The Tuesday, March 11th meeting of the Rocky Mountain Internet Users
Group (RMIUG) will discuss "From Ring Ring to Ching Ching: Using
Cellphones to Buy things in Stores"

Contactless Payments, the process by which you can buy things using
devices like a cell phone, a smartcard or other Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) device has been around 1997. Remember Exxon's
SpeedPass? That's the system Exxon introduced in 1997 that enabled
you to wave a key fob in front of gas pump to pay for your tank. That
was the first example of a new wave of ways to buy stuff.

The promise of Contactless Payments is simple: reduce the time and
headache it takes for you to buy the small things in your life.
American Express recently concluded that Contactless Payments is 53%
faster than paying with payment cards with no signature, and 63%
faster than cash. Think about how much time you can save at your
regular Starbucks visit if everyone used just waved their cellphone at
checkout instead of paying cash or a credit card?

With all the promise and a relatively high penetration rate (many of
us have cell phones and/or credit cards with the capability), we
haven't been buying that much with that system. Gartner recently did a
survey of 4,500 online U.S. adults, conducted in August of 2007, and
concluded that while banks and credit card issuers have put
significant efforts into marketing Contactless Payments, they have
failed to win over consumers.

Why would consumers want to use such methods to buy stuff? Are there
advantages to them? How about businesses?

To help us understand the ins-and-outs of this emerging technology we
will bring in the following local expert:

Dean Rizzuto (dean.rizzuto@...) Dean recently worked for one of
the only active Mobile Payment companies in the US actively taking
live payments, called MocaPay. Dean was involved in all aspects of the
mobile payment engine from transaction processing, Banking/ACH
interfaces, SMS gateway integration and support, customer and merchant
support, POS integration and support as well as the design and
implementation of the core payment transaction processing engine. Dean
will draw experience has provided him with a unique perspective of the
design, development, support and growth of a Mobile Payment engine
from one of the only companies in the US currently doing live Mobile
Payment transactions. Prior to working at Mocapay, Dean spent 10+
years in Online/Web Strategy and Analysis developing Website and Web
Application Strategies, developing Business and Functional
Requirements and producing and managing the implementation of
large-scale web applications and websites including nationally
recognized eCommerce sites, complex games associated with major
sporting events, citizen journalism and publishing platforms and many
others.


Links:
http://www.mocapay.com'

The meeting is Tuesday, March 11th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm (with optional
6:30 pm start for refreshments and informal networking). The meeting
will be held at The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) at
1850 Table Mesa Drive in Boulder. To get to NCAR from the Boulder
Turnpike (US 36) or Broadway (US 93), take Table Mesa Drive west
towards the mountains for approximately 2.5 miles into the foothills.
NCAR is at the top of the hill. For door-to-door driving directions,
go to MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com/), click on Driving
Directions, enter your starting address, NCAR's address, and voila!
Park in the NCAR lot, go in the main door, and ask the guard to point
you to meeting, which is held in the main auditorium, right off the
lobby. The meeting is free and open to the public, but we may pass the
hat to help defray expenses.

Our meeting location seats about 120 people. That is usually enough
room to accommodate all attendees, but it's impossible for us to
predict how many people will show up for any given meeting. Seating is
always on a first-come, first serve basis, and in the event of more
attendees than seats, we won't be able to admit additional people into
the auditorium after all seats are filled.

Thanks to our three sponsors who help make RMIUG meetings happen:
---------------------------------------------------------------
MicroStaff (www.microstaff.com) which provides Creative and Technical
talent for Web, Interactive Media, Marketing Communications and
Software Development projects, is the sponsor of food and beverages
for RMIUG meetings.
ONEWARE (http://www.ONEWARE.com) -- a Colorado-based software company
that provides semi-custom web-based applications, sponsors the RMIUG
meeting minutes.
Copy Diva (http://www.copydiva.com) which provides marketing project
management, marketing communications consulting, and web content
development is the AV sponsor for RMIUG.

Consultants and companies are invited to bring Internet-related
Product information, brochures, and business cards which will be
displayed on an information table.

There are email mailing lists set up for this group. To subscribe or
unsubscribe, see http://www.rmiug.org/maillist.html. You can also
reach the RMIUG "Executive" Committee at rmiug-comm@.... Our web
site is at http://www.rmiug.org/


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Please note that RMIUG is hosted at NCAR and we are their guests. NCAR
has security regulations in effect that we must follow in order to use
the facility. If any RMIUG attendee is unwilling to follow these
simple regulations, I would ask that he or she not attend and instead
read the minutes after the meeting.

Here are the NCAR security policies that must be followed:

1. No weapons.
2. Must sign in at front desk and provide name.
3. Cooperate with security folks including providing ID if requested.
4. We are guests of NCAR so cooperation and courtesy are expected when
dealing with NCAR staff.

If there are any questions or concerns with this policy, please
contact me directly.
Thanks, Josh Zapin (josh@...).
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