Musings of an Info-Geek: The Reincarnation of :Cue Cats in QR Codes

Musings of an Info-Geek

Observations on Technical Writing, Knowledge Management, and Content Development amid life in Austin TX

Jennifer A Brown
Instructional Designer/Technical Communicator delivering accessible and re-useable knowledge and process content to improve workplace performance.

Essentially I eliminate the frustration of time lost in ramp-up and rework through creating and streamlining knowledge, process and training content. In other words, I like to get my hands dirty with information to make other people's work lives easier. Member STC, ASTD.

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Musings of an Info-Geek: The Reincarnation of :Cue Cats in QR Codes

The Reincarnation of :Cue Cats in QR Codes

:Cue Cat by Si1very. Some rights reserved under Creative Commons.

Remember these? I got one back when they were the darling of early adopters and Wired magazine when they were first released. If you aren't familiar with them, they scanned specialized barcodes in magazines and such to allow people to get more information. They ended up being a spectacular failure, as the :Cue Cat had to be plugged in to your computer to work, and later licensing, security, and privacy controversies.

I wasn't all that impressed with what the :Cue Cats did after a flurry of initial adoption, it quickly panned out. So when mobile tagging and Quick Response (QR) codes with their matrix barcodes appeared, I thought it would be another fad.

I'm not a particular fan of social check-in services, which accounts for my resistance to mobile tagging. I just don't like the idea of a person's life being that transparent, although I suppose there's something to be said if you need an alibi. In the Era of Overshare, I think discretion is under-appreciated.

But I admit that I was wrong. And while they're often trivial, they're also very useful. When I was at Lavacon, QR codes were everywhere, from URLs to contact information as good as a business card. One person mentioned that some businesses have put QR codes at their front door to allow visitors to contact reception or get emergency contact info for the building. Even Austin's transit system Capital Metro has QR Codes added to the bus schedules posted at certain stops, so you can see if you've missed your bus. I've even seen them displayed during film festivals on banners and elsewhere so people could get information about the festival and the particular films. How useful is that?

They're clearly useful as a marketing tool, but imagine how you could use them in your business. You could place QR codes in strategic locations to help your employees access useful information on demand, such as where to access emergency procedures. You can include them with hard copies of materials, to locate the source (both who's responsible for the document and even the intranet location of the document). Simple information that can be cumbersome to access such as contact info and those pesky, long URLs from your intranet can be embedded in a QR code.

Adopting QR codes into your environment does have some drawbacks that need to be explored before you use them. There are currently 40 QR code versions, not all code generators are equal. Some versions have better error correction than others, which is why sometimes you just can't get a good scan on your QR app on your smartphone. PWB Marketing starts the conversation about QR codes you should be having in their blog post, QR Codes: Is Your QR Code Secure.

Security is no small concern with QR codes; anything you put out on the internet is at risk, and once it's out there, the ways of abusing it are only limited by the imagination. It takes data to generate the code which means that data has been exposed to the code generating site. Not all QR generators are equal, and some not only store your data, but can redirect the QR code to other sites; malware, anyone? That intranet URL you embedded can be misused, so due diligence is in order. SBA-Research has an PDF abstract on QR Code Security that your IT people should read before you go QR crazy.

Smartphone use in your work environment is another issue; not everyone has a company provided phone. Getting the QR requires taking a picture; you could be violating company policy by using personal phones to take the pictures.

So as much as I like QR codes -- and I do -- while I think they have great potential, there are also serious risks before adopting them.

[Photo: :Cue Cat by Si1very. Some rights reserved under Creative Commons.]