Previous Next

Office 2.0 Blog

Currently Being Moderated

Exchanging Contact Information

Posted by Ismael Chang Ghalimi on Sep 11, 2008 1:28:56 PM

One of the many processes we would like to improve for next year's Office 2.0 Conference is the exchange of contact information among participants. We're trying to make it paper-less, without requiring any custom software to be installed on the mobile devices used by attendees. After looking at many different options, we believe that 2D code scanning is the best one. Here is the scenario:

 

A 2D barcode (DataMatrix Code, EZcode, QR Code, or similar) is printed on all attendee badges. Attendee A and Attendee B are both registered on the office20.com community website. Their respective profiles contains all the information usually found in a vcard. Attendee A wants to get Attendee B's contact information. Attendee A takes a picture of Attendee B's badge with her camera phone, and sends it as an email attachment to id@office20.com. A reply email is automatically sent back to Attendee A with Attendee B's vcard. Attendee A can also log on to the office20.com community site and download all her vcards at a later date.

 

In order to implement such as scenarion, we're currently looking at services like ScanLife and scanR. If you know others that we should take a look at, let us know.

Tags: conference, contact, vcard


Sep 11, 2008 1:46 PM Doron Tilleman Doron Tilleman    says:

Hi,

 

Well, I don't have a name of a company or service, but I have another direction you can explore.

 

I recall reading a few years back about theme parks who gave visitor an id tag that contains something like a barcode, but not a traditional one, but a mix of colors, or something like that. Then, photographers took pictures of the visitors, and if you wanted to buy the pictures, they scanned that id tag, and then search for it in all the photos to find if they took your pictures as well. I think it will give you the same result.

 

Another option would be to use Google face recognition inside Picasa, but they don't support anything beside taging pictures, and you'll have to teach the system who is who, and make sure they are identified correctly. But it would probably work in a year or two.

 

Good luck,

-Doron
Sep 11, 2008 1:48 PM Ismael Chang Ghalimi Ismael Chang Ghalimi    says in response to Doron Tilleman:

Doron,

 

Thanks for sharing this story. I think we're talking about a very similar system.

 

Best regards

-Ismael
Sep 11, 2008 6:58 PM streetstylz streetstylz    says:

I recommend the NeoReader for all of your mobile barcode needs.
Sep 11, 2008 11:30 PM Antoine Toulme Antoine Toulme    says:

Hey Ismael,

 

There is the shake solution too:

The coolest feature without a doubt is the new "Handshake": put two iPhones running Friend Book together, shake them up and down, and the personal contact information of the phones' owners will be beamed through the net to the paired phones. Handshake doesn't work through a device-to-device connection, but instead passes location data back to Tapulous' servers — two shaking phones in the same location means it's time to swap information.
Sep 12, 2008 6:40 AM simpledude simpledude    says:

You could have a look at snappr.net, they seem to have a quite cool and clean service.
Sep 12, 2008 6:57 AM Ismael Chang Ghalimi Ismael Chang Ghalimi    says in response to Antoine Toulme:

Antoine,

 

I really like this application, but we need a solution that can work with any smart phone.

 

-Ismael

Actions

Popular Blog Posts