Elena, the winner of 1st QR-Kill game played in Barcelona, 22.1.2008

Flanagan just sent me a mail telling me about their new QR Code Game. Amazing! (The only thing I don't like is the name of the game.)

QR-Kill Rules

1. A QR with your name and phone (SMS format) will be printed in a 20cm minimum width sheet of white paper. It will be reinforced by a hard cardboard and stuck to the back using american tape.
2. The QR must be visible at all times. It cannot be covered by any means, wall, floor, etc…
3. Once you receive the deathly SMS you must leave the scenario right away.
4. When team playing, members can only communicate by using same phone they use as a weapon.
5. Disguising is allowed as along as the QR is visible.
6. Unless playing “sniper mode” no extra devices can be used to capture the QR-Codes (E.g. zoom photo cameras, videocams, etc…)
7. If there is a conflict deciding who killed first, SMS time will decide (we recommend synchronizing watches before the game starts)
8. No one can assist you to kill the enemy with your phone. However you can hire spies, etc…

I will have to add this in my next Mobile Tagging and Security? (PDF) presentation. Thanks Thomas Amberg for the tip. Last time I visited UnaMesa, I just saw the Service Link project (see below).

The SharedRecords project provides free, secure record stores and sharing tools and web sites.

UnaMesa in conjunction with Dimagi developed the SharedRecords software as part of the ServiceLink project. UnaMesa operates the SharedRecords website as a public service for storing copies of medical records and other important documents.

Clinics, hospitals, therapy providers, schools, and individuals can use SharedRecords to make sure that their important documents are always safe and available. Unlike other systems, individuals maintain complete control over the ability to share their records. (Unlike other systems, it's also free to use and easy to integrate with existing paper or electronic record-keeping systems.)

***

Service Link
The Service Link project demonstrated how community service providers can easily share electronic versions of records while maintaining the convenience and security of their existing paper­based processes. Unlike other electronic systems, partner agencies can share individual records on demand without the need to agree on a common format or centralized administration. Developed in collaboration with community clinics and other providers, a Service Link prototype was piloted at a Head Start provider in Fremont, CA. In short, paper forms are scanned and stored digitally, in an encrypted format. They can be shared in two ways:

1. Electronically, with a system of encryption keys that grant access to one specific document to one specific account holder; or
2. Paper ­based, with a printed receipt that enables the bearer to retrieve and decrypt the pre­authorized record at any net worked machine.

For more information, see http://wiki.unamesa.org/wiki/ServiceLink

As of Jan 2008, a field trial of this technology is being deployed as part of the ServiceLink2 project which is a joint effort of Dimagi and the Community Network Services at Ricoh Innovations.

AFP: Japan to get cellphone 'sommeliers': official

Japan is to start licensing cellphone "sommeliers" to guide consumers through complicated functions as mobile telephones become ever more advanced, an official said Monday.

The communications ministry said it was planning to support a private-sector plan to launch an exam to license specialists who sell cellphones.

"We hope they would be able to explain complicated functions and charge systems to consumers, much like wine sommeliers guiding you," a ministry official said.

The ministry also hopes the cellphone experts would remind parents of the risks of letting their children use Internet-capable cellphones and recommend installing filters to block access to harmful websites, he said.

If Japan has already mobile sommeliers, we here in Europe should at least start with catalogues similar to the ones offered in Japan - especially the kind that Softbank offers.

QR codes for BBC programmes and some other stuff

We’re on a bit of a roll at the moment with our work on /programmes, so quick on the heals of the work to integrate iPlayer and programme credits onto our episode pages I’m chuffed to announce another batch of new features: QR-Codes, schedules and um calls to inaction.

[...] You can then print QR-Codes on posters, t-shirts, scarfs, whatever. People can then decode them by taking a picture, using specific software installed on their mobile phone, to read and convert the code back to the URL - so they can easily visit the web site.

Anyway - every BBC programme now has a QR code. You can get it by adding …/qrcode to the end of the URL for any programme page. For example, this is the URL for Platoon:

   http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007mcgw

And this is its QR-Code:

   http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007mcgw/qrcode

There was already a QR Code in Monocle last year in April.



※ Sorry for the bad picture quality.

Somewhat related: Book jackets, Japan

Image: Threadless

See also (hat tip from Tomi):

A cool innovation by The 3G Dating Agency where they use the 2D Barcode as a way to get users to sign up to their service in the UK. As they put it, they take the waiting out of dating..

It's not my cup of tea, but well, at least it shows that QR Codes are getting a lot of traction;)

Philipp Contag-Lada just mailed me the pics of the new campaign of Staatstheater Darmstadt. Excellent! (just think about the Quiet Zone;)

As an addendum to this post:

The Operators vs. the Media Brands by Chetan Sharma

[...] If we look at the strategic canvas of the mobile data industry, it’s clear that operators currently have a huge advantage over media brands. Mobile operators’ advantage in the current landscape comes from their superior reach, as well as the capability they have to segment and profile users. Their current influence over the ecosystem is a magnitude ahead of media brands. However, in other areas, such as user experience, content, and the ability to be quick to market — media brands have a stronger strategic footing, and they will use it to close the gap in the other areas.

[...] Operators and media companies sit at the exact opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of cultural and media savviness. Mobile operators are very engineering focused and extremely conservative in their approach to the critical operational aspects of running a cellular network. Media companies, on the other hand, come up with the most creative ways to express a brand message in a landscape that would burst the brains of the very brightest network operators with all of its consumer nuances and related myriad creative intricacies.

[...] To be successful over the long term, operators need to focus on the unique elements that only they can provide — such as location, presence, user profiles and platforms for applications; as well as device and network APIs — and build business models around abstracting this information so that the ecosystem can utilize them to enhance user experience and usage. Such an approach will enhance their competitiveness in the media ecosystem, keep the usage and ARPU levels up, and get more entrepreneurs and users involved in moving the industry to its next milestone.

As for the last paragraph, operators are no longer the only ones who can provide location, presence, user platforms for applications. However operators are certainly the ones who could provide device and network API's. But that would mean that most operators have to change their ways of doing by 180 degrees.


Another angle from John Hockenberry

Networks are built on the assumption that audience size is what matters most. Content is secondary; it exists to attract passive viewers who will sit still for advertisements. For a while, that assumption served the industry well. But the TV news business has been blind to the revolution that made the viewer blink: the digital organization of communities that are anything but passive. Traditional market-driven media always attempt to treat devices, audiences, and content as bulk commodities, while users instead view all three as ways of creating and maintaining smaller-scale communities. As users acquire the means of producing and distributing content, the authority and profit potential of large traditional networks are directly challenged.

Mobile and Contactless Payments: End-User Survey Analysis. Related Press Release:

“Our survey revealed a number of important attitudes toward contactless payments among US consumers,” says principal analyst Jonathan Collins. “The desire for a single and separate account on NFC handsets, for example, provides a heads-up to existing credit and debit card suppliers that new or separate products may be required to keep customers as they move to mobile payments. Furthermore, it shows potential for new and specialized mobile payment providers to step in, as users turn to NFC-enabled payments.”

Via The Mobility Weblog

Recommended by Bill Perry (flash devices) and Scott Janousek