RFID in Education: Revolutionary or Evolutionary?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: bob () bobrosenberg com
Date: May 21, 2005 2:08:55 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RFID in Education: Revolutionary or Evolutionary?


Dave

[ irony ]
I feel so much better about RFID's now that I know that "experts"  
dismiss the
possibility of misuse by bad guys.

[ /irony ]
--

Cordially,

Bob Rosenberg, Principal
R.G. Rosenberg & Assoc.
Public Policy Consulting & Advocacy and
eACE - eLearning Advocacy Civic Entrepreneur
P.O. Box 33023
Phoenix, AZ  85067-3023
LandLine:  (602)274-3012
Mobile:  (602)206-2856
bob () bobrosenberg com
www.bobrosenberg.com

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Edu Insight
RFID in Education: Revolutionary or Evolutionary?

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a fast-growing technology  
that uses
tiny wireless transmitters to tag individual objects and uniquely  
identify them
on the network. While early attention has been on RFID's impact on  
supply chain
management, the technology will also play important roles in  
education, health
care and research.
http://see.sun.com/Apps/DCS/mcp? 
r=70043grF4DqxL012000416Te043grF0mka80kaBp&=1


SELECTED EXCERPTS [and my comments]:

RFID is yet another example of Metcalfe's Law. Though the chip  
transmits nothing
more than a unique number, when connected to a network like the  
Internet, its
value multiplies. "In the future, everything of value will be on the  
network in
one form of another," says John Fowler, Software CTO of Sun  
Microsystems. "And
once they're on the network, we can aggregate data from those diverse  
devices,
and then deliver that data to equally diverse devices — in  
informative and
compelling ways."

[I agree that it can be *compelling*... as in *chilling* freedom of  
speech and
freedom of association]

University libraries have been the first institutions on campus to  
implement
RFID, for many of the same reasons that Wal-Mart has employed the  
technology —
improved inventory tracking, faster checkout (employee or self  
serve), reduced
theft and better information on which to make strategic decisions.

["...better information on which to make strategic decisions" --  
Perhaps which
students to follow, to raid their rooms, to tap their phones.]

Implementation of RFID technology on campus still faces a number of  
challenges,
both technological and social. Perhaps the biggest issue with current
implementations in university libraries in one of privacy and  
security. RFID
technology will enhance efforts to monitor individual usage patterns,  
perhaps
setting off a security flag when a student checks out a chemistry  
book with
bomb-making information within days of a book on radical  
fundamentalism. The
Electronic Frontiers (sic) Foundation is concerned about potential  
abuses of
RFID technology that it says could create an "architecture for a  
surveillance
society."

["...setting off a security flag when a student checks out a  
chemistry book with
bomb-making information within days of a book on radical  
fundamentalism."  Well,
I suppose some of the bad guys are that dumb -- but, I wouldn't bet  
money on
it.]

And, as in the early days of wireless, there is concern that someone  
could use
an unauthorized receiver to capture information from RFID tags as  
they pass by.
Experts, however, dismiss this possibility as unlikely. Other  
concerns center
around the trackability of tags after they have left the bookstore.  
To address
this issue, Phillips is making customer-killable tags.

["Experts, however, dismiss this possibility as unlikely."  I'm happy  
to learn
that "Experts" dismiss this.  wonder what the alphabet groups like  
EFF, EPIC,
etc. think of those "Experts".]




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