Barcode Tag: An Excellent Tool for Business

Mobile devices, especially smart phones, have received plenty of our attention lately. This Fox News video takes us to the first “Barcode City” in the U.S. --- Lakewood Ranch, FL, where smart phones become almost a necessity for residents. People can find Microsoft Tags (barcodes) almost everywhere in the Barcode City. With a Microsoft Tag app on smart phones, they can retrieve information about a place or business on their phones by scanning a tag (barcode).

The good news for business owners is that Microsoft Tag does not cost them a penny. Business can decide what information they want to link with the barcode, such as YouTube ads, exclusive discounts, pictures, and websites. Better yet, business can keep track of customers who use barcodes and save those valuable market research data for future analysis.

Do you have a barcode app in your smart phone? How useful is it? Are you ready to live in a barcode city like Lakewood Ranch? For business owners, what do you think of this barcode idea? How does it compare to other check-in apps like those on Facebook and Foursquare? Are you ready to use barcodes to promote your business?

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Yammer: A Social Networking Site Exclusively for the Workplace

Effective internal communications among employees are related to some desirable organizational outcomes, such as robust morale, a clear vision, low turnover, and high employee engagement. The question is what platform can serve the purpose. This ABC News video introduces “ Yammer ,” an exclusive internal communication tool for companies. A user must use a valid company e-mail address to sign up for an account. Once an account is validated, the user will be led to the company page that is pretty much like a Facebook page. The difference is that only the users whose e-mail addresses share the same domain can see the wall and communicate with each other. I have no question about whether Yammer could be a useful internal communication tool for companies, but I just wonder: how many social networking sites do people need for communication? Why people have to “create” so many platforms or channels for “effective communications”? To many people, Facebook is only for “friends,” whe

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Linchi Kwok, Ph.D.

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