The Centre and what it is about Mick Davies Board member of the AIDC Centre at Halifax and champion of the European Centre for Smartmedia and eInclusion at Chapletown SCNF Meeting – Sheffield – October 2006

Firstly, apologies for shifting the venue This is where we should have been :

This is where we are: Lucky we were not here yesterday, because being at United on a Wednesday could have been even more confusing.

Why the switch?  The works on the Chapletown building are good enough to move in and the building is ready for use  Unexpected last minute lease issues have resulted in Yorkshire Forward (YF) being unable to complete last week  Colleagues at Sheffield City Council have moved remarkably quickly to source this “Premier league” venue at very short notice, and In case you are wondering, this event is being supported financially by YF

So lets get on with it AIDC stands for Automatic Identification and Data Capture The AIDC centre organisation  Is the umbrella organisation  Is based at Halifax  Includes the Sheffield-based Smart Media and e-Inclusion centre at Chapletown  Has a business plan up for board approval next week, and  Is funded by Yorkshire Forward

YF invests £5m Yorkshire Forward is investing more than £5 million in AIDC, with additional funding from the Department of Trade and Industry, the European Regional Development fund and AIM UK. The impact of RFID is already being felt within a range of industries, including transport, logistics, coastal fishing, security and access control, animal identification, libraries, healthcare and pharmaceuticals. The new European centre for AIDC will promote the development and uptake of all automatic identification technologies, and contribute to the setting of globally accepted standards. The centre will be managed by AIDC UK and will have a multi- purpose theatre with accommodation for 70 delegates, plus a state- of-the-art technology demonstration area showing possible applications within a range of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, food safety, logistics and the public sector. An on-site laboratory will provide testing and research services for application research and student training.

So as you can see The AIDC Centre is coming at RFID, NFC, barcodes, etc from a manufacturing, product transport and distribution management perspective but recognises synergy with Smartmedia for people and government and the value of working on the areas of cross-over. Subject to the board accepting the plans, it will be  Opening in the new year in The Elsie Whiteley Mill complex in Halifax  Will use a Street concept for the technology demonstrators  And will have extensive lab and testing facilities

Some sessions will show how these things come together, but We are concentrating on e-government, smartmedia, and eInclusion and these will be led from The Centre for Smartmedia and e- inclusion in Chapletown, Sheffield. The ECSeI Centre will take advantage of the European-wide ‘smart’ technology reputation of Sheffield City Council.  It will house European and world-wide projects and contacts  It will provide demonstrator, conference, incubation and training facilities  It will allow the industry to test its products for ‘usability’ with the public, ensuring that emerging technologies are as inclusive as possible.

What else will the Centre do?  It will house the Smart Sheffield card scheme & provide a home for LASSeO  Help build the market, establishing supply chains, providing an incubator service.  Encourage sharing applications, including those capable of cross subsidising schemes.  Provide a demonstration suite for Best Practices & interoperability.  Provide Training facilities, input to Standards, Research resources  Particularly focus on EU projects, co-operation with Digital Challenge, University networks, EU China Co-operation, etc  Provide Certification services for Local Government and exploit the outputs of projects such as FAST & Certiserve  It will also service the AIDC needs of businesses in South Yorkshire.

We are already working on all these issues Smartmedia, ID, authentication, accessibility, and inclusion are all linked in the search for better services Without being sure who you are dealing with, you cannot respond properly Without user-friendly means of access we will only increase the divide between those that have and the rest Without appropriate standards we cannot deliver interoperability Without a vibrant supplier community with access to customers, we cannot move forward Without an interested customer-base with access to best practice, we are all taking unnecessary risks Without your support we are wasting our time! If you are active in any of these spaces, we want to talk to you Have a good day and enjoy yourselves