In many larger cities, commuting by bus or public transit is quite common. But in Des Moines, IA, most commuters still choose to drive to work and park in company lots. There are many reasons behind this; namely the planning involved in catching the bus to and from work and the pressure to have $1.25 in pocket change at all times. Employers in Des Moines like Principal Financial Group, ING and Allied/Nationwide Insurance,have introduced a program where employee ID cards also serve as bus passes for DART,the Des Moines Area Rapid Transit system. Principal's 8,000 employees and any of 1200 ING employees may board any DART bus simply by showing their employee ID card.

Every time I visit New York City, the first thing I do is buy a MetroCard, usually the one that's good for unlimited subway rides for a week. Then, I end up keeping the thing in my wallet for months after my visit. I'm not sure why. I guess it's like I treat the card as some sort of reminder of my trip, a souvenir, like when you hold on to a concert ticket stub. But are these all-so-familiar yellow cards with the magnetic stripe about to be replaced? The answer appears to be "YES."

Havana Country Club in Havana, Florida, has announced that golfers who wish to play on Havana's noted Executive courses will need to carry their ID for the Villages. The Villages, an exclusive retirement community located in north central Florida, has had problems with non-residents using the courses without permission.

Back in May, several Houston area elementary schools, including Allen Elementary, noticed that expensive computer equipment - several servers at $3,000 each - had gone missing. There wasn't a sign of forced entry or any other clues normally associated with a burglary. Investigators dug deeper, and found something unusual.

What's one of the most important things in disaster recovery? The natural response is to say to help - as much as possible and wherever needed. However, first responders - groups like fire fighters, police officers, medical personnel and the national guard, have recently struggled with responder tracking during major disasters like Hurricane Katrina and 9/11. Government officials struggle to locate, organize and effectively battle the crisis to which they are responding. First responders, who may quickly move from place to place and agency to agency in order to maximize efficiency and help, need to work and communicate quickly and focus as much as possible on the task at hand instead of the infrastructure of support.

With over 1 billion citizens, India is the second most populous country in the world, second to china. Over 1 bilion people live and work in this giant democracy every day, and with such a large population comes a proportionally large government and education infrastructure. Officials have recently implemented a plan to ensure that Indian medical post-graduates from indistinguishable government departments do not mistakenly get teaching jobs, and they're going to use RFID cards to help make the plan come to life.

Autism, a developmental disorder that affects a certain spectrum of brain operation, is a widespread condition that affects many people around the world. Cases of autism vary widely from person to person, and interaction with an Autistic person can sometimes be rough. The Welsh town of Gwent has an autistic population of over 2,000; people who work and have families like everyone else. In order to improve communication and reduce risk for conflict, Gwent has introduced an ID card program for Autistic people that encourages communication during times of emergency (such as hospital stays) and alerts caretakers, law enforcement officers, and first responders to any issues they must be aware of when dealing with an autistic person.

New York's Mount Sinai Medical Center is one of the largest hospitals in the U.S. With a ridiculous amount of patients coming and going, it's no wonder they've had their fair share of problems keeping medical records accurate and organized. Many of the more common errors can be attributed to the patient registration process which, like most hospitals, typically involves a steady stream of paperwork. So what's the best bay to eliminate this problem once and for all? For Mount Sinai, the answer may lie in medical smart cards.