GRTP Featured in Rapid Growth Media (24-Jun-10) WILL HARTWELL AND DOUGLAS LANG Groups want to paste 21st century Post-it notes on Grand Rapids attractionsG.F. KORRECKTHURSDAY, JUNE 24, 2010 To boost the profile of metro Grand Rapids as tech savvy, two local organizations are eyeing the possibility of placing QR-coded signs at the city's main attractions so tourists and visitors can use their smartphones to call up everything from a simple blurb to a multimedia show to learn more about what they are viewing. "Think of it as the 21st century version of the Post-it note," says Douglas Lang, a founding member of the Grand Rapids Technology Partnership, a grassroots organization that wants to foster the growth of technology in the metropolitan area. Lang and his partner Will Hartwell say it is possible to create a self-guided walking tour of the core city using QR code technology that would promote tourism and further the perception of Grand Rapids as a regional technology hub. Lang and Hartwell point out there is a significant amount of work involved in creating a QR code-based tour, but they are confident it can be done. The partnership is scheduled to make a presentation to the Grand Rapids/Kent County Convention & Visitors Bureau in mid July to review the details and potential costs of implementing a system. While he will have more specifics at their presentation, Lang explains that visitors could use their smartphones to take an image of a QR-coded sign at an attraction such as the Calder sculpture near city hall. The image could "hold a link, run a script, connect to a service on the internet...and deliver immediate data transfer" of content in visual and audio media, such as a video describing how the Calder was brought to the city. At the same time, the Community Media Center in Grand Rapids is examining how QR-coded signs may be used throughout the metropolitan area at selected sites, possibly by partnering with organizations such as the Grand Rapids Historical Commission. The media center also has had some discussions with the technology partnership regarding its plans. It is, basically, a two-dimensional bar code that looks like something between a piece of op art and a Rorschach blot. Unlike the flat, one-dimensional bar codes we are used to seeing on just about everything we purchase, QR code can do a lot more than read a number. Derived from the words Quick Response, QR code was developed in Japan in the early 1990s by the automotive industry to enable data storage and make it accessible via high speed decoding. Lang, who works as an airline pilot when he isn't working on his partnership's projects, first saw applications of QR code during his travels. When he formed his partnership last year with Hartwell -- an associate attorney with Paparella & Associates LLC -- using QR code for the walking tour seemed a logical first project.. QR codes have been used recently in metro Grand Rapids for some limited applications, but not on the scale considered by the partnership and the media center. The code was used briefly at the ActiveSite entry of last year's ArtPrize competition, and both the visitors bureau and the Downtown Development Authority have experimented with a couple of modest applications. The visitors bureau created bookmarks to distribute to area hotels and performance venues; the DDA developed a card that directs users to its web site.The media center featured the code on its promotional tee-shirts when it launched its citizen journalism e-zine, The Rapidian. Users were directed led to Cirivello's Twitter account and blog. If you build it, will they come? The Commission also sees opportunities to remain current while appealing to a wider audience. "The web server took us beyond conventional borders," says Commission Chairperson Diana Barrett. "This would be the next step." Barrett adds that a tour would be an active, engaging way for visitors to learn more about the city. Hey, look us over Janet Korn, vice president of marketing for the bureau, sees the technology as one more opportunity to share information and take people on a virtual journey to a place they might like to see up close. "We've printed a couple of bookmarks with the QR code for area attractions and hotels that takes a user to our home page," Korn explains. "The bookmarks helped cross promote events and exhibits -- the Chihuly Exhibition at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, ArtPrize, and the Princess Diana exhibit at the Grand Rapids Art Museum." Korn suggests the technology might also have applications involving trade shows and conventions, providing easier ways to interact between customers and share information. She is careful to add that QR code should be viewed as one more communication opportunity and not as a replacement for existing options. "There are all these new channels," she says. "Now we can do more and try to get better with content appropriate for each medium, but that doesn't mean we have to leave the old ones. There is a lot of information to share." No place like home "We want to help craft a tech savvy public image for Grand Rapids through a number of projects, the code-directed tour being one of the first," Lang says." Long term, Lang says the partnership's efforts will focus on encouraging entrepreneurs to expand the technology business in Grand Rapids. In the meantime, the partnership and the media center will move forward, perhaps in a collaborative effort, with concept approval and funding being the immediate goals. Definitive answers are expected to come by late July. G.F. Korreck is a free-lance writer, editor, and voice talent living in West Michigan. Photos: Will Hartwell and Douglas Lang Barcode and cellphone scanning system Will Hartwell Douglas Lang Photographs by Brian Kelly -All Rights Reserved GRTP in the news (25-Feb-10)Transforming with technology: Google experiment could drive new economic engineBy Olivia Pulsinelli | Business Review West...February 25, 2010, 11:50AM istock.comA little Google Fiber would be good for Grand Rapids.
The chosen communities “will essentially be a lab environment for them to learn how to deploy ultra high-speed broadband infrastructure,” said Doug Lang, founder of the new organization Grand Rapids Technology Partnership. In addition to creating work for companies that can install the fiber-optic network infrastructure and creating market competition — thus potentially lowering telecommunication prices for customers — high-speed Internet could have limitless potential for the business community. For instance, health care could see many benefits of suped-up Internet, Google and others have speculated. Google has suggested a quicker and more efficient way to share vital medical data as one potential benefit, and Brand expects medical institutions in the chosen communities could attract more researchers. “One of the biggest things that’s going on in Grand Rapids is the medical industry,” Brand said. “But there’s also a big technology segment that’s starting to change.” Lang hopes that could help Grand Rapids’ chances, as well. “I think another component to this is that they are looking for people within those communities that would see the advantages of this ultra high-speed broadband and develop new technologies that take advantage of that,” Lang said. He believes many technological developers have ideas for things they could create, but current broadband speeds in the United States would make those ideas not very user-friendly. So developers have to wait for the infrastructure to catch up, stifling creativity. Brand agrees. “If all of a sudden that technology segment in the city has the ability to test out different Web applications on a higher-speed network, it’s going to open up their minds to be more creative to think about what other things we could put online,” Brand said. “And I believe what that’s going to do is send more people to Grand Rapids to seek out technology opportunities, which is definitely going to help that segment expand much quicker. “We need that kind of press; we need that kind of notoriety,” Brand said. For that reason, Lang used Google’s announcement as the catalyst to start theGrand Rapids Technology Partnership. His goal is to pool a critical mass of technologically minded people to turn Grand Rapids into a “place where the tech-savvy dreamer, entrepreneur and business owner would think to come.” “I thought, if we were able to get this Google Fiber in Grand Rapids, that could spark a relationship with an established, undoubtedly on-the-bleeding-edge-of-technology type of company, that can hopefully be the catalyst to bring more people into Grand Rapids that are in that industry or that are technologically minded,” Lang said. “And then I thought, even if Google doesn’t come here, maybe we should try to start some sort of group or organization of people that are like-minded in that way that would help move Grand Rapids in that direction, regardless of what Google does.” He would like that effort to drive a “new economic engine” related to technology in West Michigan. “I think this can be another opportunity to declare our independence from the past and stake a flag in the future,” Lang said. The success of the Grand Rapids Facebook page is just one example of the effort to move West Michigan toward that future. “I think you’re just kind of seeing the beginning,” Brand said of the support for Google Fiber in Grand Rapids. Speaking Monday afternoon, Brand noted that the Facebook page added 300 fans in a matter of hours that day. “We’re kind of showing we have the ability to turn the city into anything we want it to be — turn it into kind of a social mecca, where people want to go, where they’ll have a good time,” he said. “And social media kind of gives us that platform and gives us that ability to do that and spread the word and generate all these cool opportunities and these cool events.” Contact Olivia Pulsinelli at oliviap@mbusinessreview.com or follow her on Twitter: @oliviacp. | ||||
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