Hello everyone! It has been 3 weeks since I have posted my last blog. In the meantime the school is close to being opened officially! In my earlier blog posts you can read and see how it all started in November last year. Please see some pictures below of the end result! Happy children:

There are still some small things to do but it looks really great! The school also has sleeping rooms where children, who have to walk for hours (!) to school, have the opportunity to sleep over. Thanks to lees verder…

It was already possible for owners of a Privium card, but now it will become available for everybody with a chipped EU passport: Automatic border control. Just scan your passport, and ‘the system’ will check if you are you, using face recognition (your passport picture is stored on your passport’s RFID chip) and then do some additional checks, like they already do with with Privium card. Cool! Sounds like a good way to do something useful with that RFID chip, as on busy days the queues can be enormous at Schiphol’s border control.

‘The Joker’ will probably be happy that his ID card (on which he had a ‘clown face’) was confiscated; saves him a lot of make-up preparation every time he wants to travel…

Last week, VeriChip came with an update on their development of H1N1 Virus detection (Swine Flu, Mexican Flu) and Glucose Sensing (for people who have diabetes). And VeriChip recently launched a commercial for their VeriMed HealthLink, an implantable RFID chip which contains a 16 digit number. This number can be linked to your personal Electronic Health Record.

VeriChip is working on very advanced applications of RFID in the Health Care sector. There are also more ‘conventional’ ways to use RIFD in the Health Care sector:

• Tracking and tracing of persons (patients and staff)
• Tracking and tracing of medical equipment
• Tracking and tracing of blood products
• Tracking and tracing of products

The Health Industry Business Communications Council even developed specific RFID standards for the Health Care sector. For an overview of recent and historical RFID applications in the Health Care sector, you could have a look at RFID Journal.

But is that a good idea, walking around with a chip in your arm? And all those tags in the operating room – is that safe? lees verder…

Joost de Haas and Shikko Nijland (Strategy Consulting NL) just launched the High Performance Business 09 research: Winning in the downturn - How AEX companies are positioned for the upturn. A great research report is the outcome, having used the methodology of the Accenture Institute for High Performance for a local relevant study. lees verder…

Today, the first news item about Sinterklaas appeared on nu.nl. And my supermarket already has pepernoten and chocoladeletters on the shelves.

So - it’s time to create my RFID Toys wish list! lees verder…

Organisations dealing with Customer Experience Management (CEM) are confronted with the question of how they can measure the actual customer experience. They often lack effective and accurate means of measuring the customer experience. Therefore it is difficult to show the return on investment (ROI) and because of that they don’t give CEM full attention.

Customer satisfaction and loyalty can be one way of measuring the customer experience. It’s easy to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty by themselves, but measuring them alone does not allow a business to influence or change the key aspects of customer experience. lees verder…

I had to think of this phrase after reading some RFID news items about how RFID can help people who have issues with hearing, seeing or speaking. 

Did you know that RFID can help out in all of these fields?

lees verder…

Browsing through some older news items of RFID Journal leads me to eMotion.

eMotion is a project that took place earlier this year: the visitors of a special exhibition at the Swiss Kunstmuseum St. Gallen were tracked by RFID tags in a glove they could wear. And not only their location was tracked, but also the electrical conductivity of the visitor’s skin, as well as that person’s pulse were tracked. The latter two in order to ‘measure’ emotions of the visitor. This clip explains how it works.

The first results were recently published and show interesting graphs of where users went, and what emotion they exposed.

But there’s more to do with RFID in the field of art (besides protecting your art collection): lees verder…

Accenture is proud to present the nominees for the Innovation Awards 2009 People’s Choice.

This is your chance to honour true innovation in the low countries! Cast your vote on www.Innovation-awards.nl and select your favorite innovative concept of this year. The winner will be revealed on November the 5th at the Innovation Seminar that Accenture organises with its partners.

This is the third year that Dutch and Belgian companies in the Media, Entertainment, Communication and High Tech industry compete for the awards. Through these Innovation Awards, Accenture provides insight into the innovativeness of these industries, recognizes the true innovative firms, and brings companies together to discover new opportunities for cooperation, co-development and cross-fertilization.

In the past months, the jury has studied over 250 concepts across seven categories: Business to Business, Connected Devices, Gaming, Lifestyle, Mobile, Web en Green concept. The final nominees are listed at this page: https://microsite.accenture.com/innovation-awards/Concepten/Pages/Nominated-Concepts.aspx.

I encourage everybody to visit www.innovation-awards.nl, read more about these exciting concepts and vote for your favorite innovation! The winner will be announced November 5, together with the other awards during the award event in the Dialogues House in Amsterdam.

Hello All! After a few hectic days at work I finally have the opportunity now to write a bit to you all. Last Friday I returned from my fulfilling charity event in China. It was a stunning experience and proven to be a good cause! During my visit I experienced the poor conditions in which local people work and live in Yunnan. It is confronting to see how spoiled we are! lees verder…