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LASSeO is the Local Authority Smartcards Standards e-Organisation, a not-for-profit technical standardisation and interoperability membership organisation set up to support local government authorities use smartcards for citizen services in the United Kingdom that has seven stated objectives.

Description

LASSeO is the Local Authority Smartcards Standards e-Organisation, a not-for-profit technical standardisation and interoperability membership organisation set up to support local government authorities use smartcards for citizen services in the United Kingdom — its stated objectives are to reduce risk and build trust by:

• Developing a framework for local authorities to operate in a multi-application, multi-issuer environment
• Catering for citizen control with appropriate multi-level security
• Defining and monitoring interoperability requirements (within and across local authorities)
• Ensuring interoperability with Government and the Transport sector including ITSO
• Meeting local authority regulation & policy needs and emphasising social inclusion
• Assisting local authorities to meet citizen and community requirements for ease of use, equality of access, consistency of operation, security and privacy
• Maintain and develop the LASSEeO specifications

LASSeO was created in March 2002 by local authorities and partnerships at the suggestion of the ALCO partnership, to assist the local authority sector by reducing the risks caused by a lack of agreed standards in smartcards for the public sector. LASSeO has existed over the last ten years as an informal committee of people involved in the smartcards from both the supplier community and public sector card issuers. Its chairman is Mick Davies and headquarters is 1 Ingle Dene, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, HX7 6PQ.

Governance

LASSeO is the operating name of LASSeO Ltd, a not for profit distribution company limited by guarantee. It is operated through a supervisory board comprising a number of directors that varies from time to time. At present the Board is composed of four directors, namely:

• Merlin Hay, 24th Earl of Erroll
• Dr John Gill OBE .
• Geoff Doggett
• Mick Davies (Chairman)

Specification

The LASSeO Specification has several parts relating how to encode the LASSeO file structure on to various smartcard types which have been issued either as ITSO cards, particularly concessionary transport cards or as freestanding local authority citizen cards. These include a Mifare DESFire® Specification; Mifare® 4K - version 3.1; Services and Data Definitions; and various guidance notes.

Examples of Smart Card Schemes using LASSeO

• London Borough of Waltham Forest ‘OneCard’. The One Card scheme supports card solutions for residents to pay their housing association rent, council tax and other council payments plus council staff for ID and to access key council sites and schools for ID and school card applications (e.g. access, registration, cashless catering plus licences for off-licences, bars and clubs.

• Yorcard. The Yorcard Project delivered a multi-modal, multi-operator public transport smartcard scheme trialled on certain buses in Sheffield and on the local train service between Sheffield and Doncaster and intermediate stations. The LASSeO data set was trialled to allow citizens access to leisure and library services.

• Bracknell Forest's e-card smartcard system. SmartConnect from Brackell Forest provides a management system for local authority smartcard schemes. This software allows local authorities a quick and simple way to introduce and begin using smartcards, and manage existing schemes better. SmartConnect evolved from the National Smartcard Project, and has been tried and tested by multiple users since 2004. Councils as far afield as Cambridge and Caerphilly have already signed up to the SmartConnect software and are enjoying the many benefits it offers.

• London Borough of Hillingdon's Hillingdonfirst card smartcard scheme. A PRIVILEGE card scheme designed to benefit Hillingdon residents. The HillingdonFirst card was first deployed in June 2009 to every single resident of the borough over the age of 18. The main two benefits of the card are cheaper parking for residents and discount in hundreds of shops, but it can also be used for number of public services such as Libraries, and free access to the waste and recycling centre in Harefield.

Members

LASSeO members include representatives from various local authorities Bracknell Forest, Cambridgeshire, Sheffield, Cornwall, Cardiff, various London boroughs, Bolton, Smart Cities, Scotland, Northern Ireland, plus various suppliers of smart card technology. It has been suuported by central UK government agencies and ministries including the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). The ALCO partnership provide admistrative support.

Special Needs Application Program Interface - SNAPI

LASSeO has supported the SNAPI project, which is a software application which enables personal setting preferences to be stored onto a smart card. Using a standard Windows XP terminal to demonstrate the following:

• The card reading and configuring accessibility options
• The return to its original state when the card is removed the terminal
• The configuration of the card with customised needs

This allows people with differnt limitations or disabilities to adjust at the computer interface to better suit their needs, several cards encoded with the LASSeO file structure have include the SNAPI data sets.

References

• Official SNAPI website
• statement to the Science and Technology Select Committee of UK Parliament Feb 2006

External links

• Official LASSeO website

Category:Smart cards Category:Contactless smart cards Category:Fare collection systems Category:Application programming interfaces Category:Accessibility Category:Accessible information Category:Assistive technology