RFID Tag Compliant with Emerging Data Model?

TAGSYS has announce a new RFID tag, the Folio 370L Tag. It has a password protected electronic article surveillance feature. This sounds good but I'm not sure what that means exactly. What is most interesting to me and most annoying is TAGSYS' claim that it "meets the emerging NISO (US National Information Standards Organization) data model standard for libraries.

If its an emerging standard, it means it ain't there yet. It's a standard-to-be. It's in development and subject to change. The point of a standard is that we all know what it is and comply with it. An emerging standard means we haven't quite worked that out yet but we're trying. So to claim a tag meets the emerging NISO data model standard is more marketing hype than anything else. Don't some of you other vendors have a tag that is equally "compliant" with the emerging standard?

I had the same reaction to reading that as I do when I read that an Internet filter is "CIPA-compliant." CIPA of course is the Children's Internet Protection Act which seeks to prevent kids from seeing Internet material that is "harmful to minors" which is a legal term that is so subjective as to be meaningless across communities. What is harmful to your minor may not be harmful to my minor. At any rate, who knows what a filter that claims to be "CIPA compliant" thinks is harmful to minors.

Similarly, what are the features of an RFID tag that meets an emerging standard? Still, I'll be keeping my eye on it just in case we get that standard someday!

[From Biblio-Tech Review]