Nov 14, 2007This article was originally published by RFID Update.
November 14, 2007—AIM Global is going from passive to active in its efforts to build awareness and understanding of RFID technologies. The industry association announced yesterday it is launching a major outreach campaign to educate the general public about RFID technology and its benefits.
"There are myths and misunderstandings about RFID, and a lot of times we see them recycled every two or three years," AIM Global president Dan Mullen told RFID Update. "We need to reach out to consumers and consumer-oriented media, who may only cover RFID occasionally, to educate them about what RFID really is and its benefits."
The campaign is called RFID: Making the World a Better Place and will focus on highlighting everyday uses of RFID technology that improve convenience, safety, or security for consumers. The program will not focus specifically on public policy makers, Mullen said, in part because AIM has separate activities on that front.
The program was spearheaded by AIM's education and public policy committee, which includes RFID providers Alien Technology, Impinj, Motorola, Savi Technology, Sirit, and UPM Raflatac.
"We're not limited by the companies who joined initially. We'd like others to join," Mullen said. "The more participants and types of companies we have involved, the more effective we can be."
One of the goals for the program is to develop more understanding that there are different types of RFID technologies, which offer very different capabilities, Mullen said. "It's common to refer to RFID in general. RFID represents a range of technologies with different passive/active characteristics and frequencies."
AIM is a 35-year-old association that represents the automatic identification industry. AIM Global draws members from 43 countries and has 13 chapters around the world. Its members are heavily involved in RFID and bar code standards development, and the association also undertakes a variety of market development and education activities (see How the SAFETY Act Could Protect RFID Vendors for an example of AIM's efforts for the industry).
