First legitimately useful execution of QR codes I've seen. In 2 years of Android ownership, not once have I been compelled enough to scan a QR code to learn more about something.
Over lunch yesterday a graphic designer friend was trying to convince me to include a QR code on my business cards. We ran through the many steps required to scan a QR code... and end of conversation. It is a very limited technology.
QR codes on name badges at conferences may be useful. But then some kind of augmented reality splotch would be better. You point a smart phone at the splotch and up pops information about the person - name, company, specialities, etc.
I'm imagining QR codes will really come into their own when the Google Goggles (and later competitors) make augmented reality default to on. Then QR codes will probably just always have a little hypermedia description-augment floating about in space in front of them, and you just have to focus on it to "go" there. I feel science-fiction-y just thinking about it.
This assumes everything is capable of being powered. QR codes can be printed on paper, chiseled into stone, engraved into metal; NFC hardware, for the most part, can't. (And even where it can, it won't last nearly as long as the equivalent code. Passive technology usually greatly outlasts active.) There will indeed be a great amount of NFC- and RFID-triggered hypertext in the future, but there'll probably be just as much QR, serving complementary rather than competitive purposes.
While your experience surely will always be true to you I know times it has been useful. For instance, at my job there is an app with the lunch menu, and the url to it is on a barcode on the door to the lunch room.
To have contact information on a qr on the back of a business card is a good idea, and I've seen local businesses with their website on barcodes outside their offices/stores.
Not something you use daily, but still a good way to tranfer information from the analogue world to the digital.
It's a nice initiative and certainly an alternative to sticking up an outdated poster everywhere. However I don't quite understand the benefit of a qr code versus just googling or looking directly on wiki.
I remember seeing a massive qr code on the side off a double Decker bus. Can codes that big be scanned?
Agreed. I always found QR codes too awkward and cumbersome to use and theres no way I can remember or write one down for later if I don't have a smartphone or camera handy.
The good thing about QR codes is there's lots of capacity. Hashtags would become more complex and longer as additional locations are included, whereas QR codes look the same.
I understand the capacity point, but for geocoding a geohash would suffice. Place the geohash under the name so mobile apps can read it or people can type it in (easier than a qrcode)
Eiffel Tower
#QWERTY986543
Even wikipedia could sell vanity tags to the city council like:
For a variety of reasons (technical, social, logistical), Wikipedia isn't suited for really hyperlocal knowledge sharing. The same factors that make Wikipedia work well actually work against collecting really specific, uncitable, non-noteworthy local knowledge.
If you're into this sort of thing you should definitely check out the LocalWiki effort: http://localwiki.org We're a non-profit, decentralized project to collect and share the world's local knowledge.
Wikipedia already has geolocated entries[1]. Apps that make use of devices' GPS chips together with services like GeoNames[2] or WikiLocation[3] would be easier to use.
This is in a small Welsh village. If they haven't thoroughly checked for adequate signal strength in the places they installed these, this might be a PR disaster.
From the article: "Furthermore, Monmouth has committed to provide free Wi-Fi throughout the town, making them the first location in the entire nation to do so and making it possible for visitors to edit articles on the fly."
