Blackboard to build support for contactless and NFC in partnership with Sony
07 November, 2007
category: Contactless, Education, Financial, NFC
Blackboard appears to be taking a major step toward incorporating advanced ID technologies into their campus card program following this morning’s announcement with Sony. Under the partnership, Sony will “engage” Blackboard to build support for Sony’s FeliCa contactless technology and the Near Field Contactless (NFC) standard into the Blackboard platform.
This will be interesting to watch because while FeliCa is a dominant contactless technology in Asia (250 million chips issued), it has not made strong inroads into the North American market to date. Will this give Sony the inroad they have been seeking? And … because NFC, is an open standard, it could provide the resulting platform with a cross-vendor solution that enables payment and access transactions with cards or mobile phones. Stay tuned to CR80News to keep up with this developing story.
Blackboard and Sony Partner to Offer Contactless Card Technology in U.S. Education Market
WASHINGTON, DC, and SAN JOSE, Calif. – Nov. 7, 2007 – Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) and Sony Corporation announced today a partnership to support Sony FeliCa contactless technology in the Blackboard Commerce Suite™, a family of applications supporting one-card transactions on-campus, off-campus and online and allowing for identification, payment and access.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sony will engage Blackboard to support the FeliCa contactless chip technology. The combination of Sony’s proven FeliCa technology and the industry standard Near Field Communication (NFC) protocol offers industry-leading application options and system performance.
“The deployment of contactless technology is very advanced across Asia where Sony is the clear market leader,” said Russ Carlson, President of the Blackboard Commerce Group. “Sony’s commitment to the U.S. market and to NFC standards allows for a solution to higher education institutions that improves student service in a cost effective manner, and enables a wide-array of new services in the future.”
The FeliCa Contactless IC card technology offers high security complying with ISO standard in contactless applications. FeliCa also provides a supportive layer of user credentials which can be integrated with NFC-enabled devices including door access readers, point of sale terminals, mobile phones and a variety of attended and unattended devices.
“Our collaboration will help improve the daily life of students, staff and faculty with the benefits of FeliCa contactless technology as it allows educational institutions to combine multiple applications including student identification, access control and payment onto a single card,” said Hiromasa Otsuka, Corporate Executive Senior Vice President at Sony Corporation responsible for the FeliCa Division. “We are ready and excited to expand the cool and smart lifestyle FeliCa technology enabled in Japan to the U.S. market.”
Sony FeliCa technology is widely used across the globe, with more than 250 million cards and FeliCa chips embedded in mobile phones in circulation. Rail ticketing and payment systems throughout Asia have incorporated the contactless technology to increase speed of service and passenger throughput.
With Sony’s FeliCa technology, contactless communication between the card and the card reader/writer is activated by electromagnetic waves radiated from the reader/writer antenna. FeliCa technology complies with ISO/IEC 18092 communication method. The solution allows for read/write transactions to be completed within 0.1 second, a feature that makes the card advantageous to be used for multiple university campus applications that require high-speed processing.
Transmission data is encrypted using a “transaction key” which is dynamically generated at every mutual authentication. These features make forgery and card fraud nearly impossible.
About Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) is a leading provider of enterprise software applications and related services to the education industry. Founded in 1997, Blackboard enables educational innovations everywhere by connecting people and technology. With two product suites, the Blackboard Academic Suite™ and the Blackboard Commerce Suite™, Blackboard is used by millions of people at academic institutions around the globe, including colleges, universities, K-12 schools and other education providers, as well as textbook publishers and student-focused merchants that serve education providers and their students. Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.
Blackboard
Educate. Innovate. Everywhere TM.
About Sony Corporation
Sony Corporation is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, game, communications, key device and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. With its music, pictures, computer entertainment and on-line businesses, Sony is uniquely positioned to be the leading personal broadband entertainment company in the world. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of approximately $70 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007. Sony Global Web Site: http://www.sony.net
Explore more developments dealing with the implementation of Near Field Communications, a short-range wireless technology that promises to revolutionize contactless identification, payment, access, and more. Click to visit NFCNews.