These will set the rules for systems interoperability and govern the issue, acceptance and use of cards in sectors such as health, defence, education and social services.
The proposal, which also canvasses the idea of "framework application modules", is based on work by Australian Government Information Office.
The communities would comprise a group of agencies, smartcard issuers and third parties that agreed to co-operate.
The concepts are unveiled in the final two AGIMO framework documents - standards and model specification, and an implementation guide - released by Special Minister of State Gary Nairn at a government law conference on Friday.
"In a nutshell, the community of interest will establish the rules of participation and, subject to government direction, determine what level of interoperability is required," Mr Nairn said.
"The modules will provide the building blocks for achieving this interoperability." The eventual standard would apply to the federal Government's proposed social services access card, Mr Nairn said later.
Tenders for key systems integration and card issuance contracts are currently under evaluation by the Office of Access Card, while Human Services Minister Chris Ellison has been forced to withdraw and revise legislation supporting the card's introduction.
"AGIMO is working on the framework and standards for smartcards generally," Mr Nairn said. "Now, obviously that will apply to the Access Card, but it is not just for the Access Card. It's for smartcards in general, because it's inevitable that other government departments will adopt smartcard technology."
Mr Nairn said AGIMO was working closely with the states to avoid "different tramlines".
"If we're going to have smartcard technology, we don't want 15 different types of readers out in the marketplace because people have adopted slightly different technologies," he said.
"I'm reasonably confident we'll avoid that scenario."
The smartcard framework is part of a national e-government strategy that aims to overcome "the specific challenges posed by the devolved nature" of the state and federal systems, rather than an attempt to centralise online initiatives, he said.
A key project is single sign-on, which will give citizens individual user accounts and easy online access to government services in a bid to reduce red tape.
Pre-populated forms will mean users won't have to continually re-enter the same information, and changes to details, such as an address, will be automatically updated across relevant agencies.
Mr Nairn said the project was already well under way, and was completely separate to the federal Access Card program. "Ultimately we'll need to get the three levels of government joined up for single sign-on, but I'm not trying to do all that in one go," Mr Nairn said.
"It's a big enough task to pull the various federal agencies together. "When you deal with technology, it's better to perfect it in smaller projects before you try to do the lot."
The documents are available on AGIMO's website.
Comment on the standards and model specification is due by April 20, while comment on the implementation guide is due by May 4.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Karen Dearne
Quelle/Source: Australian IT, 03.04.2007
