Killing the Business Card at Podcamp Boston 3
I had a hard time trying to figure out where I should write this article because it is a short wrap up of my recent trip to Podcamp Boston and describing an experiment I was conducting there. The experiment part is a very green idea which could fit well on the Green Buy Guide but is more techie focused with a green side effect.
Before attending Podcamp Boston 3 I made the specific choice to do two things. One, do not bring a laptop with me for a slide presentation. The main reason is that I have not mastered the fine art of balancing graphics with my speaking points so my slides are WAY too wordy. I wanted to gear my session as more of a discussion and less of a presentation. All in all that worked well but I am hesitant to find the audio of it because I feel I may sound, well, odd.
My second choice was to not bring any business cards. As it turned out I had a couple in my wallet for the company and the podcast but they quickly left me soon after arriving at the conference. It’s not that I hate business cards or recognize their place in the world. Rather, I feel that there has to be a better way to convey the information on a business card to a person besides handing them a slip of paper they may or may not read.
This goes back to a talk Mitch Joel gave a year ago at Podcamp Boston 2 where he clearly stated not to give him a business card because 99% of the time he doesn’t follow up due to time constraints. I am still looking at business cards I have from the PME in 2005 that I should do something with but won’t. This is all good information on people that should be captured and tags in a way so that if I ever need a guitarist for a show I can quickly find them.
My proposal, find a way to create an open Business Card standard that works with the web, media devices AND phones. This would go way beyond the vCard idea. Basically it would be some sort of XML standard that can be quickly used with SMS/TXT messages to send business card data from a mobile phone/device to another device which would automatically recognize it and do something with it.
The idea would play out like this. I meet someone at Podcamp and instead of giving them my business card, I SMS them my XML based business card which is already pre-stored on my phone. Their iPhone gets the message, recognizes the standard, and based on the person’s preferences the device places my information into their contact list, categorizes them as “business contact”, downloads the image from my card and connects it with the new contact. The unique play would be that since it is an XML standard any phone or device can read it and use the info how they see fit. Also, it would allow application developers to create software to manipulate the data in ways the user needs. The green sideline is that less business cards would be passed around and fewer trees would need to be used to create business cards in the first place. It also would allow for the traditions of passing business cards in the Far East to be maintained. Instead of passing a card between parties they are hitting send on their mobile device to the recipient across from them.
Mobile phones and devices have been completely absorbed into all aspects of business and social gatherings. So we should be using them more to make lasting connections with people we meet and not let by a piece of paper and time to input information be a barrier to social contacts.
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on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 6:40 pm and is filed under New Media Industry, Observations on Technology.
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July 21st, 2008 at 6:50 pm
If Palm had taken off like they were supposed to, then that would probably be the case; the old Palms (and probably current ones, though I guess I’ll know better once my Centro arrives) had functionality to beam your contact info to another Palm device via IR, and vice versa. A professor of mine in college referred to it as the “California handshake”.
July 21st, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Hi Greg - thanks for the link to Dropcard. I totally agree - green considerations aside, forgetfulness to bring the cards aside, once you give someone the card, who knows what happens to it? I have a stack that I can’t import, don’t feel like typing up, but feel bad about throwing out.
With Dropcard we tried to do the next best thing to creating an open standard and let you create a virtual business card that can be quickly emailed to any email address using SMS.
Since many phones today don’t know what to do with vCards, we stuck to email addresses. And since we figured it should work for anyone, we went with SMS. But services like FriendBook or Poken do a cooler job for specific platforms and hardware, assuming both people have iPhones/keychains etc.
-Tal
http://www.mydropcard.com
July 21st, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Have you tried Textmarks? That was my business card for PCB3.
You sign up, create a keyword and ask people to text that keyword to 41411.
Worked well for me, I don’t know how to make it work for the rest of your code though!
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:38 am
Dear Greg.
A part of my job is to sit down by the computer and read articles like yours. I do it as an Online Business Development Manager of an Online Digital Printing Website named DCP-PRINT (http://www.dcp-print.com) I learn a lot from such articles and yours is a very enlightening one. Many professionals in the networking area or advertising and promoting field think like you. I have to say that I disagree with you and your electronic gadgets prophets. The paper made good old business card will always be there. It is irreplaceable. Being cheap, quick and easy to be manufactured, light to be carried and electric-power free will make it available in all events and meetings. I read somewhere that a business man, a real-estate broker, published on the internet that he closes a deal per 100 business cards he passes on. 10% returns a phone call. I think they’ll stay here for ever (those business cards)
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:47 pm
211me.com, which is referenced in the Die, Business Card, Die, Die? article you have linked to, really is your answer. It is delivered via SMS, but unlike dropcard and textmarks, it includes a link to rich content than can, in turn, be saved as a v-card. So you get all the text, links and visual all in one. It can also be used as a signature on Outlook.
So you meet someone at an event, you can send your business card to them, via SMS to either their cellphone or their email. As a person who is better with faces than names, I find the cards particularly helpful because instead of a sea of cards that you try to link back to an encounter - you have photos to help refresh your memory.
Cards can also be posted to social networks, blogs and websites as well - so you can create just once and share everywhere. Or, if a change is needed (big promotion, new company or new logo) you can make the change yourself in a heartbeat - no engineers or graphic designers needed. You can even do the entire create and share on mobile (without any app to download) at m.211me.com
Text GET JULIE to 555211 to see my card… and feel free to ask me any questions…