This smartcard proposal has a lovely sense of Deja Vu.
Almost a decade ago - prepared late '92, issued '93 - the NSW government
issued a request for tender for a smartcard/stored value card system that
was intended to be the first 'big, multi-use, smartcard scheme' in
Australia.
When the request for tender was issued, the government (the Commercial
Services Group of NSW Govt) was concerned that they would be swamped with
responses / requests from all sorts of minnows who didn't have the resources
to really make it happen. So they charged a high fee - $10,000, if I
remember correctly - for copies of the RFT. This mechanism ensured that
there were only a handful of tenderers, each with substantial resources. It
also ensured that there were not many copies of the tender floating around -
it was a few hundred pages, nicely bound in book form.
A number of major service providers (i.e. public transport, McDonalds, BP,
Coca-Cola Amatil, etc) were approached and agreed to be the key
participants. I was working for Coca-Cola Amatil at the time and was the
person at CCA who did the business-case analysis from a sales & marketing
point of view.
As initial scheme participants, we at Coca-Cola Amatil received one copy of
the RFT. On the whole, I've seen worse RFTs, given the knowledge at the
time. I have kept it ever since as an interesting historical tome - its
here on my desk now - and it has all sorts of information:
* Appendix E - The Financial Model
* Appendix F - Consumer Research Findings
Item 6.6.2.e. of Section 6.6 (Evaluation Criteria), of Section 6. (Selection
Process), was interesting:
"Nature of proposed benefits to the NSW Government.......This criterion is a
major area of opportunity for Tenderers to differentiate their response from
other Tenderers."
Which appeared to me as though the Government was actually hoping that the
scheme would generate cash revenue for them. In return for which, I guess,
they delivered State Rail, State Buses, State Ferries, as key participants.
Mind you, some of the other financial projections from back then were
clearly off base. I remember laughing when I first read the document and
saw the proposed revenue from selling advertising space on the cards, and
also from the 'card collectors' market. Hey, remember when phone cards were
first issued, and people were saying that collecting phone cards would
become bigger than stamp collecting...
The RFT was issued, responses received, scheme operator was chosen (ERG /
Fujitsu consortium, Fujitsu dropped out later), the test market was done in
Newcastle.
I haven't seen the details of this new proposal, but I believe its basically
the integrated public transport solution, which can have additional
functionality / participants rolled out later. The one last decade was for
an independently operated scheme in which public transport was just one of
many initial participants.
Regards, Mark
Mark Hughes
Effective Business Applications Pty Ltd
effectivebusiness@pplications.com.au
www.pplications.com.au
61 4 1374 3959
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-link@www.anu.edu.au [mailto:owner-link@www.anu.edu.au]On
Behalf Of Chirgwin, Richard
Sent: Monday, 13 August 2001 08:55
To: Link List
Subject: RE: [LINK] A card that may change all our lives
It's rare to see so many components of bad policy in a single place:
1) Corporate welfare - let's create a policy that gives lots of money to
ERG.
2) Ignoring history - let's gloss over public indifference to NSW's last
smartcard trial, also let's ignore how flaky automatic ticketing systems
have been on trains and buses.
3) Rosy optimism - let's make the decisions based on powerpoint
proselytising, and for heaven's sake let's avoid having any pessimists
around to say "security, privacy, functionality" at us.
4) Blue-skyism - it's not happening now, actually, it's happening in four
years' time, a good extended timeline that guarantees a quiet burial if it
doesn't work.
5) Toss in a little silly speculation - "could also be used for" without
outlining the "ifs" which in this case include "if it works", "if people
want a cashless society" and so on.
6) Dependency - what if ERG goes under?
7) Completely ignore consequences.
Stir thoroughly, and you end up with a mess. I'll now predict that it will
run over budget, will be late in rollout, and that early adopters will flood
the media with complaints about system failures and mistaken charges.
Richard C
-----Original Message-----
From: Howard Lowndes [mailto:lannet@lannet.com.au]
Sent: Monday, 13 August 2001 7:54
To: Eric Scheid
Cc: Link List
Subject: Re: [LINK] A card that may change all our lives
It makes much more sense to implant a microchip. That would have less
chance of being stolen (8-)
-- Howard. LANNet Computing Associates Contact detail at http://www.lannetlinux.comOn Mon, 13 Aug 2001, Eric Scheid wrote:
> Did we all read in the weekend papers about Carr's wonderful new > electronic payment card he's got plans for? > > >A card that may change all our lives > >EXCLUSIVE By chief writer NATHAN VASS > >12aug01 > >A REVOLUTIONARY commuter "smartcard" with the potential to create a > >cashless society in Sydney will be introduced by the State Government. > > <http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,2566711%255 > E701,00.html> > > >This means one card will pay for bus, train and ferry trips, highway > >tolls, groceries, retail goods, online shopping, phone and utility bills, > >movie and concert tickets, traffic fines and professional services. > > all sounding fine, except maybe the penultimate item listed... which > raises a red flag when I then read: > > >"The smartcard will not need to be removed from a wallet or bag, it only > >needs to pass the validator, which will signal acceptance of the fare > > and also > > >They can be linked to a bank account so the card automatically "tops up" > >without the user ever having to go to a bank. The card could also become a > >driver's licence and Medicare card. > > I wonder if the identification details will be automatically released and > handed over by the ticket scanners? I can't wait for the targeted > advertising in my mail box. > > Panic starts to then set in when a few pages further into the paper I > find > > >Revealed: Sydney's greediest speed cameras > <http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,2566643%255 > E3163,00.html> > > I imagine a dark future where a ticket inspector will walk up and down > the train, and by virtue of being in scanning range automatically issue > fines for not having a valid ticket. A quick stroll, without the > inconvenience of actually stopping and investigating, and the gummint > raises more revenue. > > e. > > ______________________________________________________________________ > eric@ironclad.net.au i r o n c l a d n e t w o r k s > information architect http://www.ironclad.net.au/ > >
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