Cresanti Promises to Coordinate Government's RFID Effort
Undersecretary of Commerce for Technology Administration was in San Diego and Orange County last week, speaking to a number of business organizations about his role in the Administration on a variety of federal technology policies. Undersecretary Robert Cresanti also co-chairs the RFID Interagency Working Group within the Administration, working with Alan Estevez at the US Department of Defense and other Federal Departments and agencies exploring the use of RFID for various applications.
I had the honor of introducing Robert to about 225 industry representatives at the University of California, Irvine through an organization called OCTANe and to about 50 IT and biotechnology executives in San Diego through an organization called CONNECT.
Robert indicated that the working group was largely operating as an information sharing organization between federal agencies; not as a policy making entity. Although there are literally dozens of federal agencies using RFID, or exploring regulations affecting RFID, there is not yet any coordinated or developed public policy within the federal government governing the use of RFID. Although that is rapidly changing -- indeed it is one of his top priorities as Undersecretary.
Our firm is working with the RFID Journal to develop two pre-conferences on RFID emerging public policy and legal issues:
Chicago, September 26
http://www.rfidjournal.com/industrysummits/legal_preconference.php
and
Amsterdam, October 25
http://www.rfidjournal.com/europe2006/legal_preconference.php
We plan to bring RFID providers, end users, and government decision makers together to better understand the needs of each community, and begin the process of developing responsible public policies around RFID use. Look to this site or RFID Journal for more information.
