November Release: Is Bluetooth Sooo Last Year?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 6, 2006
MEDIA CONTACT: Kathie Legg,
kathielegg@mobilemonday.net;
Julie Barko Germany,
juliegermany@mobilemonday.net;
IS BLUETOOTH SOOO LAST YEAR?
MOMO DC LOOKS AT NEAR FIELD COMMUNICATIONS AND THE FUTURE OF IDENTITY MANAGEMENT
November 20
EVENT: Mobile Monday DC (http://www.mobilemonday-dc.com/), the local chapter of a global movement of technology professionals, announces its November event, "Is Bluetooth Sooo Last Year?" on Near Field Communications and RFID.
WHEN: Monday, October 20, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
WHERE: Science Club DC
1136 19th Street NW Washington DC 20036
Farragut West Metro (Orange and Blue Lines), and Farragut North Metro or Dupont Circle Metro (Red Line)
COST: The event is free to the public. Members of the media are welcome to attend the event.
SPEAKERS: Patrick Hearn, Oberthur Card Systems
Greg Garback, Executive Officer of the Department of Finance for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
BACKGROUND:
The November Mobile Monday DC event will address the topic of Near Field Communications, a short-range wireless technology that makes two-way interactions, such as information exchanges and financial transactions, easier. NFC combines radio frequency identification (RFID) with wireless readers. Unlike Bluetooth or WiFi, NFC-enabled devices do not rely on battery power, and transactions can occur over much shorter distances (a few centimeters compared to 30 to 300 feet).
One industry group, the NFC Forum (www.nfc-forum.org), estimates that within the next three years, 50 percent of all cell phones will support NFC technology, allowing people to pay for public transportation, sports tickets, and movies through their cell phones. This is combined with other estimates of an identity management business approaching well over $8.4 Billion USD here in the United States.
The speaker for this event, Patrick Hearn of Oberthur Card Systems, will discuss NFC, RFID and future of identity management.
About MobileMonday
MobileMonday is a community of mobile professionals founded in 2000. The open community promotes the mobile industry and fosters cooperation and networking among industry people and their companies by providing opportunities for personal and virtual contacts.
Mobile Monday DC exposes Beltway-area professionals to new innovations in mobile technology, and it gives opportunities for political, government, technology, corporate, and non-profit professionals to meet each other and share ideas. While Mobile Monday DC is not exclusively devoted to politics, many events will introduce new ideas and tools that can be adapted by political professionals in Washington, DC, including those in the public policy, advocacy, non-profit, lobbying, and campaign communities.
About Patrick Hearn
Patrick W. Hearn is Director of Government Identification Markets for Oberthur Card Systems. He is a member of Oberthur's Executive Committee with specific responsibility for sales/marketing for all identification initiatives, government relations and lobbying, and product development. He currently oversees projects for Oberthur such as the DoD Common Access Card, HSPD-12, Registered Traveler, Transportation Worker Identity Credential and First Responders. Patrick is a board member of the Volunteer Credential Industry Coalition, a member of the Smart Card Alliance Educational Institute and is a frequent speaker for Oberthur in identity related issues in the North and Central America for the media.
About Greg Garback
Greg Garback serves as the Executive Officer of the Department of Finance for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA or Metro) in Washington, DC. He has served in this capacity for over seven years coming from twelve years of design and construction management experience on expansion of the Metrorail system in the Washington region.
Among many finance-based responsibilities, Greg was the initial program executive for deploying SmarTrip®, the Authority's contactless smart card now used as an alternative form of payment for rail and bus system fares and parking lot fees. SmarTrip® was launched in May 1999 with the objective of providing utility and convenience to its customers and now has 1,800,000 cards in the field. Greg's current focus on SmarTrip® is to strategically expand the multi-application concept for smart cards working with financial institutions to change the payment paradigm for transit and lay the ground work for transitioning from card-issuing organizations to card-accepting merchants. WMATA continues to lead the expansion based on SmarTrip® as the multi-operator, multi-modal fare media for regional the bus and commuter rail systems in the near future.
Greg currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Smart Card Alliance and is the immediate past co-chair of the Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council. Further, Greg performs peer reviews for the transit industry in the U.S. and abroad, assisting agencies in the planning and deployment phases of smart card based systems; serves on several committees within the American Public Transportation Association in roles focused on advanced payment systems and technologies; serves on the federal government Inter-agency Advisory Board (IAB); and, serves as the co-chair of the Electronic Payment Systems task force for the I-95 Corridor Coalition.
For more information on the global Mobile Monday movement, visit www.mobilemonday.net.
For more information about the local Mobile Monday DC chapter, visit http://www.mobilemonday-dc.com/.
-MMDC-
