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Is the Business Card Dead?
theodp writes "Attending SXSW, HBR's Susy Jackson was dismayed to find her beloved business cards no longer carried the cachet they did back in the day. Writes Jackson: 'I had a lovely conversation with two young entrepreneurs from New York and when it was time to part ways, I used that old line: 'Here, let me give you my card.' They both paused, looking unsure about whether or not I was serious. Then I saw the understanding wash over them. I was speaking a forgotten language. A business card. How precious.' And while Jackson appreciates the convenience of exchanging e-business cards, Twitter handles, and phone numbers (texting), she's still a softie for a good business card: 'Some cards are plain; others speak to their holders' personalities through odd trim sizes, quirky color schemes, or clever word play. Each will tell me something more about the person who gave it to me than I could have known from their contact info alone.' So, how telling are The Business Cards of Tech Giants?"
They may not carry much importance, but yes they still get passed around in meetings.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YBxeDN4tbk
No way. I even had my own personal 'business' card made ($9 for 500 is good, right?) and they get me free lunches from places like Perkins and Dennys all the time.
That $9 has saved me at least $50 so far, and I get to carry card that says "Back off, man. I'm a scientist."
There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
Business cards give you a quick and easy way to exchange all those bits of contact info. It's either that or we both sit and stare at our phones for a while typing in names and numbers etc.. making sure spelling is correct, etc.. With a business card, I hand it over and the actual details can be handled later. Obviously, if there was some standard way to hit a single button on phones and tap them together to exchange information, that would be easier - but at this point even everything like that just takes too much fiddling.
And while Jackson appreciates the convenience of exchanging e-business cards, Twitter handles, and phone numbers (texting),
And how exactly does a normal person hand someone new an 'e-business card' without spelling out your email address to them...?
The whole point of a business card is that I don't have to spell out my name, phone number, and email address to people in person.
They probably paused and look at each other because they dont have a business card and they feel embarrassed.
In particular in East Asia, the exchange of business cards is more important. It is not something you just grab and stuff into your pocket. It is part of the formal introduction. You give and receive the card with both hands. You read it over, and comment on it. You store the card carefully. It is a matter of respect. Showing up to a meeting in Korea without business cards is like showing up without pants.
The exchange of formal credentials, whether letters of recommendation, letters of passage, ambassadorial appointments, charters, etc., has a long and distinguished history, in which business cards are one small part. It is understandable that this might disappear in the US at some time. Of course, in the US it apparently is not necessary for businessmen to wear socks either.
I remember the first time business cards were supposed to die. I was in a meeting at a trade show when someone offered to "beam" their virtual business card to me from their Palm Pilot PDA (remember those?). This must have been like 10, maybe 11, years ago. Has anyone beamed a business card to you recently in a meeting? I suspect not, unless you spend time with people who like using classic PDAs.
Look at that subtle off white coloringâ¦the tasteful thickness of itâ¦oh my godâ¦it even has a watermark.
Exactly, if you show up at an office and walk to talk to X, saying "he gave me his card" and then show the card, you get more access.
I remember beaming my contact info at church about eight years ago. It was always awkward and sort of a hit or miss if it would transfer correctly. We had to point them head to head at each other and ask if the other person was ready, then send it and hope that it sent successfully.
The great thing about business cards is the speed at which you can transfer the information to many people and the ability to have them in places where you aren't. Plus it's not a hassle, you can easily get someones information when they have to rush somewhere else after having chatted with them for 20 minutes. It's probably happened to everyone where you chat with someone for a while and then they get a phone call and have to get running.
Maybe NFC will bring back "beaming" your contact info again, but I doubt even that will replace th classing business card.
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." [Thomas Jefferson]
NFC might revive this trend, but I suspect the business card will endure for at least a little while longer because of its ease of use and relative economy (business cards just don't cost that much to produce and they're easy to carry around).
Back in the 60's they correctly predicted we'd all be using fusion reactors to power our future, we'd be eating our meals in pills, and we'd fly around on jetpacks or use hovercars.
That was when I knew the business card was dead, just like the fission reactor.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a crabfeed to attend to on the Moon.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I had an idea for a business card with the data stored in RFID. If somebody could create a cheap printer that embeds the RFID chips in them (programmed), and then creates some set of standards that all cell-phone manufacturers start to adopt, you will be rich. Think about it. Give em a card, they wave it by their phone, phone grabs the info and BOOM..."Contact Added!". I think I could work, take it you entrepreneurs! If anything, it would be a cool hack-a-day project. I just don't have the time to make it happen, and don't have the funds to cover the risk of such an endeavor. Maybe if it was open sourced...
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
In other words, naiive hipsters who don't really know much about business yet think business cards are dead. Judging what's going on in the real world by what you encounter at SXSW is a losing game.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Sounds more like two dot com bozos to me.
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
If those new entrepreneurs were clueless about them, they won't stay in business long because they won't have any contacts.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Those "two young entrepreneurs from New York" were just embarrassed that they had forgotten to bring (or make) any cards.
I bet their business plan is full of holes. Forget small things, forget big things...
They are the quickest way to swap contact info. But, they can be bulky if you carry more than a days worth. They are essential for transferring "how do i get in touch with you" in a second. Even if mobile technology improves, I really don't see people pulling out their phones, going to their contacts, and hitting "share" when all they have to do is hand someone a piece of paper with all their info.
Now, this doesn't mean your card can't have a QR Code or something on it that has all that info that is easily scan-able, but to suggest the business card is dying because some poor startup was too stupid to get 1000 cards for $13 is just hilarious.
Bluetooth has been steadily crippled by phone provider after phone provider. A Sony Ericsson from 8 years ago could do OBEX, could import a menu and remotely control a device, and could browse file systems on remote devices. But then greed happened to the U.S. carriers. Verizon was afraid that if you could send a photo via Bluetooth, you wouldn't spend $0.45 to MMS it. (At least AT&T never sank to that level.) Motorola continually reduced support for OBEX. The iPhone, which never even bother with OBEX, had its Bluetooth crippled deliberately by Apple because they wanted to license their $3 iPhone-docking-station-remote-control chips to docking station makers, and didn't want them to bypass their overpriced chip by controlling the music via Bluetooth. Thus cool toys like AD2P headphones were rendered almost useless, because the next track/previous track buttons wouldn't work.
AD2P headphones turned out to be useless for home theater, as well. The delay in digitizing the audio renders it audibly out of sync with the video stream.
Interoperability having an impact on stability has been a continual problem I've had with Bluetooth. I have yet to own a phone whose Bluetooth doesn't cause it to crash on a fairly frequent basis. My iPhone is stable if all I do remotely is simple phone control, but I ended up disabling A2DP because it locked up about once a week when I used it daily in my car. I'm pretty sure it is triggered by the stereo simply stopping the transmission mid-stream when the ignition is cut (nice design, Kenwood) and the iPhone not recovering (what, error handling? Not in our fine iProduct!)
And it's too bad, because I really wanted Bluetooth to bring all my devices together automatically. The promise was there, but too many companies with too many vested interests had to get in there and crap it all up.
John
Only any good if:
Both phones are charged (likely)
Both phones are iphones (not so likely)
Both phones have 'Bump' on them (even less likely)
So unless you've forgotten how to use a piece of card, business cards are still going to work.
Nothing wrong with having 'Bump' (or any other similar system - Nokia has been able to swap cards for years) as such, but in the event of one of the three above not being available, business cards are a tried and tested method of swapping information with no risk of also swapping a computer virus. A 100% compatible system.
Like a QR code? I hear it's all the rage in Japan (and catching on pretty fast here, too).
I made some cards for my photography: front is a little section of photo with a QR code to that particular photo on my site, back is my name and URL. But, as it happens, I haven't actually really used them yet –as much because paper is inconvenient as because photography is a hobby, not a business, for me.
I always end up throwing away business cards –small paper objects do not have any permenant place in any of my filing systems –but a physical object with easy and non-error-prone analog-to-digital conversion seems useful (especially if they have space for annotation somewhere on them).