USA Today - WTF are you thinking?

I came across this article today
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2009-05-19-2d-barcodes-camera-phones_N.htm



Great yet another freaking proprietary standard to further cloud the issues around 2D barcodes here in the USA.

USA Today, what were you thinking partnering with JagTag?

I know for a fact that Garnett had some really good advice a few years back to stick with QR codes as it was the one and only open standard that required no license fees to either encode 2D codes or to decode codes (eg there are plenty of free readers out there for all types of handsets).

Yet here we are yet again, a single company gets sold a proprietary 'dog' of a 2D code solution because this solution 'has' to be better.

I really wonder what you guys in the ivory tower are thinking sometimes. Do you really think your readers want to download 5 different types of readers to their phone? Do you really think people are going to understand that this type of code needs to be read with this reader or that reader.

And then when i attend conferences all you marketing types run around wondering why no one is downloading your readers or accessing your mobile content.

There is a reason QR codes in Japan are ubiquitous in everyday Japanese life and publishing - it's because they all got together and agreed on a common platform.

What is it about the American psyche that you cant agree to co-operate even when you know deep down inside in the insecure part of your brain that it's the only way to move forward.


Dismayed ....yet again,
Dean Collins
www.Cognation.net/QR