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Interactive Sinulog: Get contingent info, “Like” performances on FB via phone scanning

January 13, 2013January 13, 2013 Max Limpag Leave a comment

This year’s Sinulog is more interactive. Banners carried by contingents now contain QR or quick response codes that, when scanned with a phone or tablet, triggers the download of information about the contingent.

The article that is loaded by the system is connected to Facebook, allowing people to “Like” performances right on the spot.

The project is a collaboration among Sinulog Foundation, Smart Communications, Inc. and InnoPub Media, the journalism start-up I co-founded with Marlen.

QUICK GUIDE. The QR codes found on banners of Sinulog contingents trigger the download of information about the delegation. It also allows people to “Like” the performances on Facebook.

We thought about QR coding the contingents because we’ve been covering the Sinulog for years and we’d often hear people on the streets asking about the contingents that they see in front of them.

If you watch Sinulog performances on the grandstand in the Cebu City Sports Center, you’d have the benefit of the emcee providing you background information about the contingents.

Out on the street, however, you’re on your own.

But this year, you can use your phone to scan QR codes found on the contingents’ banners to download information about them. You can also like the group’s performance on Facebook or leave a comment using your Facebook account.

To do this, you need to be connected to the Internet and you’d need a QR code scanner, which you can download for free in your phone’s application market. Scan.me offers QR code scanners for different phone platforms.

SCANNING. To be able to download information, you need to be connected to the Internet and you need to have a QR code scanner.

We piloted it in yesterday’s Sinulog Sa Kabataan – Lalawigan and we will again deploy the system in today’s Sinulog Sa Kabataan – Dakbayan. We are also working to implement the system during the Grand Parade on January20.

I tried it yesterday and I was able to download information about the different contingents just by phone scanning. You may need, however, to go closer to the banner in order to scan the code (depending on the quality of your device’s camera).

The QR code scanning of Sinulog contingents is part of a project on digital tourism undertaken by InnoPub Media and Smart Communications, Inc. The project involves the putting up of QR code markers in certain tourism and heritage sites as well as the production of electronic guidebooks.

For the Sinulog, we recently made available “A Guide to Sinulog 2013,” which you can download to your phone, tablet or e-reader.

To download the guide, pick the appropriate format for your device below:

1) EPUB .epub format for iBooks for the iPhone and iPad and Aldiko, Stanza and other e-book readers for Android and other devices.

2) MOBI .mobi format for the Kindle.

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Lapu-Lapu mayor offers State Of The City Address e-book for download via phone scanning

July 25, 2012July 25, 2012 Max Limpag Leave a comment

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STATE OF CITY SPEECH AS EBOOK. Scan the code to download Mayor Paz Radaza’s State Of The City Address. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE.

Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza will be giving her State Of The City Address in Hoops Dome in Lapu-Lapu City this morning. What’s different about her speech today — from her previous ones and from the speeches local government executives have been giving and will be giving this month — is its digital twist — the speech can be downloaded as an e-book via phone scanning at the venue.

Radaza’s team at City Hall asked InnoPub Media, the journalism start-up I co-founded with my wife, Marlen, to set up a system that will allow the City Government to offer the mayor’s speech as a downloadable report.

InnoPub created the e-book (which you can download directly here) and set up a download system via QR or quick response code scanning.

Lapu-Lapu City will also launch today it’s own version of “A Guide To Cebu 2012,” the electronic guidebook on Cebu published by InnoPub Media with the strong support of Smart Communications, Inc. and partners like Ayala Center Cebu, Marco Polo Plaza Cebu, The Islands Group, Department of Tourism, Cebu City Government, among other partners.

The downloadable e-books are just the start of digital initiatives in Lapu-Lapu City. More initiatives done in partnership with InnoPub Media will be announced in the coming days.

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Social media layer on ‘real life’

July 1, 2012July 1, 2012 Max Limpag Leave a comment

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Last Saturday, several groups all over the world celebrated Social Media Day. In Cebu, members of the Cebu Bloggers Society Inc. gathered in Mactan Isla Resort and Spa for a seminar on various topics related to social media.

I talked about good writing as foundation of an effective social media campaign.

Despite advances in online video and availability of new, interactive story-telling tools, the Internet is still primarily a textual medium. If there’s one thing we should invest on to improve our social media skills, it should be to sharpen our writing.

That becomes even more important as social networks have replaced search engines as people’s primary portal to the Internet. Most articles written purely with search engine optimization (SEO) considerations do not connect well with readers and are not shared in social networks.

I shared with bloggers something that I have been always saying in my talks on online writing: Write for people, not algorithms because social networks are networks of people and not machines.

After the talk, I gave Cebu bloggers a demo on how Sun.Star Cebu is connecting its print edition to social media through mobile phones.

Through the scanning of quick response (QR) codes, readers are now able to vote on polls published on printed pages, using mobile phones. The same system will also allow readers to comment on the printed edition of this column piece.

FACEBOOK COMMENT FOR PRINT. You can comment on my article on the printed edition of Sun.Star Cebu using your phone, a QR code scanner and your Facebook profile. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

As the technology progresses to allow us to put a digital information layer on “real life,” social media will increasingly be woven into the fabric of our lives. That is starting to happen today with a device that is increasingly becoming our main computer – the mobile phone. But in the coming years, it would be replaced by something wearable. We got a peek into that recently.

Last week, Google showed off its Project Glass wearable computer and announced Explorer Editions intended for developers. The project is a head mounted augmented reality display. The demos show people being able to see updates on the weather, calendar schedules and messages on the eyepiece.

Social networking can be an information layer on a device like the Project Glass. When you see someone, the system can immediately match their faces with social networks and pull their profile data from Google+, Facebook and Twitter. There is already an app that matches people’s faces with Facebook profiles (although it had a less than 50 percent success rate in my very short test.)

When you’re out looking for a place to eat, the system can display the ratings of restaurants or diners that you’re looking at. When you go to a hotel, it can display their ratings as well as reviews of previous guests.

But will all these information kill serendipity? What would life be without some mystery?

What would the impact be of having access to all these information the very first time you meet a person?

Information bubbles would pop up next to people with info like: “single,” “in a relationship with (name of person that is hyperlinked to his or her social network account)” or “it’s complicated.” What if the system serves you, as background information on the person you are having a business meeting with, a photo of her in skimpy bikini, this being the latest photo she uploaded to Facebook?

Creepy, right? But that is likely to happen within the next five years.

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