presentation I gave on June 25th at Cardware 2007 in Toronto (in the pages, right-hand side). I had a great time preparing it and it was well received by the retailers present at the conference.
Do not hesitate to post comments if you have anything to add!
I am just back from Cardware Ottawa, the symposium held today by Act Canada. This year’s event focused on Identity Management and Credentialing. It was an interesting day all in all, with good speakers and interesting topics.
It was interesting to note that some of the discussions centered on a National ID Cards. I am adding the text of an article that was prepared for Card Technology in November 2003 on that topic. It is interesting to see that the contents of the article is still of actuality, i.e. that the Members of Parliament that reviewed the proposal were quite perceptive. The issues they raised still need to be addressed by the industry and by civil society.
The attendees heard a good presentation on the advantages of Global Platform to attain inter-operability and vendor independence, by Kevin Gillick. Peter Macauley presented the challenges faced by the Government of Ontario’s pilot of credentials for physical and logical access control. There was an interesting panel on the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative by Catherine Johnston, Clive Addy and James Sheire. Deborah Gallagher made a very clear presentation on the US Department of Defense’s Common Access card, and its extension to the rest of the US Government via PIV.
My main take-home point was that there seems to be a lot of interest from various departments on the use of card technologies, but that there seems to be a vacuum as to how to organize such large-scale projects.
Interesting discussion also on a topic from the audience, i.e. how one could use FIPS 201 to facilitate common access for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. This is a great showcase and a great idea. Maybe the Feds could negotiate with the Organizing Committee and do it in exchange for a sponsorship… Just a thought.
I have the privilege of speaking at Cardware 2007, one of the symposiums organized by ACT Canada (more information at http://www.actcda.com/calendar/symposium.htm). The purpose of my presentation is to illustrate what retailers need to know in preparation of the EMV migration.
You are all invited to attend as the program promises to be interesting. I will post my Powerpoint presentation as soon as the symposium is over.
This is now out in the public domain. A Canadian pilot will start in 2007, peaking in March 2008. See the article on Card Technology, at http://www.cardtechnology.com/article.html?id=20070529PCKY4NLS.
It will be interesting to see how the technology is accepted by cardholders and merchants, and if there are any technology issues. More to follow as soon as information becomes public!
The CTST 2007 conference (http://www.ctst.com/CTST07 ) was as usual, a chance to reconnect with many industry leaders as well as to sit in and listen to some of the speakers. I was lucky to present on the first morning (copy of my presentation under CTST 2007, to the right), which left ample time to learn more on the big buzz of the conference: contactless technology.
In all of my years in the card industry, and including my years on JTC1-SC17, I was never a big fan of contactless cards. I was not convinced that a viable business case could be built to justify implementing them in payment applications. Sure, I could easily identify niche applications that made sense and the cards were being produced in a variety of form factors that extended their usefulness. However I felt, as many did, that it was a technology looking for its raison d’être.
Well who says you cannot teach an old dog new tricks? Sure enough, I am slowly changing my mind.
Out of curiosity, I recently applied for and received a MasterCard Paypass card. You can go to http://www.priceless.com/cards/paypass/index.html?GP=ILC-REDpaypass to see some Paypass ads.I was looking for a petroleum card that would reduce the cost of gasoline (it does) and wanted to experiment with a contactless card. Now, I go the extra mile just for the fun of using Paypass! I just have to place my wallet close to the reader and bingo - transaction completed! I will really appreciate it this winter (remember that Canadian winters can be really cold, -20C at times). Fumbling with your credit card as you attempt to take it out of your wallet and insert it in the gas pump reader, fingers frozen, keys in hand,is an experience I can avoid with contactless technology. It would be even better if the card was available in a different form factor, a key fob for example.
So far, as a consumer, I am truly impressed, by the ease of use of Paypass; it is really convenient. I can understand why the technology has created such a buzz in the USA and abroad. I still have reservations about using the card for anything other than small value payments (with the exception of gas of course) as I believe 2-factor authentication (a PIN) should be required.
I actually worked for a client on a concept of a transit card combined with a traditional EMV card, which would have required a combined interface (contact for EMV, contactless for transit). I still believe the future resides in multiple form factors, adapted to varied delivery channels, standard POS, ATM, the web, active and passive RFID, NFC, and others.
This leads us to an interesting conclusion: disintermediation of the distribution channels will happen in the medium term because of the expansion of payment channels. Those payment channels will no longer be controlled by banks or large processors alone. EMV will not be the sole future of Smart Cards, as new form factors or tokens, and new transaction schemes expand outside of banking. The reluctance of the USA to migrate to EMV exacerbates this fact.
I would love your comments on these topics. Until then, have a nice day!
I think it is worthwhile to have a space where people from around the world can share their views on these issues. My role will be to moderate the exchanges, of course, while provoking discussions by posting topics as frequently as possible.
I mean this blog to be as open as feasible. Just as long as people are respectful of each others’ opinion… I will also use the space to talk about topics that are dear to me.