RFID Gazette

OTA Training announced last week a new RFID training and certification program in Argentina. This is the first program of its kind in the region. The program is a joint effort between OTA Training, EPCGlobal Argentina, and Telectronica. Said Robert Sabella, CEO and founder of OTA Training:

We are extremely proud to be a part of this first offering of high quality RFID training in Argentina. Telectronica and EPCGlobal, in particular, have taken a leading role in building awareness around RFID and we are honored to help them promote real, hands-on training in RFID technology.

This is of course good news, as support for RFID training and certification is a good sign of the expanding global RFID market. A minimum of training programs around the world will hold back widescale enterprise adoption of RFID, due to lack of skilled workers.

Domino ISG and OTA Training recently announced a teamup to provide RFID training and certification courses. They will take place at four Domino CoEs (Centers of Excellence) in the US and UK, and newer centers in Asia and elsewhere in Europe. [via RFID Solutions Online]

The courses are an extension of those that OTA Training already provides their clients, and by partnering with Domino, students will have hands-on training at the CoEs. Start dates are expected to be announced later this year.

Last year, Domino received approval from GS1 UK to offer training for GS1, particularly in SCM (Supply Chain Management). OTA has previously had their training program adapted by CompTIA for the latter's RFID+ certification program, which is vendor-neutral.

RFID training is a critical step for the industry, as a lack of skilled workers is expected to hold companies back from adoption of the technology. Hopefully, more companies follow the lead of Loftwares, who recently had several employees certified.

Several RFID conferences are coming up for 2007 (in approximate chronological order):

• RFID World and related:
  
  • RFID World, Mar 26-29, Dallas, Texas.
  • RFID Excellence in Business Awards, Mar 26-28, Dallas.
    
  • NFC Planet at CTIA, Mar 26, Orlando, Florida.
  • NFC Europe + RFID Germany, Oct 1-2, Frankfurt, Germany.
    
• DoD RFID Summit, Apr 3-4, Washington, D.C.
  
• RFID Journal Live, Apr 30-May 2, Orlando, Florida.
• 2007 Canadian RFID Conference, May 8-9, Markham (~Toronto), Canada.
  
• RFID Eurasia, Sep 5-7, Istanbul, Turkey.
• EPC Connection, Oct 2-4, Chicago, Illinois.
   

Maybe it's because I've only been writing regularly about RFID since last July but it seems to me that the number of events in North America alone have almost doubled. And to go along with the conferences, a number of training companies have started to schedule workshops and certification sessions to coincide. This is a good sign, of course, and suggests that the industry is maturing enough for such niche events to succeed.

Loftware, Inc., in New Hampshire, announced that they now have the honor of being the 2nd largest employer in the world in terms of the number of certified staff. Eighteen of their staff are now CompTIA RFID+ certified. Congratulations to Loftware. This is good news, and hopefully other companies will follow along.

CompTIA RFID+ is relatively new RFID certification program. A CompTIA surveylast year showed that there is a lack of skilled workers in the industry. A few colleges in North America are starting to get RFID labs and study programs, and there are new training centers in Canada and the US. In fact , industry insiders have suggested to me that the RFID training niche is likely to explode in the next few years. RFID kits are also becoming more readily available at a lower price.

Gizmos For Geeks has a great synopsis of the perceptions of RFID: "Depending on who you ask, RFID technology is either the 'Mark of the Beast' or a global panacea destined to rescue the grocery stores and Wal-Marts of the world from shoplifting." Of course, that's true and RFID is much more than that.

RFID, like computing, is so many things to so many industries, with supply chain applications straddling those industries more than any other application. Payments via smartphone are poised to become the application that really takes RFID "to the masses".

However, RFID still lacks popular appeal. But the handy little kit that Gizmos for Geeks reviews may help. Unlike a lot of other RFID kits, this one is just under a $100, has a USB cable, a dozen types of RFID tags, and projects that the average geek or wanna-be can probably do. (As opposed to a trained RFID field person.) The RFID Experimentation Kit also includes a copy of the book RFID Toys by Amal Graafstra, who implanted himself with not one but two chips.

More RFID Training Options
A number of RFID courses will be offered in 2007 at Penn State Erie's RFID Center of Excellence. The dates are Jan 17-18, Feb 7, Mar 7-8. They are prep courses for the CompTIA RFID+ certification examination. PRWeb/ Biz Yahoo and RFID Solutions Online have details. RFID training options are finally popping up all over the place.

McKesson RFID Real-Time Location System
The Spartanburg Regional Medical Center in South Carolina recently installed the Horizon RTLS (Real-Time Location System) from McKesson, a healthcare service provider and technology company. The system will be used to wirelessly monitor the location of over 500 IV (intraveneous) infusion pumps. [via Gen Eng News]

Fish Olympics?
Fish Olympics is a university project (USC Interactive Media) which lets people construct a virtual tropical fish and test it against other creations. There isn't much more info, and the main site is under construction.