Mobile Codes Consortium (MC2) Presentation

The goal of The Mobile Codes Consortium (MC2) is to create a consortium for a new mobile marketing ecosystem based around camera phones and 2D barcodes. A market-driven, open-standards approach will allow 2D barcodes to act as a catalyst in mobile internet adoption, mirroring the growth of web adoption over the last ten years. We invite others to join us on our mission to advance the widespread adoption of mobile codes, through the formation of the MC2. We are interested to hear from companies who share our core goals: to create standards to ensure interoperability, to ensure a business framework for profitable growth, and to encourage and educate the market in general.

Deutsche Telekom Joins Mobile Codes Consortium

Pressure continues to mount for industry standards as telecom giant Deutsche Telekom joins the Mobile Codes Consortium (MC2) – a cross-company group setup to promote unified standards in camera cell-phone barcode reading technology. They join the original founding members Gavitec, Hewlett-Packard, NeoMedia Technologies and Publicis Groupe, to form MC2’s steering group, which will be responsible for guiding the new organization.

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's leading telecommunications companies represented in 50 countries around the globe. As a unit of Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile International is one of the world's leading mobile communications providers, with more than 100 million customers in Europe and the United States. They follow industry leaders Nokia, KPN and Telefónica O2 Europe who joined the Mobile Codes Consortium last month.

MC2’s aim is to accelerate the adoption of code-reading technologies that will enable users of mobile camera-phones pointed at a printed or displayed 2D barcode, to activate the phone to connect to a particular web-page, download coupons or other digital mediums, make a phone call or send a text message at the click of a button. Based on the widespread adoption of this technology in Japan and the growing popularity of camera-phones in Asia, Europe, and North America, the Mobile Codes Consortium believes that this will have many important applications for both the marketing and public communications industries.

The newly created steering group will now focus on the best approach to enable MC2 to press for widely accepted industry standards. In the first instance, this will mean guiding it until it can join an existing mobile industry body, where the group will be better able to meet its objectives of recommending business models, technology standards, and methods of making mobile code technology useful to the public and to the marketing industry.

NeoMedia Names William Hoffman As CEO

NeoMedia Technologies announced today that it has appointed William Hoffman, 45, a senior technology executive with extensive global technology and telecommunications industry experience, as its chief executive officer, effective June 18.

Mr. Hoffman replaces Charles W. Fritz, NeoMedia's chairman and founder, who has served as the company's interim CEO since December.

"NeoMedia gains a dynamic leader with hands-on tech industry experience and a track record of driving market adaptation and revenue growth," said Mr. Fritz. "After a search of nearly six months, our Board is confident that he is the right man at the right time to guide NeoMedia, and that he is ideally suited to help leverage our strong portfolio of patented technologies, products and services.

"It is also important to note," said Mr. Fritz, "that Mr. Hoffman brings a unique combination of talents and background to NeoMedia. He is a former military officer who became a corporate leader, and who has known nothing but success in his career."

Prior to joining NeoMedia, Mr. Hoffman served as CEO of Uniqua Technologies, Inc. in Atlanta, a company he co-founded in 2003 with the acquisition of the assets of TIC Enterprises, LLC, and the merger of Vectorlink Communications Corporation. TIC was a $100 million subsidiary of NUI Corporation, and TIC (now Technology Solutions Corp) is a national leader in sales and marketing of wireless telecom products and services. There, he was responsible for driving revenue growth of 1,140% in 18 months.

Previously, as the CEO and a director of mBlox, Inc, the world's largest mobile transaction network, Mr. Hoffman served in London, Atlanta and Sunnyvale, CA. There he focused on reorganizing, restructuring, and then rapidly growing the business to over 180 countries. His responsibilities included capital structure, Board, organization, strategy, and execution of the firm's business plan. He was instrumental in developing partnerships with more than 500 wireless operators around the globe including Vodafone®, T- Mobile®, Verizon® and Cingular®, and achieving a $75 million annual run- rate in 18 months time for the world's largest provider of messaging infrastructure.

Mr. Hoffman, who has served as president, CEO and COO for several other telecommunications companies, also spent 8 years with Sprint managing Sprint's business services throughout the state of Florida. He earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering at Auburn University, which he attended on a special U.S. Army scholarship. Mr. Hoffman served in the U.S. Army from 1983-87, attaining the rank of Captain.

Nokia, KPN, & O2 Join Mobile Codes Consortium

Pressure Mounts for Industry Standards as Telecom Giants Join the Mobile Codes Consortium.

Telecom industry leaders Nokia, KPN and Telefónica O2 Europe have joined the Mobile Codes Consortium (MC2) – a cross-company group setup to promote unified standards in camera cell-phone barcode reading technology. They join the original founding members Gavitec, Hewlett-Packard, NeoMedia Technologies and Publicis Groupe, to form MC2’s steering group, which will be responsible for guiding the new organization.

MC2’s aim is to accelerate the adoption of code-reading technologies that will enable users of mobile camera-phones pointed at a printed or displayed 2D barcode, to activate the phone to connect to a particular web-page, download coupons or other digital files, make a phone call or send a text message at the click of a button. Based on the widespread adoption of this technology in Japan and the growing popularity of camera-phones, the MC2 believes that this will have many important applications for both the marketing and public communications industries.

"KPN is constantly exploring new innovative services for its customers and considers 2D barcodes to be an important breakthrough development, offering consumers considerable advantages while also generating interesting business opportunities for participating companies", said Marcel Annaka, Business Incubator of KPN.

“This technology could make traditional advertising as interactive as the internet, both in terms of helping customers go straight to offers, and in terms of helping marketing agencies measure which ads are generating what levels of response,” said Thomas Curwen, Planning Director at Publicis.

“The standards for wireless technology in Asia far exceed those in Europe and America. A unified consortium is the first step to worldwide advancement and NeoMedia is committed to such a partnership,” said Chas Fritz, CEO of NeoMedia Technologies.

And Tim Kindberg, a senior researcher from HP Labs, who has been working with mobile code technologies, said: “MC2 believes that standards or recommendations are necessary to make the technology as popular and useful in the Europe and the US as it already is in Japan and South Korea, where market dominant companies set the
standards.”

Kindberg added: “If, on the other hand, the new technology is allowed to develop without standards, it will result in gradual fragmentation, with readers and barcodes not working consistently together. This could prevent the widespread adoption of the technology by both the public and the marketing industry and may confuse customers.”

The newly created steering group will now focus on the best approach to enable MC2 to press for widely accepted industry standards. In the first instance, this will mean guiding it until it can join an existing mobile industry body, where the group will be better able to meet its objectives of recommending business models, technology standards, and methods of making mobile code technology useful to the public and to the marketing industry.

Source: Mobile Codes Consortium

The March Towards A Universal Reader

A new use of an existing technology emerged 2 years ago in Japan that currently holds the potential to revolutionize and accelerate Mobile Internet adoption in Europe and North America via the use of 2-dimensional smartcodes.

These smartcodes, when scanned with a camera-enabled mobile device, put the power in the hands of the consumer and ultimately unlocked the true potential of the Mobile Internet by providing easy navigation and one-click-to-content. Over the last couple years, 2-dimensional smartcodes have become common-place in Japan as well as in other Asian countries such as South Korea, the Philippians, and they are now slowly starting to emerge in China.

With this rapidly evolving mobile landscape progressing at break-neck speed, new companies have emerged with innovative mobile smartcode reading platforms aimed at creating a interconnected world where every physical object can be linked to the Mobile Internet.

While companies such as Kaywa, Gavitec, NeoMedia Technologies, and Semacode have opted to utilize the three open-code standards: Datamatrix, QR, and Aztec, other companies such as Nextcode, Shotcode, and Beetagg have chosen to utilize their own proprietary 2-dimensional smartcodes.

As a result, adoption has been slow since no standards body currently exists. According to Tim Kindberg, a researcher at Hewlett-Packard, "The more competitive mobile communications markets that exist in other countries make it harder for agreement on technology to emerge in these places. It’s been on the verge of happening for some time now – the technology is there, but the problem is the fragmentation in the market.”

With so many 2-dimensional smartcodes and mobile code reading platforms congesting the market, Mr. Kindberg teamed up with Publicis Groupe and Zenith Optimedia, along with mobile code reading innovators and industry leaders Gavitec and NeoMedia Technologies to form the Mobile Codes Consortium.

According to the Consortium, "Our goal is to create a consortium for a new Mobile Marketing ecosystem based around camera phones and 2D barcodes. A market-driven, open-standards approach will allow 2D barcodes to act as a catalyst in Mobile Internet adoption, mirroring the growth of web adoption over the last ten years."

Their mission statement and standards discussion document can be viewed here.

Progress has been held back by the lack of common technology that would let any phone read any 2-dimensional smartcode, and then complete the necessary routing needed to link back to the relevant content on the web, according to backers of the London initiative.

Mobile carriers and handset manufacturers are calling for a universal reader with the capability to read and decipher Datamatrix, QR, and Aztec codes. And as a result, at last Tuesdays MC2 meeting in London, there were 20+ highly interested parties who attended -- consisting of carriers, handset manufacturers, and technology innovators. With such predominate backing from these deeply involved parties, MC2 will certainly set the global standards for mobile smartcode dissemination.

With the stage now set, the march towards a universal reader has begun. Gavitec and NeoMedia Technologies were specially invited to join the Consortium since Gavitec's mobile platform Lavasphere is highly regarding as the best code reading platform ever developed. And with NeoMedia's mobile qode® technology, along with an extensive portfolio of international patents covering the process of dynamically linking smartcodes to content on the Mobile Internet, the development of a universal 2-dimensional smartcode reader is not far behind.