QR Codes Going Slightly More Mainstream
I’ve blogged before about QR codes here a few times (like here), and it’s a trend I’ve been following for some time now.
Here in the US, adoption of QR codes has been very slow compared to adoption rates in Asia and Europe. There are a few reasons for this. While smart-phone use is on the rise, the majority of cellphones aren’t used to access the web. Sure, people do a ton of texting here, but they aren’t doing much else on the mobile web, yet. The other barrier to entry is the fact that there just isn’t the software installed on most phones to read the codes and do something with them.
I have an iPhone, and there are a few free and paid apps that will read and do something with QR codes. Similarly, there are readers for Android and Blackberry, but users of these types of phones can install software easily and quickly. LG EnV users? Sorry, it’s a little harder.
I ask these questions because I’m starting to see QR codes pop up in more and more places – even my local donut shop. Last weekend, while taking my boys out for breakfast, I noticed this sticker on the door to the local Tim Hortons.
Click for larger version
I took a photo of the code, which led me to a Google listing for this particular Tim Hortons. Neat, but I already know about this Tim Hortons. I was there already. Perhaps soon people will take QR codes to the next level. If I take a shot of that code, I should get an email or text with a coupon for 5 free TimBits or 25% off a flavored coffee. The technology exists in Google’s program, more and more people should take advantage of it.
So, are QR codes going slightly more mainstream? I’d say yes. Are we using them for neat things in higher ed? Not yet, but we should.
I’ve started lobbying at my institution to start putting QR codes on some publications we do. Of course, only a small audience would be using their phones, but it would be very interesting data to see what the adoption rate is amongst users out there. The code wouldn’t need to be very big – here’s a quick example I mocked up last year. You can click to see a larger version.
The URL contained in that QR code could have Google Analytics data enclosed in it to it could be tracked, or it could be personalized so when I visit I see my name or some other custom data.
Last year at the Institutional Web Management Workshop at the University of Essex, I attended a session on QR codes and we broke into small groups to talk about how we could use QR codes to do cool things at our institutions.
One school created signs with QR codes saying welcome in Chinese for international students who were arriving there to study. Others had ideas for how to integrate QR codes into library and other research tools.
Adam Palin from Ashton Sixth Form College and I thought about an idea after realizing we had one thing in common – a name badge. You meet a lot of people at a conference, and you’re interested to learn more about them. Sure, you can swap business cards but I quickly lose cards. Since we all don’t have iPhones we can “Bump,” wouldn’t a cool way to learn more about a person be a QR code?
Our idea was this:
A simple web app could be built with everyone’s contact information, school, Twitter link, Facebook profile, email and more. Then, on the front or back of everyone’s ID badge would be a QR code. When you strike up a conversation during a conference, instead of sharing paper (that’s so 20th century), you’d instead take a quick snap of the QR code on their badge, would would automatically take you to their profile and contact information. Creating custom QR codes is trivial, as is a web app, but I think a system like this would be awful easy.
This is already happening at some tech-y conferences, such as the UK Museums on the Web conference in the UK. Here’s a blog post by a developer who implemented a system there to do exactly this.
EduWeb and HighEdWeb – I’m looking at you. Let’s do this. I will coordinate it. I think it’d not only be a neat thing, it would be a pretty valuable tool. We’d make people’s lives easier and get QR codes out there to a more mainstream audience. Who wants to be on the leading edge of this?
It May be Time to Brush Up On Your Campus Emergency Plan
A shooting on campus is every higher education employee’s worst nightmare.
There was an interesting post in yesteday’s Wired Campus about the University of Alabama at Huntsville’s emergency alert system.
Last week, there was a shooting on their campus and sadly, three faculty members were killed, two other faculty members and one staff assistant was injured in the shooting. While their response after the fact has been very good, people on their campus are upset that an emergency text alert was not sent until an hour after the shooting was reported. Officials at the school report the shooter was apprehended minutes after a 911 call. The school posted this time line:
University, local, state and federal law enforcement officials arrived on the scene at 4:01 and the alleged shooter was apprehended without incident at 4:10, according to university police. Residence halls on the campus were locked down at 4:10 as a precaution. The campus was closed at 4:42 p.m. University and local law enforcement officials swept and secured the building by 5:45, confirming that no other victims were found
Despite that and the fact the event was contained to one building, an alert should have been immediately sent out, notifying people on campus to stay put and lock doors and windows until further notice. It’s always better to err on the side of caution in situations as of these, as I’m sure word had already spread about the event on Facebook and Twitter. The UAH police chief added this about the alert system:
The U-Alert was triggered late because the people involved in activating that system were involved in responding to the shooting.
At two institutions I have worked for, there were multiple people tasked with the ability to send out alerts, ranging from the Dean of Students, Security Chief and all the way down to me as web guy. That way, all it takes a phone call and the message can go out immediately.
Since the Virginia Tech tragedy, pretty much all of us have instituted text alert systems and have reviewed and streamlined emergency preparation plans across campus. Now would be a good time to review your role in emergency planning and response as a web person on your campus and if there isn’t a specific time line or set of ready text messages standing by, you may want to speak up and have those things added in to your plan.
Google Runs a Super Bowl Ad. Will Higher Ed?
Has the dot-com advertising boom come full circle?
While not completely shocking, I was a bit surprised that Google was one of the advertisers in yesterday’s Super Bowl. It’s not that they don’t have the money, heck, to them, the $2.9 million or so that an ad spot costs is a drop in the bucket, but more it’s what they’re selling: search. Not apps or Gmail or YouTube or AdWords or anything. Search. Their “core” product.
We all search the web, dozens of times daily. And for many, Google has become a verb. The ability to search Google’s catalog is becoming ubiquitous, even my mothers uses Google 411 to search things out when she’s out and about.
In case you missed it, here’s the ad.
Personally, I really like it. Why? Because it’s simple, yet shows you how many different types of things you can find thanks to Google’s catalog. Jobs, shops, maps, you name it. Lots of little clever tricks too – like how they misspelled the “Louve” and it corrected the spelling.
This spot, unlike many other spots, didn’t try to be crass or crude, or go for a cheap laugh. It tells a cute story, simply and easily. It couldn’t have cost much to produce, and will live on and be featured on its own platforms like YouTube. I and people like me who spend hours a day using Google’s products most likely aren’t the target audience for this spot, but rather the more casual user who perhaps didn’t know you could get the kind of results you can from Google.
Locally, I saw one commercial spot for the University of Akron, who ran a nicely produced piece here in the Cleveland area. You can learn more about the spot from the University’s site here.
Note to my colleagues at Akron – get that video in YouTube. I just searched for your school’s name there to try to embed the video and one of the top results is students there reacting to the infamous “2Girls1Cup” video.
Trust me. Do not Google that.
