Summary of my article published in the Feb 2007 Global Intelligencer Newslettter.

Technology implementations and upgrades happen in all businesses and processes. Planning, testing, involving your customers and careful implementation can alleviate most but not all of the inconvenience caused by the differences and downtimes end-users experience through these changes. In my twenty-plus year career in the technology business, I have been apart of some excellent implementations. But I have seen some disasters as well.

I have also been traveling internationally for twenty-plus years, and am on my second U.S. passport. I usually enjoy travel for business or for pleasure with my family, but I have yet to encounter a passport control line in any country that I enjoyed. The lines are always long, longer still since 9/11.

“ePassport” is the common name for the worldwide project where technology implementation meets international travel to provide more secure access for travelers. As some of the technology is not yet mature, ePassports have also generated concern about personal information, identity theft, and longer delays at immigration.

International travelers around the world should be aware of past and upcoming deadlines concerning ePassports. An ePassport (also called “biometric passport”) differs from previous passports in that it has an integrated computer chip that holds the same information printed on the passports data page, and in most cases contains additional biometric data, such as facial scans and fingerprinting. Before ePassports, passports had at most a magnetic strip that was scanned which contained some minor data such as name and passport number simply to ease the burden of typing in this information.