Will QR Codes Save the National Post?

Posted on June 2, 2009 by Thomas Purves

qr-code-sexting

If you are a reader of Canada’s (other) national newspaper the National Post, you may have noticed that they are trying out something neat with 2D barcodes a.k.a QR Codes. They don’t quite look like normal QR codes but this is incidental. The idea is that the codes are a printed link between the ink-on-flattened-wood-pulp edition and the online properties of the Post. Put differently, it’s one adventurous way for a dead-tree media company to play spin the bottle with the cyber age.

You need a mobile phone, a smart phone, basically an iphone or a recent model blackberry, and special application to make it useful. If useful it is. I would really like to see this experiment be successful. However, a brief informal facebook poll of friends (and I have a lot of pretty nerdy friends) failed to reveal anyone who had actually tried the feature. Similarly Michele and I learned first hand how hard it is make a QR code campaign work when we tried it first hand with an (mostly failed) impromptu QR-code social experiment at SXSW09.

Unlike Japan, North Americans just don’t seem to be ready for optical codes yet. Our phones don’t have built in readers. You have to manually download an app first which takes several minutes and some technical savvy. The iPhone has a terrible camera for reading them. And unless you provide a lot of context around the code and where it points to, people are suspicious of it being spammy.

Nonetheless, you gotta give the Post points for effort and experimentation.

It’s a damn tough time to be in media. Online is killing not just reader attention spans but also advertiser spend. The barbarians are at the gate for traditional media empires. Like a declining Rome hot linking to the visigoths, newspapers find themselves in a weird position, trying to promote print and online channels for news.

But here, wait for it, is the Post real real secret plan of genius. These codes are really for advertisers. If (big if) the Post can get a significant installbase of users, using a NationalPost mobile app, AND a proprietary QR code reader, then they have a killer product to sell to the print advertisers. Suddenly print ads become actionable, print advertisers can get real-time conversion, real time metrics on the performance of their ads. And the post has killer app the globe and the Star don’t. The codes would continue to be used for both editorial as well as ad features so, in theory, there is always someting in it for the consumer too to install the app.

Genius eh? If you’ll go out there and use it

Photo: poignantly capturing a clash of young and old, of mobiles, mores and business/teenage models. FYI: To their credit, the Post did not provide any links to “additional online content” related to teenage sexting. Keep it classy Posties.

Posted in Archive, deadmedia, newspapers | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Presentation: Design for an Augment Reality world

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Thomas Purves

For posterity here is the slideshare version of my Augmented Reality talk, which I presented for the first time at Refresh Events in Toronto. As a first cut, this presentation represented more of a shotgun scattershot rather than a linearly coherent narrative of the various thoughts on this topic currently spinning in my head my these days.

Designing for an Augmented Reality world

For background this was the talk proposal. I think I got to most of this stuff.

How “Augmented Reality” and the mobile web changes everything

Mobile broadband access and ever-smarter phones are shaking the internet out its lofty cloud and bringing the web into the real world. As a result, the old “real world”, and many old ideas and many old business models will be running out of places to hide from the pervasive influence of the net.

Meanwhile, each of our smart phones are in many ways even better than the old clunky tools we used to use to surf the net. Our mobile devices are not only connected but, also bristling with sensors like radios, cameras, microphones, GPS etc. that can directly perceive and interact with the world around you. We’re reaching a point where it’s theoretically possible to point that device at almost anything: a landmark, a product on a store shelf, your friends or a crowd of people; and draw from the cloud and your social graph as much, or perhaps more, relevant information than you ever wanted to know. Oh, and the cloud will be watching you and whatever’s around you as well.

In the new augmented reality, the web surfs you.

The goal of this talk will be to provide you with a fast paced overview of what this new “augmented” reality will mean for how we socialize, for how we sell and market physical products, for architecture, for media and entertainment, for public policy, crime, privacy and, as well, few early signals for what might be the new killer apps.

If all that is not interesting enough, I will also bring free beer.

How did it go? I think it went well! thanks for all the wonderful twitter feedback. 100+ tweets and counting =)

wrongbutton @tpurves fantastic presentation! very thought-provoking. especially enjoyed social AR consideration and the notion of layering data sets

BrianSe7en @tpurves great job on the AR deck! somebody who “gets it”.. yeah!

danielpatricio @tpurves Great job on the presentation, it really inspired me and got me thinking. there is a lot of potential in our future

randymatheson @tpurves – inspiring presentation on Augmented Reality tonight at #refreshevents , a balanced look at what is coming in the next few years

sebchorney @tpurves Great job. Real value for me was the “example->implication” flow, and high-level summations/analyses/insights in your tables.

D_Hock Great #RefreshEvents tonight – seeing the crowd engaged by @tpurves‘ talk was truly fascinating.

malcolmbastien @tpurves Awesome talk. It’s clear you know your stuff and have done some deep thinking of its broad impacts.

nitchblog Amazing debate to end the night. Great discussions that brought us around the world and back! Thanks to @jkozuch + @tpurves #refreshevents

davefleet @tpurves is wielding a NFC phone. Love the potential with that technology #refreshevents

pinkbrickroad @tpurves so interesting/funny. Future is crazy. #refreshevents

josephdee @tpurves presentation has been kick-ass so far. Peeks into the future of mobile experience, which is making me grin : ) #refreshevents

AdamSchwabe I love hearing @tpurves talk tech. So intelligent and focused. Fast, well-read. #RefreshEvents

I look forward to presenting again the next revision. Contact or DM me if you’d like me to lead/present this discussion at a future event. Meanwhile enjoy:

Link: Audio track of my presentation (video coming they say)

Posted in android, apps, Archive, Augmented Reality, conferences, design, events, Experimental, future, lawsofmedia, mcluhan, social media, socialmedia, socialplatforms, ubicomp, wireless | Tagged , , , , | 34 Comments

Reboot11 is on the way. Theme is Action.

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Thomas Purves

Keeners in the front row.

Love the theme of Reboot number, and according to Thomas the last, reboot conference. The theme is Action. The last 10 reboots have been about insights, this one is about action. June 25-26 in copenhagen, denmark.

The official announcement from Thomas Madsen-Mygdal:

this is a once in our lifetime opportunity, and so it could be the single most important reboot ever – because this year we’re not in a world that thinks the status quo is working – it’s not only the freaks at reboot that feel the need to reboot things. we’re in times of change and systemic failure unlike anything we’ll probably experience again in our lifetime. we’ve had visionary insights and reflections the last couple of years at reboot (renaissance, human and free – great journeys into the deep insights). now it’s time to act on the insights.
it’s up to us edgelings and participatory folks to take charge and begin building a better future – insight comes with responsibility.
we’re not afraid. we know that we need to reinvent and reboot everything on new scales based on trust, networks and participation.

we are at the cusp of a new approach to sharing, consuming, banking, insurance, journalism, democracy – well almost everything – all the core infrastructure we’ve build our societal systems on. how do we move forward?

“ACTION”, THE CHALLENGE
———————–
so the action challenge is:

– what are the great acts, the proven ideas, patterns, solutions, etc. you can implement in your local community, country, peer group, etc. the most important simple ideas we can act on to make a difference
– how can we all learn the skills of action, how to communicate, how to prototype, how to design, how to create, how to manage, how to create movements, how to start an open source project, how to fund projects and companies.
– what to act on first (obviously whatever you’re passionate about, but perhaps there’s lessons of what can make the greatest difference)
– who are the great actionists who can inspire us, and what can we learn from history?

If you haven’t been, this may be your last chance to catch Reboot. It’s a long ways away for most of us Canadians, though I was able to make it in 2009 thanks to some serendipitous business travel at the time. Maybe the travel gods will smile on me again?

In any case, you don’t have to go to be inspired by this theme. Last action heroes, now is your time.

Like the great fire of london, the current globe spanning economic collapse brings hardships to many. The econclipse is ripping like brushfire through the deadwood of dated business, governance and distribution models. For the visionary and actionaries, this is just a window of discontinuous transition, an opportunity for the new architects the digital Christopher Wrens if you will, to build this century’s new edifices and institutions.

Take action.

LINK: register for Reboot 11

Posted in Archive, events | Tagged | Leave a comment