[Margrit Kennedy] In Germany and Austria, a new type of voucher is in use since 2003. Instead of aiming at customer loyalty for commercial enterprises, these vouchers aim at creating customer, producer and trade loyalty for a region. The “Regional Currency Complements” for which the term "Regio" is being used by about 50 initiatives, which belong to the Regiogeld Verband (Regional Money Federation) have a number of common features. They include:

• The Regio is not legal tender or an "official" means of payment, which means that its acceptance is entirely voluntary. Therefore, it will only function as long as people consider it to be useful, i.e. as long as it can be spent for regional products that people need.
• Its use is limited by geography, and in each region the currency bears a different name.
• Exchanging Regios for other regional currencies or the national currency usually imposes an exchange fee.
• Regios usually do not earn interest, but carry a circulation incentive–i.e. a fee–if not passed on.

The “Regio” is, so to speak, a quality label, which guarantees a certain quality standard and performance:

• It allows a partial de-coupling of the regional economy from the global economy and acts like a semi-permeable membrane around the region, allowing that percentage of economic exchanges which is regional to be carried out in the region’s own currency.
• It keeps the added value of regionally exchanged goods within the regional economy and thus helps to reduce unemployment in its region.
• Its creation is transparent and, therefore, can be democratically controlled.
• It encourages ecological projects and production and thus promotes the shortest efficient transportation route.
• It enhances regional identity, cooperation and responsibility among participants and creates new relationships between consumers and producers.

The initiators of Regional Currency Complements believe that they can strengthen the region with its specific interests and potentials by its own means of exchange. In contrast to programmes that attempt to create more social justice through the transfer of wealth, currency complements offer a new way to increase social equality. They can be seen as innovative means for supporting individual and group initiatives, strengthening their self-worth and generating added social value through collective action.

The development of regional currency complements aims at enabling the inhabitants of a region to preferentially purchase regional goods and services – and to help small and medium-size enterprises who are responsible for creating most of the jobs and profits resulting from production rather than financial investments. Usually the cost of creating workplaces for regional production is a fraction of the cost of workplaces that serve international markets.

Technorati Tags: community, currencies, loyalty, payments

[Read more…]

These are the personal opinions of Consult Hyperion and its guests and should not be misunderstood as representing the opinion of its clients or suppliers. To discuss how any of the technologies discussed in this post can benefit your business, please contact Consult Hyperion.

[Dave Birch] Critics of the US ID card initiative have long said that it actually makes individuals less secure by putting all their eggs in one basket and leaving them more vulnerable to data breaches and insider abuse.  The legislation behind it, the Read ID Act, requires the departments of motor vehicles in all 50 states to demand and keep on file sensitive documents such as birth certificates, social security cards, utility bills and the like. People who don’t have an ID card will be barred from boarding airplanes and from entering federal buildings such as courthouses, so it looks as if most Americans will have to get one.

Technorati Tags: ID cards, identity, risk analysis, security

[Read more…]

These are the personal opinions of Consult Hyperion and its guests and should not be misunderstood as representing the opinion of its clients or suppliers. To discuss how any of the technologies discussed in this post can benefit your business, please contact Consult Hyperion.

[Dave Birch] Many people subscribe the Digital Identity Forum blog "RSS feed" and read it through a "Feed reader".  If these terms mean nothing to you, you’ll be pleased to know that we’ve set up an e-mail list for you.  Read on for instructions…

Technorati Tags: forum, identity

[Read more…]

These are the personal opinions of Consult Hyperion and its guests and should not be misunderstood as representing the opinion of its clients or suppliers. To discuss how any of the technologies discussed in this post can benefit your business, please contact Consult Hyperion.

[Dave Birch] I’m thrown into category confusion, because I wanted to mention the use of Octopus (ie, transit) contactless smart cards in Hong Kong.  As we have often discussed, the way in which Octopus has spread from transit to retail payments makes for an interesting case study.  But it is also the case the Octopus cards are being used for physical access control.  Since everyone, essentially, has one there is no point in implementing proprietary access control systems for offices or apartment buildings: you may as well just let people use their Octopus cards.  This always struck me as rather interesting, particularly given evidence from other markets that people might be reluctant to load too many functions onto one card.

Technorati Tags: contactless, identity, mobile, security

[Read more…]

These are the personal opinions of Consult Hyperion and its guests and should not be misunderstood as representing the opinion of its clients or suppliers. To discuss how any of the technologies discussed in this post can benefit your business, please contact Consult Hyperion.

[Dave Birch]  The potential growth of the RFID market is "huge".  It’s not just me who says this, but the "Information Society and Media" Commissioner, Viviane Reding told reporters at CeBIT.  She estimated that the European RFID market will grow from €500 million ($660 million) in 2006 to €7 billion by 2016. "We’re strong in wireless, mobility and chip manufacturing, and we must develop this for RFID," she said. But the commissioner also warned that industry must pay greater attention to security and privacy issues. "We must make industry aware that the Internet of things must be an Internet for people".  That’s a phrase I rather like, and it echoes some of our comments on this.  She also announced the creation of an "RFID stakeholder group," including representatives from industry and consumer groups. The group will provide advice to the Commission, which plans by the middle of this year to propose amendments to the e-Piracy Directive taking account of RFID applications. Also, later in the year, the Commission intends to publish recommendations for member states on how to handle data security and privacy issues affected by the use of RFID. .

Technorati Tags: internet, rfid

[Read more…]

These are the personal opinions of Consult Hyperion and its guests and should not be misunderstood as representing the opinion of its clients or suppliers. To discuss how any of the technologies discussed in this post can benefit your business, please contact Consult Hyperion.