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| FAST Fully Automated Secured Transactions services |
Project newsletter, October 2007
FASTeTEN — Project newsletter, October 2007
++ What is FASTeTEN? ++
FASTeTEN is a project to deploy a bundle of services for secure electronic document exchange across Europe. Deployment of the FAST bundle of services will be demonstrated in two very different European contexts - in Spain (Valencia) and in the United Kingdom (Sheffield). On-going analysis of these deployments will permit the establishment of a template and methodology for other deployments in different European countries.
For detailed information, visit the project website: http://www.eu-fasteten.eu/
++ FASTeTEN project progress ++
FASTeTEN started life on January 1, 2007. The first edition of the FASTeTEN newsletter was published in June 2007 and detailed the activities during the first few months of the project. Since summer 2007, the project team has been active presenting FASTeTEN at a range of events:
World e-ID 2007 in Sophia Antipolis, France, on 19-21 September 2007 (Dr Shaun Topham of project partner Sheffield City Council presented FASTeTEN at this event).
The Fourth Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Lisbon on 19-21 September 2007
The Eighth World eDemocracy Forum in Paris on 3-4 October 2007 (FASTeTEN partner e-Forum is a conference partner of the World eDemocracy Forum).
The eGovernment Interoperability Campus in Paris on 9-11 October 2007 (e-Forum is also a partner of this event).
In addition, FASTeTEN representatives met officials from the regional government of the Algarve in Portugal, and the local government of the city of Faro, Portugal, in July 2007, in order to discuss the FASTeTEN project.
For more information, or to arrange a presentation of FASTeTEN at your event, or in the course of a bilateral meeting, contact Baudouin de Sonis, chief executive of project partner e-Forum, via baudouin.de-sonis@eu-forum.org.
++ Project management board meeting finds FASTeTEN on track ++
The FASTeTEN project management team met in Sheffield, UK on 25 September 2007 to discuss the progress of the project. To deploy FAST in the test locations (Sheffield in the UK and Valencia in Spain), the electronic workflow for each deployment needed to be defined. The Sheffield and Valencia electronic workflow documents had been under preparation and were discussed at the meeting. Comments and amendments to the documents were put forward, and the documents have since been completed.
The workflow documentation sets out the details of how FAST will be deployed in Sheffield and Valencia. The Sheffield document is publicly available on the FASTeTEN website. For more information about the documents contact Baudouin de Sonis, baudouin.de-sonis@eu-forum.org.
In Sheffield, FAST will be used to establish an electronic system enabling schools to send notifications to parents and receive from parents permissions, for example permission for their child to take part in a school trip. In Valencia, FAST will be integrated into the eProcurement platform of the regional authority.
The next FASTeTEN project management board meeting will take place in Versailles, France on 5 December 2007. The meeting will be followed the next day with a technical meeting on the FAST bundle of services, during which potential deployers will be able to ask questions and discuss the details of the system.
++ FASTeTEN in detail: the Sheffield deployment ++
Services for children in the UK are undergoing a massive reorganisation. The Education Department and Children’s Social Services have been combined within local authorities to form �Children and Young Peoples’ Services’. The UK Government is financing several initiatives in relation to this.
One of these initiatives is called �Building Schools for the Future’. The City Council from Sheffield in the north of England (SCC) is one of four �Pathfinder’ authorities in this initiative, with a specific remit of leading in ICT. Seven new schools are being built in Sheffield. As a Pathfinder Authority, Sheffield will develop a blueprint of systems and processes for these new schools that can be used by and rolled out to other UK authorities.
The new FAST service
FASTeTEN will contribute to this by introducing a new way of managing the ’parental consent’ process, whereby parents give permission for their children to take part in school trips and other activities. Currently, this is done with a system of paper forms that parents must sign. FASTeTEN will digitalise the validation process. In doing so it will deal with some educational choices that pupils have to make for their studies.
Using the FAST bundle of services, an electronic consent form will be accessible to parents via a web portal. Parents will receive email notification that they need to complete the form. Instructions will also be provided. Using the FAST services, it will be possible to monitor if forms have been completed, and to send out reminders as appropriate. FAST will also provide a convenient management interface for the school authorities to manage the end-to-end process of consent request and processing.
The workflow document prepared by the FASTeTEN project gives details of the processes involved in this. The document takes into account issues such as verification of identity, confidentiality, integrity, and the use of the Smart Sheffield smartcard as a facilitator of digital signatures. More details and contact information for SCC can be obtained from Baudouin de Sonis, baudouin.de-sonis@eu-forum.org.
++ FASTeTEN newsletter ++
This is the second edition of the FASTeTEN newsletter. Newsletters will provide updates on project developments and activities. More information can also be found on the website of e-Forum, the project communications partner, at http://www.eu-forum.org.
FASTeTEN is supported by the European Commission’s eTEN programme.
