QR codes are quickly entering the mobile and print space as a way for people to get more information via their cellphones. What’s a QR code? From Wikipedia:
“QR is the acronym for Quick Response… QR Codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards, or on just about any object about which users might need information. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR Code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the phone’s browser.”
Using a QR code scanning app, you can get the information Wikipedia mentions. (Go ahead – scan ours.) Should you wish, you can even generate your own. So, what use is this for journalists and local media outlets?
Lauren M. Rabaino writes at 10,000 Words about Five ways journalists can use QR codes. Among her interesting suggestions: having QR codes posted on signs throughout the city so users can send location-relevant information to you. Yeah – that’s a little way off, but it’s an interesting concept.
A while back, Mashable’s Dana Oshiro posted another list of five ways to use QR codes. One of his recommendations was using the codes to create Geo-Based Reviews and Tours.
Over at MediaShift, Michael Josefowicz wrote in 2009: “For an editor or journalist, QR codes can deliver real time data on the most ineffable and important feedback, answering questions like ‘Is this story interesting to people who live in a geographically defined community?”
As is the case with most new tech, there isn’t yet a defined, guaranteed money-making opportunity with QR codes. So go ahead – experiment. As Josefowicz points out, QR codes are “CueCat done right.”