moo.com USA: Starting today, any pack of Business Cards you buy from MOO will come with a little extra – a free NFC enabled Business Card.
“A what??” you say? In short, an NFC enabled Business Card is a regular Business Card, with a tiny microchip and antenna embedded inside the paper that can transmit data from itself to a mobile phone which is also NFC ready, when they are tapped together.\
11 comments:
I am amazed every time technology take a step forward like this. There are so many amazing things that could be done with a card like this. Imagine handing cards out at a conference that would input your company's information to your new client's phones, that could import an event to their calendar about a promotional event for your company, that could bookmark your webpage to their browser. The possibilities are literally endless. As a freelance professional, you could link the card to your online portfolio, load a PDF of your resume to a possible employer's phone or iPad, anything you could think of. I would be interested to know how much something like this would cost. The opportunities has to outweigh the cost. If each business card costs $10, you're much less likely to distribute them than if they cost $.50 a card. It's also a shame that anyone who doesn't have a smart phone would miss out on the possibilities. Maybe there needs to be some kind of USB-connected device that could enable computers to read, upload, and edit the cards.
I love the MOO.com approach to business card. While I haven't ever been handed a business card for a legit reason, I love the idea of getting one that pushes the extremes of what a business card really was. A while ago, there was an article on this blog about uncommon business cards. Business cards highlighted were ones like a rock with the name printed on it or having a lighting designer's business card actually be a flashcard. But my favorite one was a business card for a party planner whos busniess card was a small bag of confettii and said "When you have a bad day, open me and have a party on us." I mean how cool is that?!?! I would love to be handed this at an interview or conference. I would love to come up with something like that for my business card. It's hard to stand out from just a piece of paper, so why give them one? Why not give them something more exciting? (5)
Yeah, okay, this technology is kind of cool. But at the same time, it also kind of creeps me out. I know that advances with technology are inevitable, and I do take advantage of a lot of them that make my life more convenient, but sometimes I really just want to put a halt on technology. It's crazy what people can do now, especially if they are really savvy with electronics. All kinds of information is available about you that you may not even realize, and these business cards could just become one more thing that becomes a problem as apposed to a convenience.
alright Moo.com, you min. My interest is peaked...
This is taking the 'Bump' app from some smartphone providers that allows you just touch phones momentarily and transfer contact info to another level and market. With one of these cards I'd have to say that I would probably carry half as many cards at conferences and conventions than I do now. This is especially true if the card is able to accept and download info as well as it can download it onto another device. The transfer can then be mutual, allowing me to possibly route vendor and individuals info in a some sort of catalog I've previously created on my computer or online. This would streamline networking immensely and save me all the time of cataloging and scanning a bunch of cards the week after an event.
As intriguing as this idea sounds, it won't really take off unless it uses ubiquitous or commonly used data transmission protocols such as bluetooth. Even needing a specific app to read data off of Moo NFC chips will hinder its short-term sustainability because no one will just "happen" to have the app needed to read it. I agree with Joe that this is very similar to the Bump app, but I have personally not ever met anyone who has the same version of the multiple BUmp apps available or who is willing to take the time to download the app instead of simply entering the raw data off of a business card first. Is this an innovation we're not ready for yet?
I will be ordering a sample pack that includes one of these later today.
That being said, one of the first things I think of with a product like this (or any NFT or similar product) is data security. This is MOO's first venture into tech of this kind, so I am not totally confident that a) only the information I want is actually being stored on the card and b) Only the people I want to share it with will have access. However, I think only the first of those points is relevant because the POINT of a business card is to share your personal information with a stranger. That is an argument that I imagine MOO will have to get into at some point.
Beyond that, I do agree with everyone else in that the technology and cost doesn't necessary make itself as useful as it could be. Yet. But I think a time will soon come when this is standard, so MOO is clearly thinking ahead.
I just learnt something new. I never heard of NFC before however it does sound interesting. While reading the article what came to mind were the bar codes that some people currently use on business cards which take you straight to the person's website. I had to do some reading into what NFC is all about. From that I think that this would be a great technological advancement of business cards once they ensured that the information stored on the cards couldn't be susceptible to attacks and security breaches once in the wrong hands. Also as others mentioned this would also have to be very cost effective.
That is pretty dang cool for a business card. Just being able to tap a card to your phone and have all the information transfer is pretty amazing. I think it is great and I love the idea. The possibilities are crazy to think about to see what people are going to do with these cards is also mind blowing. My only concern for these cards is cost but I think these would be pretty cool to have a few to hand to those few people you really want them to remember you. I would say not to every person you met but just those special few. Like most technology the possibilities are endless and once the mane stream gets a hold of these cards they will explode, I have no doubt.
I think I would just use it like a mobile/digital Rolodex. I would just store all of the cards and have them listed alphabetically. Or I could see it being convenient for businesses such that if they have a database of people that they can call to fill jobs, they can just scan the card and have it instantly input into the database. I also think it could be a way to save paper, i.e. you would only have to have one and everyone could just scan it, and have it digitally, so in effect Moo might be putting it's self out of business. I think it could also be really cool to use these chips like QR codes so that they could be scanned and show a head shot of you or a video of your company or something that you could never be showen just by writing.
The NFC business cards by MOO sound amazing. To think of all the possibilities one could do with these are bind boggling! I guess a down fall is the fact that this wouldn't be accessible to those without a smart phone, but that still leaves a lot of people with one! I really liked the part about downloading your resume. A hard copy resume seems out dated in this world of technology. If we carried the cards and were able to give one to a potential employer at a moments notice, the opportunities we could have would be endless. We are always networking wherever we are so being able to leave a resume with someone we just met makes our chances so much greater than sending one to him later. He may have forgotten us by then and just put it to the side with a bunch of other papers. Being in the field I am in, I see such great potential for these cards. I can't wait until they are available.
I have already been messing around with nfc technology and my nfc enabled phone experimenting with what can be done with them. Not a lot of information can be stored on nfc chips but that's perfect for business cards. The nfc chip in a business card could hold contact information and once tapped to a phone the Contact data could be transferred even without a proprietary app as long as the nfc was set up correctly. But that would also require it to always be accessible which means anyone could read it. So there are pros and cons to integrating this technology into business cards
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