GSMA places little faith in handsets for MWC barcode registration

Rating: & thanks for sends out the confirmation 36 times

The GSMA doesn’t appear to place much faith in the use of 2D barcodes with smartphones. It is sending out Fast Track confirmation emails for MWC 2011 which implore the recipient to print out the 2D barcode contained in the body of the message. Surely the screen resolution of the typical smartphone/featurephone is high enough for barcode readers to be able to identify the code? It’s hardly a very Green approach to suggest that visitors need to print the code out instead, is it?. On top of that a glitch in the organiser’s IT systems resulted in this particular GoMo News hack receiving the confirmation email a massive 36 times.Although MWC’s organisers should be applauded for employing 2D barcodes in the first place, they won’t win any prizes for being Green because the email message urges the recipient to ‘Please Print’ out the code.

As a concession to the fact that this might not be entirely necessary, the email says … “If the barcode is clearly visible on your phone or handheld device, you may bring this to Fast Track instead of a print out.”

Yes, but is it worth the risk? This GoMo News hack has had to argue fervently with show staff that a Citzen’s card (which is good enough to get us into Glastonbury) should suffice as photo ID instead of a UK passport.

As any regular visitor to Barcelona at the time of the MWC show can tell you, carrying a passport on your way to the Fira exhibition halls lays you wide open to pickpockets.

Anyway, the 2D code being employed isn’t very sophisticated. GoMo News read the code with a standard barcode reader (NeoMedia‘s NeoReader) but in this case it didn’t bother to identify the type of barcode.

No worries because our trained eye identified the 2D barcode as a QR code. It contains a very simple string which is, in fact, your eight character MWC 2011 ‘Registration ID:’

Given that the GSMA is the world’s leading exponent of mobile technology, you’d have expected the organisers to suggest recipients save the QR code as a file on their mobile phone and show it at registration time.

Who travels to MWC without a smartphone or featurephone on their person? Well, it seems journalists are actually the main culprits.

As a breed they’ve had no compunction in writing about computer technology from their typewriters and continuing this long standing tradition, apparently many leading mobile hacks refuse to carry even a featurephone.

GoMo News manage to contact the show organiser’s PR for comment about the accidental duplication of our email notification some 36 times.

According to a spokesperson, “It looks like an isolated problem that affected two applications.” He added, “We really apologise for it.” Lucky they didn’t send it out on paper like the Good Old Days, then.