The Signs of our time
Dear Datamatrix,
we have been in love for over a year; we have seen lots of places in the world together; we have brought surprise and excitement to peoples’ faces during demos, presentations, conferences; we had good times, we had bad times; and always were we sure about your pixely, black and whitish simplicity, using our scanners to reveal your secrets, that lie within, that you hide so obviously - almost like an ancient language. And now we have come to a point in our relation where we have to go our separate ways: Often we were waiting for you and somehow, in the midst of this years’ rush, you did not move quickly, swiftly enough, we waited and hoped but we want to try something new now. QR codes to be exact. While you walk, they run; While you encode, they encrypt; While you wait for interested readers, they give lectures; And it is not the popularity of QR codes (frankly, there is none yet in the US and Europe), but the flexibility and - aesthetic - that we want to try out now. We wanted you, Datamatrix, to be the sign of our time, but you have not been living with us in the present, lest future. We will keep you as an option on our site, our pdf’s and our heart. You have been an icebreaker in so many ways for so many people, but it is now time to move on. For what seems to be a decade, this has been the year of change and chance. We are looking forward to seeing you in the future; right now, though, we do have to part and remain in friendship.
Or in clear words: We have changed our 2D code base to QR codes instead of Datamatrix codes so far. Of course, all Semapedia tags generated and distributed up to now STILL WORK and will always work. We consider experimenting with QR codes an interesting new approach because they offer several extended features than Datamatrix codes. Also, the adoption of QR codes with cellphone manufacturers and scanning software providers has increased dramatically in the past 6 months. Our goal is to connect the real and the virtual in a meaningful and beautiful way. Going with QR codes from here inherits the promise to have more people being able to use Semapedia Tags much faster than if they were based on the Datamatrix standard.
The signs of our time, they are a-changing. And it is up to us to read them and act accordingly.