Codilink Press Update-Signs up Spanish Retailer El Corte Ingles

I posted an entry about Barcelona-based barcode experts Codilink last month-the company recently released a press note about their latest deal with Spanish retailer El Corte Ingles, as follows:

"Madrid, 09 June 2008: El Corte Inglés and Codilink work together to offer the clients of El Corte Ingles the chance, until now impossible, of participating in a mobile marketing promotion whereby a unique and personal coupon, in the form of a 2D barcode, is sent via MMS and/or Email encouraging the consumer to visit their nearest department store, redeem the coupon, to collect the associates benefits.

The technology solution, invented by CODILINK, is a novel system that revolutionizes the traditional way to generate, distribute and exchange coupons. It offers greater security and flexibility to El Corte Inglés, while securing important savings in time and money for the launch of any promotional campaign, and allowing full real-time reporting.

CODILINK generates unique 2D barcodes (coupons) for El Corte Ingles, which can be sent in any format: paper, mobile phones, plastic cards or email. In order to scan and instantaneously validate the 2D coupon each participating store (specifically the stores of El Corte Ingles in Murcia, Elche, Pamplona and La Coruña-“Casa del Agua”) has been equipped with low cost and easily installed Codilink Scanners.

CODILINK is a world-wide leader in 2D barcode solutions, with more than 38 million coupons, tickets and loyalty cards generated for its various clients (publishing groups, store chains, cinemas, restaurants, etc.) from beginning of 2008 alone"

Mobile, Domains & The Future

“Mobile, Domains & The Future” is the first book by Javier Marti. In the past, books about the mobile environment have been exclusively focused either on the technical or on the sociological impact of the mobile web, resulting in a poor learning experience for the average person or domainer. “Mobile, Domains & The Future” integrates figures, advice and information on the world of domain names, future trends in the mobile arena, the .mobi extension and domainers’ personal stories, the debate on which mobile extension “is better” or will prevail over others, the logic behind domaining, potential threats along the way -search engines redirection, dependency and addiction, economic crisis…- and much more.

All this information is presented in a non-technical manner with pictures and graphs accompanying the text. This is also the ideal book for any lay person to read in order to get up to speed in the mobile web and the domaining world.

However, this book is not only for the “newbies”. For the experienced developer, content provider or investor with an interest in “mobile”, this unmissable book’s passages provide multiple sources of inspiration and ideas while effectively drawing our attention to new or creative sources of revenue and potential business contacts.

This first book by Javier Marti also contains articles or extracts from a number of guest authors on several subjects: from SEO, to traditional and web Marketing, to potential future values for different domain extensions.

Since Javier Marti is an independent author, the tone of the book is as impartial and objective, although there is a clear tendency throughout its pages to consider and expose domaining as a perfectly valid business activity, and a potential opportunity for financial freedom -if approached from on a sensible manner- for average individuals. This opportunity is explained in great detail.

The book also includes a section where we get to meet domainers and hear about their personal views through their own words, when they answer a standard questionnaire about their activities, motivations and future plans. Here we see the human face of domaining, and the personal stories behind those pioneers shaping the future of the Mobile Web today.

The book is free to download at:
http://trendinews.com/download-mobile-domains-future-javier-marti/

I recommend you take a (free) look at it...

Jobs on Map Beta Launched by Spanish Infojobs Portal

I was e-mailed a notification that a new service is being tested by Spanish Internet Jobs Portal, Infojobs. The company, with a presence in Spain, Italy and Mexico, was one of the pioneers of online recruitment in Spain, quickly establishing itself as a market leader together with Monster.com at the dawn of this new market.

Now, Infojobs is looking to innovate again, with their new 'Jobs on Map' service, that allows users to navigate a map and find jobs within their neighbourhood. Though as far as I'm aware, there is yet no interface built in for using this on a mobile device, it does continue to prove the 'hunger' that exists in the marketplace for clever, everyday services that add that crucial location equation to their product offering.

It will not be long before this type of service will also migrate to mobile, thus extending the reach of online recruitment to an even bigger audience.

P-Cell Technology -New locator Alternative for LBS

KOREA: This time, a development to report on from Korea, where in 2007 a patent was published for a new type of locator technology for a 'network-based Location measurement method...using P-Cell database'.

Not being a technical sort of guy, and this being a very new technology, I will leave it up to the engineers out there to correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is as follows:

This technology attempts to overcome the issues surrounding location triangulation using conventional Cell ID...namely, accuracy and reliance on operator network cell size parameters.

Instead, the new technology divides an area into pre-defined 'lattices'of a predetermined size which are mapped in a P-Cell database (where the P stands for Parametrized).

Then it continuously determines whether a request for location measurement occurs by a service subscriber; and when the request for location measurement is generated, it compares fundamental information received from a mobile terminal with the P-Cell database, determines a matching P-Cell, and reports the matching P-Cell to the service subscriber.

The advantages are that indoor location fixes are improved by about 70% (or so the technology patent says).

As far as I can determine, the system works like standard base tower signal triangulation (or trilateration, to be more precise) but instead of using the operator's cell tower signal radii, it uses 'lattices' of a standard dimension.

I have asked Tom Tierney from Navteq to shed more light on this technology and welcome any comments from readers who wish to add more information, particularly whether any testing has been carried out outside of Asia.

Either way, a key point is that location on mobile will increasingly become ubiqitous and most likely by offering subscribers a choice from a range of alternatives to ensure they can access location services wherever they may be.

Facebook Privacy Video-Big Brother is watching

A scary video I picked up from Luca Conti's excellent blog, Pandemia.info, that stokes the fire of the controversial privacy policy and use of personal data by Facebook.

If you have a Facebook account, this video will make you think twice about exactly what information you put up on your profile...

Diary of a Mobile Internet Startup -GeoMe

BARCELONA-Like most bloggers out there, it may come as no surprise to you readers that I also have a day job -and an exciting one at that! I run an emergent startup in the mobile space called GeoMe...so, what do we do?

We are planning to launch a Location Based Service this year that will offer best-in-breed services aimed at a specific target group. As much as I would love to tell you readers more about our concept, unfortunately at this stage everything is still hush-hush, but I did want to share my experiences in setting up the business in a kind of startup diary that some of you budding entrepreneurs may find useful...

BIRTH OF A MOBILE STARTUP

Our startup saw its first light in 2007, born out of a discussion in a bar between 2 of the founders and their desire to do something new using location on mobile. Subsequent discussions followed, then workshops were held with experienced mobile professionals and developers until the core concept took a definitive shape.

My role upon joining was to take this exciting opportunity and turn it into a business proposition for a whole range of stakeholders, be they mobile operators, potential investors, collaborators and other techy companies.

I would say that one of my challenges at this stage was to keep our focus, as inevitably every time we explained our concept to someone new, different ideas on how to develop things would emerge.

Our strengths right from the word 'Go' were the team we built up around our new concept and the clarity we had around our brand and market positioning.

THE FIRST 6 MONTHS OF LIFE

The first few months have been enormous fun but also an emotional rollercoaster for everyone involved-a lot of excitement would build up when we got great feedback for our concept and even verbal comittment to x, y or z. Then, stakeholders would take a long time to make a decision or miss agreed deadlines and somehow we'd be back to square one.

Then suddenly, we'd get a break and have big corporations open doors to us and our concept and we'd all be back on an emotional high again...maybe a familiar story not just for mobile entrepreneurs but all those setting up new ventures out there...nerves of steel definitely help in coping with the inevitable dose of uncertainty surrounding a startup.

TODAY

The future for GeoMe is bright, as time and time again we receive encouraging feedback to our concept and our demo from different corners of the world.

We are currently working on our website, so that we can share our vision with the wider world and get people to sign up for our beta version as soon as it is released -exciting stuff!

Other things are happening too, which I will share with you shortly -so keep your RSS feeds open!