By Jeana Anderson | Critical Mass Chicago

Illustration by EffingBoring

I recently started following the White House on Twitter, @WhiteHouse for those of you who want to check it out. A closer look at the content in the twitter stream sped me on a path towards applying some of Critical Mass’s Community Management best practices to the White House’s social media presence.

Best practice one: Research and understand the community before engaging. Moderating a community of President Obama’s supporters alone, the over 13 million citizens who opted into the campaign’s e-mail list, presents itself as a gut wrenching challenge for a single moderator. Thinking big picture: moderating President Obama’s social media community would never just be those 13 million opt-ins. The community would potentially consist of every U.S. internet user, 163.3 million people according to comScore.

Best practice two: Align the moderator’s skill set to the community’s interests. When I sat down to write a post commenting on the use of social media by the White House, I had planned to outline a strategy for the implementation of a single White House Community Manager. Considering the size and moving pieces in any White House agenda, it became increasingly clear that the White house couldn’t use just one community moderator – it would need one for every major initiative.

Each initiative is essentially a brand, with groups that buy into or oppose a viewpoint based on certain demographic and psychographic characteristics, giving each issue a different agenda and audience. Picky hiring for these community moderator positions would be a must. The moderator would likely need to have the perfect storm of a professional background, bringing together both a working knowledge of social media, government process and the issue.

Best practice three: Keep your community moderator in the loop. The sanity and success of these moderators would hinge on being treated as essential members of the team. They would have to be present in strategy discussions, provided texts of presidential addresses before they are presented and would need to be given resources for discovering answers to constituent questions in a timely manner.

Best practice four: Be consistent. A little over two years ago, the meme buzzing through both traditional and social media was Barack Obama’s campaign change. Not the “Change We Can Believe In” variety, the change that used social media to enable small donations and mobilize the unengaged gen Y. I mean they were really talking. This administration, known for its “first online social networking president” has been criticized by the Press Corps for muting its campaign-trail openness and honesty. For these community managers to be successful, they would need to be able to answer questions from all sides of the aisle, fence, or whichever metaphor you’d like to use.

In all fairness, the President opened up his State of the Union address in January to questions from social media submitted via YouTube, but the process of selecting questions was criticized for being closed and biased. If the White House had opted for a Digg Dialogg format, with questions submitted and publically voted up or down, a true public dialogue could have been achieved through social media. Thinking beyond that, with a moderator and a monitoring tool, the White House wouldn’t need to wait for a State of the Union address to gather questions; they could step up their efforts to pre-election standards and have ready-to-go FAQs and answers.

Implementing these best practices to enable staffers’ to responding to questions in real-time instead of sending form letters to constituents may be the way to the transparency and open government called for by this administration. After all, there can only be one first online social networking president, and one can only hope that he does the title proud.

Jeana is a Community Manager in our Chicago office.

Last week, we learned that Idea Aid, with not-for-profit partner Heifer International, selected its top five idea submissions. In a bit of unexpected news, one of the winners came from Critical Mass – submitted by this very blogger.

The goal of 2009’s Idea Aid (the first of hopefully many to come) was to generate new fundraising models to raise $1 billion annually. The weeklong brainstorm benefit, organized by Mensa Process, resulted in 585 ideas from participants in 66 countries including Argentina, Bangladesh, Belgium, Congo, Croatia, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, and Iraq. Heifer International will share the winning ideas with other like-minded organizations – after all, when the goal is to eradicate global poverty, sharing the idea wealth is a must.

The five winners include ideas that emerged multiple times over the course of Idea Aid week. (“Great minds think alike” is cliché for a reason.)

1. “Rounding Up Around the World” has an approach alá Bank of America’s “Keep the Change,” where users enjoy automatic savings derived from rounding their check card transactions to the next dollar. Here, consumer transactions would round up for the benefit of charities. This idea came from Tomer Ram of Israel – and based on the results of our brainstorm breakouts, it was a popular theme. An added thought from this blogger: Just as BoA offers a 100% match for the first three months and a 5% match thereafter (with an annual cap) to help motivate sign-ups, a similar tactic should be used here – with the help of a generous third-party entity (anyone have Richard Branson’s or Bill Gates’s number?).

2. “A Penny Goes a Long Way,” from Dr. Christina Bautista of New Mexico, suggests that an extra penny from consumers’ credit and debit purchases go to charity. Though consumers would hardly feel these micro-transactions, money would accumulate to a significant charitable sum. This theme was another popular one – in fact, more than a handful of brainstorming CM’ers referenced Office Space as silver-screen proof.

3. “Gift Cards: The little bit that’s left” proposes that the little bit of extra on retailer gift cards be funneled to charity. It’s a no-brainer – consumers could lighten their wallet of those pesky remaining gift dollars, to benefit those who need it more. This idea, from Jay Bassett in Georgia, had at least one idea doppelganger in Critical Mass’s very own Duane Wheatcroft.

4. “Global Online Auction,” a winning idea from Ruth Parvin in Oregon, combines art, charity, and the global reach of the Internet. Artists would donate works to an online auction, with all proceeds going to charity. Ebay would be the first tree to bark up, as they have the global reach this idea would thrive on.

5. The final idea was a submission of mine – originally called “Beautiful Change,” revised to “Destinations for Donations.” In this idea, artists, sculptors and/or architects would create fun, interactive money-collecting structures to appear in cities that get significant tourist traffic. This idea was inspired by the Chicago cows, an irresistible coin-spinner I experienced as a kid (a donation mechanism itself), and a similar thought from a coworker of mine (Senior Copywriter Jamie Toal, who, during one of our office-wide brainstorms, asked, “Why can’t we just clear out the change from the fountains of the world?”)

Needless to say, my Critical Mass cohorts and I are thrilled to have contributed a fundraising idea worthy of the hope and confidence of Heifer International and the Idea Aid organizers. If you asked me, I’d say it’s a lovely way to close out the year. We’re excited to see what comes next.

Heifer International, a U.S.-based humanitarian and not-for-profit organization, partnered with Idea Aid for its inaugural year. By the end of the brainstorming benefit (at the stroke of 11:59 pm on Saturday, 11/21), Idea Aid had gathered 585 ideas to help Heifer raise $1 billion annually to eradicate global poverty.

57 of these ideas came from Critical Mass – through several brainstorms, bagels, beers, and one be-post-it’ed elevator. CM’s submissions represent a wide range of thought from high-concept one-liners like “Elevator Toll” and “$1/flight” to blown-out campaigns like “Buck Poverty.”

Idea Aid participants supported their favorite ideas during the brainstorm by clicking a “promote” button within the list or on an individual submission’s page. One of the Critical Mass ideas, “Beautiful Change,” reached #11 in this popularity ranking. This concept involves artists and architects creating fun, engaging coin-collecting sculptures to appear in tourist cities during a yearly, outdoor exhibit.

As of now, the list of idea submissions is viewable only to those who’d registered on the Idea Aid site. There, an official note from organizer (and Mensa Process Director) David Wynett states:

Thank you for your interest in IdeaAid 2009. The online brainstorming phase of the project is closed. The evaluation team will review and analyze all ideas submitted. The IdeaAid team, in partnership with Heifer International, will announce the five leading ideas once the review process is complete. All registered participants will receive notification of the results.

Whether a Critical Mass idea makes the final cut or not, we hope our contributions help Heifer International and Idea Aid achieve such a noble goal.

350 parts per million is the level of CO2 many climate scientists agree is the safe upper limit of carbon in our air (we’re at about 390, by the way). But that’s not all 350ppm is. It’s also one of the strongest examples of social media optimization the world has ever seen.

To help promote its International Day of Climate Action (last Saturday, 10/24), 350.org simply asked supporters to use a special hashtag in related tweets: #350ppm. According to search.twitter.com, it was used 1,500 times over the weekend (10/23-10/26).

The Day of Climate Action was a rousing success. 181 countries participated (meaning fewer than 15 didn’t), and there were 5,245 events across the globe.

As for SMO success, 350.org now has over 10,000 Twitter followers. They’re ranked #43 in the “Everywhere” region (via Twitterholic). 350’s most recent Influence score from Twitalyzer is a “profound” 64 of 100, after a recent increase of 31,900%. Twitalyzer bases Influence on Reach (followers), Authority (getting retweeted), Generosity (RT’ing others), and Clout (getting mentioned). 350’s Clout score is 100 of 100, unchanged in the recent past.

On Sunday, 350’s Day of Climate Action was the most talked-about news story on the planet – tops on CNN, The New York Times, Le Monde, Google News, and more. The top Google headline was “Campaign Against Emissions Picks Number,” due in no small part to thousands of participants using “350.” For Sunday and Monday, the story of 350 got more impressions than any other in the world.

Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, knows nothing would have been the same without today’s technology: “Some journalists have described the whole sprawling day as a ‘beta test for the wired world.” Read more of
Bill’s reflections on the day.

One '350 Action' photo includes three groups of activists along the Dead Sea (left to right): Israel, Palestine, and Jordan.

Though not intended for tracking purposes, a visual representation of “350” was requested in participants’ photo submissions. As it turned out, photos from Australia’s, China’s, and New Zealand’s Saturday events served to fire up supporters preparing for the Saturday rallies on the other side of the world. Organizers even displayed hundreds of freshly submitted photos on screens during an event in Times Square.

350’s slide shows keep growing and growing. The total has topped 19,000 photos, plus hours of video. Check out 350’s flickr stream.

Click Here To Be Redirected to the 350 Video

This year is different. “Safe” isn’t an option. This isn’t going to be an easy year, folks. It’s gonna get ugly. That’s how I see it, anyway…

US Patent and Trade Office Lawsuit

I’ve had a long-standing issue with the US Patent and Trade Office: namely that it doesn’t actually serve its purpose very well. Sure, it allows people to register new ideas, but the way its organised allows for a considerable amount of abuse, and it’s getting worse.

If you look at the Microsoft vs. Eolas issue a couple of years ago, it was a sure sign that things would get worse. Eolas was the first major success of what is now known at patent trolling — people who acquire patents for the sole purpose of suing someone else for not getting a license to use the idea. This has led many companies to patent ideas just so they won’t get sued by someone else (Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and IBM do this extensively).

I think the problem’s actually gotten so bad that someone — maybe the EFF, or possible even Google itself — will launch a lawsuit against the USPTO, and demand that changes are made to patent law. They will say the rules will need to be changed, and that patents can’t be held by holding companies (thus creating the patent trolls), and that you have to show progress on your patent (the whole point of having one) in order to keep it.

Okay, yes, this is more of a hope than a prediction, but I truly believe that it’s coming.

Yahoo! Disintegration

Yahoo! is still a favoured company of mine. I would have liked to have worked for them (Secret Desire #43), had they not ended up where they are now. Microsoft is just waiting for the right moment to snatch up a piece or two, Google will likely acquire a couple of things (I recommend Flickr and Yahoo! Answers, should the inevitable happen), and the rest will end up in other various hands.

It’s not that I don’t have faith in Yahoo! being able to turn itself around, it’s just that blood has hit the water, and the sharks are circling. It’s just a matter of time … unless Yahoo! pulls out a previously-unknown trump card, that is.

President Obama Live-blogging

Obama was big news in 2008. I think he’ll continue being big news by doing something no other President has done — continue to tell people what he’s doing through his own channels. Already there is much talk about him having to give up his Blackberry (Presidential emails are archival material — Bush gave his email up for the last 8 years), and even though his Twitter account hasn’t shown any updates since November, I think he’ll take the bold move and slide out update notices every now and then.

Frankly, that’d be a really smart thing to do. Connect with your younger constituents, give them a direct feedback loop (comments are a powerful communciations tool), and engage people in the operation of your country. Given the state of the economy, engagement might be the single most useful tool Obama has in his utility belt.

Offshoring Increases

And back to the economy again. This one I see as more of a trend than a prediction, but I’m going to cover it with a couple of important notes/beliefs. First, offshoring will continue heavily for services, especially in the technology arena. But they won’t go to places you normally think of — namely, India.

Dissatisfied with a poorer-performing solution going through India, people will be looking to Eastern Europe, as well as Central and South America for less-expensive, but more flexible solutions. Be it call centers or actual technology development, people have already found these places to be diamonds in the rough, and it’s only time before exploitation turns into profitable partnership.

Google Monopoly Investigation

Everyone’s gotta have the long-shot, right? This is mine. This year, Google will be formally investigated by the Department of Commerce for monopolistic practices, notably within the field of online advertising. (This hearkens back to the attempted deal between Google and Yahoo!.) It won’t be a significant investigation — it will be started as a low-key issue — but it’ll snowball into something larger before it’s conveniently tied up and forgotten.

In that sense, I did pretty well for predicting. But that’s also like saying the Dallas Cowboys will probably win against your local high-school team — not really cheating, but going with the obvious. 

That said, I’m still going to go over what I said, and toss in some new commentary.

• Silverlight
  I’ll go out here and say I was an ass on this one. I called out Microsoft for trying to create a “Flash killer”, when all they were really trying to do is put in a rich-media aspect on their already powerful development environment. So far, Silverlight is waiting for its killer app, but it’s certainly proven popular with some developers that I’ve talked to. 
• Bandwidth
  I got this one wrong, by the looks of it. Broadband rollout in the US increased heavily, and seems to have a wide rollout in Europe as well. China remains a weird mix (high in major developed centres, but still low in rural areas), and that’s about as far as I can get before stats become conjecture. 
• Mobile/Wireless (aka Impact of the iPhone)
  This one is debatable. Although the 3G iPhone was a major hit, and was very quickly followed by similar devices, I still say the North American market is a disaster area. The oligarchies in the United States and Canada continue to charge outrageous fees for services (did you know that text messages are actually free to the carriers?), and you’re limited to what networks you can use. So while the iPhone did bring some new toys to the sandbox, it doesn’t change the fact that we’re stuck inside it.
• Device independence
  This remains a lofty goal, and I hold that it will remain that way until someone figures out how to break the walls down.
• China’s rise in internet dominance
  Another debatable one. Although China comprises the fastest rising percentage of users, they don’t get to consume as much as others. The IOC made a serious blunder when they believed that China would change because of the Olympics, and the Great Firewall of China is back in operation. Still, the potential is huge.  
• Web 3.0
  I’m so happy that I didn’t actually hear anything about this during 2008, even with a visit to a Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. Looks like clarity hit the industry, after all! 
• OLPC
  Hard to say if this is an advancement or a setback, but orders for OLPCs are continuing with the request for Windows XP instead of the Linux OS. Hopefully this leads to greater global computing, and wider education, regardless. (Frankly, I didn’t much like the built-in OLPC OS, so hopefully this makes things better overall.)
• Open source continues to gain popularity
  I underestimated this one. It’s not about software anymore. People are open-sourcing just about anything, from software, to aquarium technology, to cars, to satellite technology. So here’s a toast to open-sourcing as an alternative to patent trolls. 
• Exo-browser applications
  Partial failure on this one. While I still say the emphasis remains on the browser, the reality is that the App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and the widgets for things like the newer smartphones have a massive potential. If only there was a way to get out of the locked boxes and allow them to share apps across the platforms.  
• Google
  Anyone else saw Chrome coming? I mean, truly saw it? Sure, there were lots of rumours, but when I caught wind that fateful morning a few months back, I was shocked. Told you Google would do something like that. Still the #1 search engine, and still (mostly) untouchable. Mind you, if the #2 search engine (Yahoo!) can take a severe beating from stock prices after a botched takeover, anything is possible.
• Browser War
  Despite Chrome’s lauch, this is still correct — browser wars were (and still are) a non-event. About the only thing I got wrong was that IE8 didn’t make it out into release before the end of the year. I’ll take that as a good thing (namely that they’re getting the bugs out).
• Digital advertising
  We saw some pretty innovative ideas in ads this year, from banner ads to interactive advertising on street corners, to (in some places) better mobile advertising support. The Great Digital Ad Confluence is still coming though, folks. Just wait…
• We’ll know everything about you
  Apparently, thanks to some really sloppy security and skillful hackers, a lot of people know a lot more about other people. As far as marketing goes, it’s still pretty much business-as-usual.

Okay, so there’s the recap from last year. Overall, I think that’s a passing grade. But who cares so much about a recap, when there are new predictions to be made?

Speaking of which…

1. 200 million internet users.

2. 100 million blog clicks in 2006.

3. 4.5 billion web pages served in 2006.

4. 66% broadband penetration.

Lay on top of these numbers the fact that in a communist government the internet is the least regulated media and what you have is a helluva lot of people spending a helluva lot of time online. The internet isn’t pushing mass media, it IS mass media.

Capitalism, alive and well. Starbucks has found a balance between remaining true to its values and showing that it cares about China.

As brands beyond the Fortune 100 begin to tackle the Chinese market, many of them are finding that their traditional methods for market expansion and brand building do them very little good. Why? Because the digital revolution in China is being driven by a movement that has been very strongly resisted by many global brands. That movement is social media.

Built on communities like Tencent, portals like Sohu and the search giant Baidu, China’s youth market is literally living in the digital world. Users spend more time on sites like these getting news, downloading music and simply instant messaging with their friends than in any other country in the world. And oh, by the way, there are physically more of these users than anywhere else in the world. If you are a North American based brand with either a global footprint or aspirations of placing your size 13 Nike’s somewhere other than the states, those are very hard numbers to ignore. Actually, given all the money Adidas is spending on the Beijing games, you’d be better off going with them.

So what are brands to do? How should marketers who know they need to be in China tackle the region? Here are a few guidelines to follow:

Go local. It is imperative that brands have a presence in China. It is more than language barriers. The Chinese consumer almost demands that the brand they engage with shows they “care” about China. One way to do this is to commit your brand to actually being there.

Don’t be scared. If your agency or your in-house marketing director has been pushing you to use Youtube or Facebook in the U.S. and you have resisted because you don’t want to lose control of your brand than you may not have the stomach for China (insert your own joke about the Chinese cuisine, although I found it absolutely wonderful). If you plan on entering China, than you have to have digital as a foundation. On that foundation will stand social media and all that comes with it. Don’t be afraid. As they say, it’s China.

Bring content. Digital consumption is fueled by content. UGC, professional, amateur, it doesn’t matter. Be prepared to distribute your brand assets digitally and in language. Baidu has developed excellent branded channels to share and distribute this sort of content. Todou, one of the largest video aggregators in China, is reporting a 15% increase in viewership already this year. If you have video content, use it.

So as China prepares to host what are estimated to be the most marketed Olympic Games in history, the country will be even more front and center. We all know how widely critical society can be of the handling of the Olympics, from transportation to entertainment. With a population of over 200 million people getting online every day, blogs and communities in China will be going non-stop. Take the opportunity to learn about how the information super highway works and decide where, or if it all, you should get on.

Wired.com was kind enough to invite me to the opening of the Smart Home at the Museum of Science and Industry last week. In three words, I can sum up the entire experience: Green is Amazing. And the fact that technology is enabling the efficiencies, makes it all the more amazing.

To-date, I’ve been doing my part to go green, by reducing my consumption habits – in many cases, making sacrifices to save energy and resources. While my quality of life hasn’t been compromised, I can honestly say that the standard of living hasn’t increased because I recycle or use my own bags at the grocery store. The Smart Home, however, is employing technology to make life better.

Here’s a list of some of my favorite technology used in the Smart Home:

Botanicalls (you can follow them on Twitter, too): Re-usable microchips are inserted into a potted plant’s soil. This chip will detect if the plant needs to be watered. If so, the plant will call you to let you know. The added bonus – you can choose the ‘voice’ of your plant.

Motorized skylights: When an outside wind is detected, a motorized skylight in the ceiling opens to cool down the home.

Ethanol burning fireplace by eco smartfire: This fireplace is ventless and mobile – take it anywhere in the home, or outside.

Security: When the doorbell rings, a touchscreen reveals a wireless video feed from the front entry.

Web-based systems: Let you check on your kids via video camera, turn on the lights or change the thermostat setting from anywhere. Because much of the system is wireless, it’s possible to retrofit older homes.

Follow Me TV by Motorola: This Motorola product allows you to digitally record your favorite shows from one TV and view it on any other in the home.

Of course we have a way to go, but you can’t help but love technology for what it’s doing for the enhancement of our day-to-day lives, as well as helping us save the planet.

Finally, last December (during another bout of pain), she lucked out and got in to see her long-time doctor. (Yes, read that sentence again. I said “lucked out” to see her own doctor. But I digress.) After recounting the last few years of goings-on, the doctor recommended something a little different. A new test revealed acute appendicitis.

In all of this running around, one thing struck me as being so backwards that I was amazed that someone didn’t accidentally remove, say, my wife’s spleen. Everyone communicated verbally. Is it just me, or did we suddenly regress 100 years?

Okay, a bit of an exaggeration, but my point is the same: the medical community (and not just here in Cowtown, this is a widespread issue) has to rely on verbal communication (the telephone game problem), faxes (read-only and not always legible), and if you’re particularly unlucky, hand-written notes. Even the most basic of electronic communication — email — seems to be eschewed.

My wife works for the Calgary Health Region, so I often hear about many of the inefficiencies that abound within. (I’m certain that Calgary is not alone.) Most of them are from poor communication stemming from no centralised records. And despite a fairly large effort in the Health Region to have everyone read off the same databases, it only covers the Health Region. If I go to British Columbia and need to visit a hospital, I have to verbally tell them my medical history. Worse, if I have to go to another country.

Which begs the question: In our age of ubiquitous computing and near-omnipresent networking, why isn’t there some form of centralised location for all this stuff? A place where my doctor, my ophthalmologist, my podiatrist, my dentist, and most importantly, MYSELF, can review (with permission) my health record. Record. Singular. One. Combined, covering all aspects from the sniffles I had last week to the penicillin allergy I developed in Grade 1 after tonsillitis.

I thought it would make a killer business model. The one thing I lack is enough contacts within the medical industry to get the credentials to pull it off. Turns out I wasn’t the only one who thought of this. Google, Microsoft, iHealthRecord, and a few other services have beaten me to it.

These services are just starting to roll out in limited release in the United States. They’re with several HMOs (which I’m beginning to appreciate more and more with Canada’s grossly diminished public service), and they look promising (if a bit fractured). I can’t wait until something like this works with all the various health regions in Canada. But these services bring to light some of the concerns people have about a centralised system.

The biggest one is privacy. Privacy is a huge problem for most people. It’s not just about the fear that someone could crack into your data (that’s a security issue), it’s having your private health information visible to others. Herein lies the irony — this is not about privacy. It’s about control. People want to make sure that only people they approve can see anything, and a system like this makes people worry that they’ll have no control at all.

Guess what? You have no control right now. Your health records are duplicated in many places (maybe even a hundred times!). You can’t see any of them without going through a lot of red tape. Doctors can request them without your knowledge or permission. Your entire record can be even transferred from your existing doctor to another one if practises are sold or shut down. You might not even be told.

In my world — heavily populated with kittens, puppy dogs, and little children laughing and playing under cloudless skies all the day — I have absolute control over my record. I define not only who has access to my record (e.g. my dentist), but also what specifically they can see. I might decide that they don’t need to know about my mental health, since they’re really only there to look at my teeth. My general physician, on the other hand, would probably need to see everything. If I visit a clinic for a quick item, I can grant temporary access. I can pull access if I leave one doctor for another. And most importantly, I can update my own information and see what the other doctors are saying.

Crazy talk, I know. Especially since this will initially increase the number (and severity) of hypochondriacs. Long-term, I think this will also create more education. People will learn more about themselves, their health conditions, and pay attention (shocking thought though this is) to what their doctors are telling them.

So, I have a question to pose to our readers: Would you accept a centralised system? (Not necessarily any of the services listed above.) What problems do you believe you would have with such a system? And — this is the important one — do you think it would make the experience of visiting doctors less tiresome and/or troublesome?

[Update: 23 May 2008]

Google Health is now in public beta. It’s not really usable in Canada, but anyone with existing records at a select few American institutions can give it a whirl.

What is this?

This is an EZ code – which is one of the many types of 2D barcodes currently available to mobile users. The EZ code format was designed by ScanBuy and mobile solution provider. This EZ code contains a link to a special article on the topic.

What do I do?

First of all you’ll need a mobile device, equipped with camera that supports this activity. Next you’ll fall into one of 3 categories:

1) You may be lucky enough to already own a new device that comes with a built-in barcode reader, such as the Nokia N95 series. In this case you should be able to go ahead and run that application on the device and scan the above EZ code.

2) You have a device with no software application to scan the EZ code. In this case you’ll need to install the application on your mobile device. Here there are a few options to consider:

• Download / install ScanBuy’s barcode reader application.
  • http://getscanlife.com
• Download / install Kawya’s barcode reader application.
  • http://reader.kaywa.com/phones
• Download / install QuickMark’s barcode reader application.
  • http://www.quickmark.com.tw/En/basic/download.asp
• For iPhone people – Download / install iMatrix’s iPhone barcode reader application.
  • http://www.imatrix.lt
  • You’ll need an unlocked iPhone

3) The last scenario is unfortunate, but does happen too often at this point. Your device is unsupported and you will not be able the test out 2D barcode scanning – sorry.

Just want to read the post? If you’re unable to successfully execute the steps above or you’re simply time compressed,  see the post here.