Unseen Napa

I’ve uploaded the paper that accompanied this website. Actually, it’s better said that the website accompanied the paper. You’ll get a much more coherent view of the entire project by reading the paper. Download it as Unseen Napa Final Paper.

The Unseen Napa QR Code project has been completed. Results were analyzed for the period 16 April – 16 May, 2010. Nine locations displayed a total of 15 signs. Codes were also displayed in Napa Valley Life Magazine and on Napa TV Channels 27 and 28. There were in total 114 uses of QR codes during that time. While this was not a large number, a large number was not expected. The purpose of the project was to gauge current awareness of QR codes in Napa, and to help increase that awareness for use of the codes in the future.

The project’s paper will be submitted to the University of Brighton tomorrow, and will be posted here in the near future. Thank you to all the locations for their support, and to those members of the public who experimented with the QR codes. I assure you that we’ll be seeing a lot more of them in the future.

Spent three hours yesterday in the downtown area taking photographs of locations where the QR code signs have been posted. I was pleased to see many, disappointed to see that one I had expected to see in a restaurant window was not there.

Dropped off a new sign at an upscale hair salon that had heard about the project and specifically requested a sign.

I also took photographs for another project but reached a point where the camera no longer functioned. I assumed the batteries were dead. When I got home, I discovered that the camera disk was full.  250MB seemed like a lot of space when I bought it a couple of years ago. Went online, bought a replacement. 4GB for $18.  Much less than I’d previously paid for the current disk which is  1/16 the capacity.

For that other project I did some sound recording as well. When I arrived home to listen to the results, I discovered I had no results. Well, almost none. I did get two good recordings. Re-read the manual for the (actually) very simple use of the Zoom H2 recorder. Discovered I had unknowingly been confused about something. It appears that any successful recordings I’d made were actually a fluke, and contrary to how I’d been (incorrectly) recording earlier. Perhaps I should have glanced again at the manual since it had been some time since I’d last used the recorder.

Prior to this, things were going so well that I thought to myself, as has said Woody Allen, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” I think I’ll amend that to, “Eighty percent of success is showing up — after you’ve done your homework.”

Despite my determination to begin working on the project writeup, I keep trying to find new locations. Yesterday I had an excellent meeting with the executive director of Arts Council Napa Valley. The council, working with the City of Napa, had a juried selection of sculptures, 10 of which will placed throughout downtown Napa for the first Napa ArtWalk.  The winning artists have been determined but not yet announced.

It seemed natural to have a QR code at each sculpture, linking to an audio file so that sculpture viewers could hear the artist talking about his or her piece, describing the inspiration, the goal, the process of creating it. Fortunately the ED agreed that it would be a great match. Next is hearing what her board of directors thinks.

Later had lunch at the Napa General Store, where the owner of the Napa Mill complex–where the store/cafe is located–introduced me to the manager of Silo’s Jazz Club, also in the complex and whom I’d been trying to contact for a few weeks. Fortunately I had Silo’s QR code sign with me (it links to their event calendar) and could give it to him.

As I was leaving the General Store I saw the owner. Yes, I had his signs with me too, for his website, his menu, and the blues music series held at his store. I left them with him, and he was very intrigued.

Successful day.

Talked Friday with the founder of several companies on the East Coast that specialize in mobile-oriented services with a focus on QR codes. We both recognize that mobile devices will be the primary (and probably for several billion people, the only) device for communication and Internet connection worldwide. And that as a result they can help achieve remarkable connections and results individually and socially.

He and his companies have the direct experience, knowledge and technical expertise that would be valuable to my book. I have the book writing experience, a good understanding of the subject, and the willingness to sit down and spend a few hundred hours actually creating a book from blank screen all the way to real-world copies that you can pick up, hold and, yes, read.

We both agreed it was a good reason for collaboration. More to come.

Despite my comments  several posts ago declaring that contacts were finished (sort of a “Mission Accomplished” statement, with the same results), I’ve continued to meet with a few people about QR codes. Friday I met with the executive directory of Napa Valley TV, our local community television station. Station(s), actually, since there are two: one community and one educational.

James, the station’s ED, was very intrigued with the concept and had some great ideas for the project. At his suggestion I’ve now developed a couple of promotional Power Point-type (I actually use OpenOffice) screens that he’ll run on the station. They’ll promote the existence of QR codes to the station’s viewers.

The screens will in turn provide a link to information at UnseenNapa.com, where viewers can find out what QR codes are, what they can do, and how they can download a reader for their phone. I’ll post the screens here when they’re finished.

While I’ve had some people I’ve talked to immediately see a number of ways their business or organization could use QR codes, I’ve had others say “Interesting. But what can I do with them?” This being after I gave them my short spiel and demonstration.

Recognizing that my pitch wasn’t 100% successful, I thought it would be a good idea to be able to recommend a book that would give them ideas. I turned to Amazon to see which of the available books looked best, based on reviews and a perusal of the books table of contents, index and parts of the text.

Except that there weren’t any. To my surprise there were no books on the subject, with the exception of a few very expensive, very technical tomes for hardcore software engineers.

“Then I’ll write one,” thought I. So for the past 10 days I’ve been writing a friendly, easy-to-use and understandable (I hope) book on using QR codes for personal use, for business, for non-profits, for education, and even for artists. I have 3/4 of the first draft done. Currently around 100 pages but will probably go to 150.

Time to focus a bit more on the project itself, as well as a second non-related project and a couple of grad school classes.

However, I did check to make sure Google Analytics is working on the signs that have been placed. It is, and all appears to be in order. I’ll have at least a partial list of the locations posted here by the end of the week.