Shall we click bracelets?
OK, off the cuff I’m troubled by all the references to girls and fairies in this interview with Chris Heatherly, Disney’s VP of Technology and Innovation, but there is mention of an innovative solution to a real problem. That problem being risks to personal security of children brought about by the connections they make in virtual worlds.
My recent favorite innovation is a new technology called Clickables that we are launching in connection to our new Disney Fairies virtual world. It’s a way for kids to take their online world experience into the real world. The core of it is a magical bracelet. By simply clicking their bracelets together, girls become friends in the online environment.
(and what do boys get to do? bump spanners or something? but I digress … )
I’m thinking about how this kind of idea can transfer to the adult world, specifically the world of adults at a certain web development conference. Obviously, we’re not going to make you all wear bracelets, (my preference would actually be for collars anyway:). That would be crazy in a time when we all carry around a collar disguised as a communications device. Every year I’ve tossed around ideas for using mobiles to help people cement connections they make at Web Directions, but never really come up with an idea engaging enough to implement. Maybe this will be the year we make it happen.
Jachin Sheehy
March 19th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
It seems to me that people have been doing this with business cards for years … but that doesn’t always work at conferences.
Perhaps you could extend the Mikon sticker idea for the next Web Directions conference as follows:
In addition to your name tag and the Mikons to describe yourself, each attendee is given 2 sheets of small stickers that have a very short, unique hash code that represents that attendee and is registered against their MeetWeaver login.
When you want someone to remember you, you give them one of your stickers … and ask for one of theirs. Stick that on the back of your name tag and pop it into MeetWeaver when next you’re online and that creates the connection. From MeetWeaver you can get their blog, Facebook profile, FriendFeed, etc
If you wanted a professional connection, you could stick your sticker on the back of your business card and hand that over: business card buddies and MeetWeaver friends!
Sound feasible?
john
March 19th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Nice thoughts Jachin.
I’m a big fan of semacodes these days - not so much for any specific purpose, but for their potential.
http://semacode.com/
Perhaps a semacode mikon of your email, blog, or other address you wish folks to have.
That way, those with certain phones can simply grab your details from your badge!
And in deference to maxine, they’d be exploding badges!
OK, must be silly time now, but excellent thoughts.
john
Ben Buchanan
March 21st, 2008 at 12:48 am
I’ve found that the problem I usually have later is remember who was who. You end up with a fistfull of cards and can’t always connect names/cards with faces.
I like Thomas Vander Wal’s solution: get a photo of the person holding up their card :)
The unique ID thing would work so long as everyone added a (non-stylised) photo of themselves. Which not everyone would be willing to do.
oliverw
March 21st, 2008 at 7:50 pm
John,
QR Codes are a good idea, as long as there is information provided to attendees on how to download the application (if their phone supports it) and someone to code the information to create the codes on the badges.
More about QR Codes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code
I’m friends with Anthony at http://www.qmcodes.com/ and am happy to ask for assistance if we need it.
cheers,
oli