QR code quality in the Philippine Daily Inquirer

The Philippine Daily Inquirer is a major Philippine newspaper that I read every day. A few days ago I posted a blog post about QR codes.Then a funny thing happened. I started seeing QR codes in ads in the Inquirer. Maybe 6 or so and one in real life in my local SM mall on a big sign. I dont know if its coincidence or I my consciousness is just primed to notice QR codes.

Anyway, maybe 25% of the QR codes in the Inquirer can't be read by my phone. My phone, a samsung galaxy Y, only has a fixed focus 2MP camera so it may be partially to blame. However, most of those that can't be read are either small (around 1 inch square) or are printed with low quality. HP ink cartridges have a QR code that is clearly printed but at 1cm square, my camera cannot read them.

My phone and its camera may be low spec but to include more of the reading public, advertisers should take into account that not all readers can afford a high end smartphone.


Suggestions: Advertisers should design the QR codes to be of sufficient size and they should borrow a few low end smartphones so they can test the QR codes to see if the print quality is sufficient. I dont know if the newspaper presses can do a test print before the actual issue is printed, but its always a good idea to test.

the end

BBC: the virtual revolution caused by the internet

An excellent series of BBC TV reports about the impact of the internet. I like the part about the generation gap caused by growing up with the net, how it makes you think differently. After all the arguments I have with my stuck in the 60's parents, I believe it.

NOTE: not all episodes are here

Part One: The Great Levelling

In the first in this four-part series, Aleks charts the extraordinary rise of blogs, Wikipedia and YouTube.
She also traces an ongoing clash between the freedom the technology offers us, and our innate human desire to control and profit.

Part Two: Enemy Of The State

Aleks charts how the Web is forging a new brand of politics, both in democracies and authoritarian regimes.
With contributions from Al Gore, Martha Lane Fox, Stephen Fry and Bill Gates, the programme explores how interactive, unmediated sites like Twitter and YouTube have encouraged direct action and politicised young people in unprecedented numbers.
Yet, at the same time, the Web's openness enables hardline states to spy and censor, and extremists to threaten with networks of hate and crippling cyber attacks.

Part Three: The Cost Of Free

Aleks gives the lowdown on how, for better and for worse, commerce has colonised the web - and reveals how web users are paying for what appear to be 'free' sites and services in hidden ways.
Joined by some of the most influential business leaders of today's web - including Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon), Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google), Chad Hurley (CEO of YouTube) and Bill Gates, the programme traces how business - with varying degrees of success - has attempted to make money on the web.
She tells the inside story of the gold rush years of the dotcom bubble, and reveals how retailers such as Amazon learned the lessons.
The programme also charts how, out of the ashes, Google forged the business model that has come to dominate today's web, offering a plethora of highly attractive, overtly free web services - including search, maps and video - that are in fact funded through a sophisticated and highly lucrative advertising system which trades on what we users look for.

in reference to: BBC World Service - Programmes - The Virtual Revolution: How and when to listen (view on Google Sidewiki)

Traditional news media under attack by digital parasites

Well what can you do. Filipinos are cheap. If its available free, you wont want to pay for it. Even I am not immune. The only reason I still buy newspapers is for the ads, because sometimes something nice comes up.

The digital revolution is here to stay. We have no obligation to support dinosaurs who cannot evolve and adapt with the changing times.

Several decades back, I'm sure people who were in the horse industry had similar complaints when cars became common.

For a more recent example, landline monopoly PLDT seems to have successfully broadened its business model to inlcude the net and cellular phones (through its partner smart).

You know the saying, there is nothing constant but change.

"Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:23:00 12/04/2009

Filed Under: Newspaper & Magazines, Online, Internet, Advertising, Media

HYDERABAD, INDIA — Newspaper editors and owners meeting in India have urged their industry to seize back the online publishing initiative from search engine “parasites” living off their work.

Speaker after speaker at the ongoing three-day World Newspaper Congress in the southern city of Hyderabad argued that the current crisis in the newspaper industry required a drastic rethink of Internet strategies.

With print advertising revenues in free fall, the search for real income from digital editions has become something of a Holy Grail for newspaper houses worldwide.

“One thing is sure, unless we protect and commercially exploit our high value content, the journalistic standards so important to our readers and to society will no longer be financially viable,” said Timothy Balding, chief executive of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-Ifra).

But options are limited, with WAN-Ifra warning in its annual world press trends update that “at no time in the foreseeable future” will digital advertising revenues replace those lost to print."

in reference to:

- Papers urged to reclaim their online identities - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos (view on Google Sidewiki)