"Educational Tool Helps Users and Resellers Understand RFID" 
Rick Morgan, Editor

May 23, 2008-Over the years, there’s one thing the entire industry has always agreed on…we need to educate VARs, integrators, and users about our technologies. We recently had a chance to test drive an interactive, online, educational offering that we believe is one of the finest courses we’ve seen to date. Created by RFID Revolution and a team of industry gurus, RFID Essentials uses a combination of voice and animation to explain RFID and its technical abilities, present theoretical problems, and help students solve problems and learn by discovery.

"An Interview with RFID Trailblazer H. D. Smith," 
Leslie Downey, RFID Revolution

August 21, 2006 - ...H. D. Smith Wholesale Drug Company. In the summer of 2005, the company conducted the nation's first RFID-enabled pharmaceutical e-pedigree trial with Purdue Pharma. I wanted to find out what motivated them to take this plunge, and what they are up to now.

H. D. Smith remains family owned since its founding in Springfield in 1954 by Henry Dale Smith. From six distribution centers nationwide, it delivers more than 35,000 products to independent pharmacies, small retail chains, and hospitals. With $2.5 billion in sales, it is now the fourth largest national pharmaceutical wholesale company in the U.S., having ranked seventh just three years ago

"RFID World Sees Technology Taking Root," 
Leslie Downey, RFID Revolution

March 9, 2006 - "Uptake of RFID technology will be gradual, similar to growth of the Internet. There's no it moment," noted RFID World 2006 attendee Bill Wilkinson of American Packaging Corporation. "But," he added, "it's amazing the difference a year makes." Indeed, at the RFID World Conference and Exposition last week there were ample signs that RFID technology was taking root.

Attendance at this year's show was 3,500, 20 percent higher than 2005. At 200, the number of exhibitors was up 50 percent, with "more than 150 already resigned for next year," according to Tim Downs, president of the conference's organizer Shorecliff Communications (recently acquired by CMP Media).

"International Cargo Conundrum   How much investment in security is enough?" 
Leslie Downey, RFID Revolution

Feb. 6, 2006-What must be done to provide an "adequate" measure of cargo security? Are electronic freight container seals (e-seals) a good investment?

These questions were debated at eyefortransport's North American Cargo Security 2005 Forum-held in Washington, D.C., in December-by representatives from such large importers as Boeing and Procter & Gamble (P&G), as well as transportation and logistics companies, and information and cargo seal technology vendors. Not everyone agreed on the answers, but they did concur that the U.S. government must invest more to step up private investment.

“EPCglobal and the RFID Tipping Point,” 
Leslie Downey, RFID Revolution

September 19, 2005 - While growth in conference attendance from 2004, at about 1,400, was flat, and a number of speakers from end-user companies acknowledged their continuing preoccupation with "just trying to make things work", the overall consensus seemed to be that RFID was here to stay. So, when will RFID's big growth phase begin?

                            Download article, courtesy of RFID Update.

“RFID: Will China Throw a Monkey Wrench?" 
Without Beijing's support -- which doesn't appear likely -- of international efforts to set a global standard, world trade could suffer
Leslie Downey and Craig Harmon

September 12, 2005- Will China play ball or go its own way and buck international efforts to establish radio-frequency-identification (RFID) standards? The answer to that question will have a profound impact on the future of global trade for the likes of Wal- Mart (WMT), Procter & Gamble (PG), and thousands of other U.S. and European companies. Multiple RFID standards could mean substantially more information-technology investment for large companies and insurmountable trade barriers for smaller ones.

“Thinking Locally,” 
Leslie Downey, RFID Revolution

July, 2004 - Ask any person on the street these days what he or she thinks of "globalization," and you're almost certain to get an opinion. Ask about "localization," and you'll probably get a blank stare. But "the localization and translation industry accounts for about $26 billion in worldwide revenue," according to Michael Anobile, Director of the Localization Industry Standards Association, or LISA, based in Geneva, Switzerland. "And its growth is accelerating as U.S. companies realize they must do more to make their products marketable in other countries."

Language translation is a key element of the localization process. Web sites, product promotion and training material, software, and legal agreements may all need translation. But localization also includes careful consideration of subject matter, graphics, and colors, to appeal to and avoid offending people in the target country market.

"Only one in four of the world's population speaks English to some level of competence," Anobile notes. "That leaves nearly five billion people who are unreachable without translation, and a growing percentage of those are accessing the Internet."