Bridge Day biometric ballyhoo

[ed: OK, ballyhoo is probably too strong, but the alliteration demanded it.]

Bridge Day panel backtracks on security plan (Beckley Register-Herald)

Bridge Day 2015 vendors, BASE jumpers and rappellers may be able to choose this year to either pay for a background check with a contracted security company or submit to a biometric fingerprint scan for free.

The Bridge Day Commission in Fayette County passed a motion Wednesday that adds the option of the background check. The check would be conducted by a contracted, third party security company, said Bridge Commission Chairwoman Sharon Cruikshanks.

The cost of the background check will be $12 to $35, depending on which of the three companies the commission contracts.

“Biometric scans are a free option,” Cruikshanks said.

This one is especially of local interest here in West Virginia. Not mentioned in the article is that this year’s Bridge Day Festival takes place on Saturday, October 17, 2015.

Background checks became a requirement for vendors and jumpers after 2001. The fingerprint innovation appears to be meant to make the process easier by requiring less text-based identifying information from people undergoing the background check.

More information and the counter-argument to these measures can be read here: Fingerprinting Plan For Bridge Day 2015 Forces Jumper Boycott.

Oh, and if you’re unfamiliar with Bridge Day…
 

…it’s something.

Biometrics Event

Next Steps in Identity Technologies: Biometrics and Beyond

TechConnect West Virginia, in conjunction with Computer Sciences Corporation and IMTAS, will host a forum to discuss the status of the biometrics industry in West Virginia.

The forum will be held Wednesday, June 20 from 7:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. at the Robert H. Mollohan Research Center, in Fairmont, W.Va.

The event will bring together biometric companies, Federal agencies and university stakeholders to discuss the future of identity and biometrics technologies and their impact on the State’s economy. Government agency officials will review the status of identity management initiatives in the public sector, particularly regarding the major expansion underway at the FBI Center in Harrison County. Other speakers will address the need for more private-sector development capitalizing on the talent/brainpower in the region.

Top officials with the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division and the Department of Defense Biometric Identity Management Agency will headline this upcoming Wednesday’s Biometric Forum in Fairmont, entitled, “Next Steps in Identity Technologies: Biometrics and Beyond”.

Speakers include:

  • David Cuthbertson, Assistant Director, FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division 
  • Col. Douglas Flohr, Deputy Director for Operations, Biometrics Identity Management Agency 
  • Dr. Bojan Cukic, Director of Center for Identification Technology Research (CITeR)
  • Dr. Terry W. Fenger, Director of the Marshall University Forensic Science Center 
  • Dr. Marios Savvides, Director of the CyLab Biometrics Center

I’ll be there.

UPDATE:
Fore more on the proceedings, see this post or check out the Twitter hashtag #TechConnectWVa.