06.21.07
Cardware Ottawa 2007
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.
Have a nice day, all!