Blog – writings by us
What’s happening at ShotCode HQ?
Brazilian footbal, Nike & ShotCode - a movie
Some time ago we did a very exciting campaign in Brazil with Nike & the Brazilian football team. Many have asked us about it so here is a short youtube video explaining it all
ShotCode on BBC World Service
If you travel a lot or are an expat like me then you might listen to the BBC world service when you have had enough of local radio. If you also happen to listen today you will hear the guys over at the Culture Shock program discuss ShotCodes at the end of the show. I give a brief introduction and then Tim Marlow and Russell Davies come with some great insights.
For the coming seven days you can also listen online.
"mobilize" web pages your way
Some of you might have noticed it already: Recently we decided to allow anyone to "mobilize" the pages ShotCodes point to in their own way. We've done this by working together with Skweezer, Google Mobilizer our own PHONifier and the late Mowser. If you are using premium ShotCodes you can choose your optimization on your ShotCode management pages. If you use the free ShotCodes at ShotCode.org then the user of the ShotCode can choose whichever optimization they like (if any). At the moment we are experimenting with these alternate implementation methods and we'd love to hear from you on what you think.
We power WURFL!
WURFL is an opensource initiative meant to centralize detailed technical data information on mobile devices in order to allow developers to build content that works on any platform or phone model. In non-techie words, Wurfl helps us detecting your phone model when you access shotcode.com from your mobile, and helps serving the right content for it. We could as well be counting on UAProf for that matter, but Wurfl goes one step beyond: besides being centralized, it fills the gaps that UAProf leaves open (Wurfl contains detailed information on devices that don't have a UAProf profile, for instance). More than just using Wurfl internally, we're also actively collaborating with the initiative by submitting new device information to WURFL database whenever we work with newly released phones. Yay to WURFL!
ShotCode Reader now supported on 44 new devices
In a constant effort to increase the number of supported devices, we've just rolled out support for a total of 44 new Motorola, Nokia and Siemens phones. We'd also like to take the opportunity and announce our new beta program for device support: phones marked with the beta tag on the download page are still under heavy testing, which means your feedback on them would be highly appreciated (tried the reader and it works? Send us a high five and we'll thankfully high five you - maybe pay you a beer, depending on geographic conditions ;-)). Rest assured these beta versions will not blow anything on your phone!
Free ShotCodes now with several optimization choices
As you might have noticed our free ShotCode.org project is still flying a "beta" banner and because we are experimenting a lot we think we'll leave it there for a little while longer.
Yesterday we launched a first step in allowing the person who scans the ShotCode to choose the optimization they want. Currently we are only using our own PHONifier open source project but stay tuned for integration of more services of this kind (think Google, Mowser, etc). As always your feedback is very welcome!
ShotCode loves iPhone (and iMatrix)
)
We are not very good at patience here at ShotCode and after looking and playing with this delicious device for such a long time we got sick and tired of waiting for an SDK. This meant it was time for action and we connected up with Sergey Odinokov over at iMatrix. Sergey made it so that we needed wait no longer, today we proudly introduce a ShotCode reader for the iPhone.
It is our first collaborative reader project outside of the ShotCode realm and we are excited about what has been created. The reader is rock solid and the iPhone / ShotCode experience is a testament to the iPhone's amazing user interface: it's smoooooooooth....
Installing iMatrix is easy as installing any app on iPhones: Just fire up the installer, find the iMatrix application and start scanning! Have fun and be sure to let us (and Sergey) know what you think.
Free ShotCodes for everyone!
We have been quiet for some time but that doesn't mean we have been sitting still! In the last couple of months a lot of developments have taken place of which most will be launched this week.
To start with ShotCode.ORG our free alternative. These ShotCodes are very simple to create and they are absolutely free in use, excellent for trying the service and mashing up with your online projects.
During the time that we have been in silent beta we have received great response, we hope you will enjoy it too!. Please let us know what you think.
Major brands such as Nike, Volkswagen, Monsterboard and Sony Ericsson push the envelope in mobile marketing
Imagine a life in which you can click on the world around you just like you would click a link on the internet. Science fiction? Hardly. A small Swedish / Dutch company is making great strides in making this clickable world an everyday reality. Their product, called ShotCode, has been on the forefront of this market for some time and today they are launching their new website.
“This industry has been like a slumbering volcano for the last three years and now it is ready to explode� says Dennis Hettema, founder & creative director at ShotCode.com. It is not the first time that his company has convinced major brands of the power of a clickable world. Last year Sprite launched 40 million bottles labeled with ShotCodes in Mexico, making for the largest campaign of its kind to date.
The new ShotCode.com website makes creating a ShotCode campaign as simple as registering a domain name. Sign up at ShotCode.com for a low (flat) monthly fee and your campaign is ready to roll. “We have always believed in the power of live campaigns in order to make the public aware of this exciting technology. With this new website even the local pizzeria can launch a ShotCode campaign as easily as any major brand� says Dennis Timmermans, managing partner at ShotCode.com
According to the company it is ShotCode’s simplicity, the large amount of live projects, and the attractiveness of their codes that moves major brands to jump on board.
The application areas for the technology are as diverse as there are links on the net. The latest additions to the ShotCode portfolio all use ShotCodes in their own way:
- Monsterboard uses the technology to scout for talent in emerging markets, scan the ShotCode and show your interest in certain job openings.
- Sony Ericsson provides exclusive musical content to Finnish Sony Ericsson users. Scanning Sony Ericsson’s ShotCode with another mobile brand, such as Nokia, will result in an “error� message stating that the free content is only accessible with Sony Ericsson phones. The user is then encouraged to make the switch to Sony Ericsson.
- Nike is promoting the Brazilian football team in local pubs and cafés offering special team jersey’s via ShotCodes
- And Italian consumers will be using ShotCodes to instantly book test drives at their local Volkswagen dealer.
Today ShotCodes are scannable with over 250 different phone models “We cover the largest amount of compatible models in the market and installation is just a matter of typing m.shotcode.com on your mobile phone’s browser. If it’s up to us that would be the last internet address you would ever have to type on your mobile phone� says Hettema with a smile.
So is this just a fad or is it serious? In Japan people use mobile barcoding every day to get information and interact with products. Hyperlinks changed our everyday lives. The question is: “Would mobile hyperlinks do the same?�.
So much has happened!
As the title says, the last couple of months have been pretty hardcore here at ShotCode.
Firstly I`d like to take the opportunity to welcome our two new colleagues:
Dennis Bruin (yes he is the third Dennis at ShotCode.com) joining us in Amsterdam, Holland. Dennis is joining the management team and brings with him years of successful digital entrepreneurial experience with an emphasis on web hosting and new media.
And Herval Freire joining us from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Herval is the new lead developer for OP3 & ShotCode, he started playing with computers at age 10 and never quit. Specialized in Java and Ruby on Rails he is a strong advocate of agile software development and down to earth logic.
Welcome guys!
It probably won`t come as a surprise then that we have decided to launch our new website in a Ruby on Rails environment. We cut away much of the access fat and hit the study books as well, in other words our site is smaller and more effective. The administration interface for your ShotCodes has been completely revamped and all text has been brought up to date.
Those are not the only changes though, we even upgraded our business model. From today ShotCode campaigns are as simple to set up as registering a domain name. We have introduced three package deals that contain ShotCodes based on a cheap, fixed, flat fee, monthly price that you can cancel at any time. All your ShotCodes are created and updated in real time and support is only an email message away.
We have developed an extensive partner program allowing you to quickly and effectively sell ShotCodes to your clients, contact Dennis Timmermans for more information.
All these changes are just the first step, over the coming months we will be introducing all kinds of interesting open and social additions to our product offering. We hope you enjoy what we have delivered today and look forward to developing ShotCode in the future.
Posted by Nino Durante at Sat Nov 08 09:42:41 +0100 2008.