Digital Convergence navigates the webby scanning codes

Internet Strategies for Education Markets: The Heller Report, June, 2001

:CueCats are on the prowl. The plastic, feline shaped scanning devices are a component of the :CRQ technology (www.crq.com) created by Digital Convergence (Dallas, TX). :CRQ allows computer users to enter URLs by swiping a cue or bar code.

The company first introduced the technology last August with magazines such as Wired and Forbes. Readers of the magazines could be delivered to a pre-defined web page by swiping cue codes printed in the magazine. To meet the need of giving people something else to do with the device, Digital Convergence also created the ability to swipe household products--such as UPC bar codes from food packages and ISBN numbers on books--and then receive web information on the item.

In the intervening year, the company has significantly expanded the usefulness of what they define as an "enabling tool." Digital Convergence now has several deals with educational publishing companies, but a recent agreement with Harcourt College Publishers (www.Harcourtcollege.com) stands out as the most expansive. This fall, more than 80 of Harcourt's textbooks will be cue-enabled. Scanable codes printed in the textbook will bring students directly to relevant web resources, and this, says Ted Buchholz, president of Harcourt College Publishers, can create a seamless connection between the web and the textbook. Additionally, links never die because Harcourt can update the cue-linked web page.

Houghton Mifflin (http://college.hmco.com) is also piloting the technology in some higher ed textbooks, and Kaplan, Inc.'s (www.Kaplan.com) fall 2001 SAT and ACT guides will have cues. Michael Garin, president and chief operating officer of Digital Convergence, also anticipates wide use for supplemental publishing. The Carnegie Institution (Washington DC, www.ciw.edu), for example, has a mandate to prepare educational materials in its work with NASA, and it hopes to curtail the costs of publishing by creating brief cue-enabled summaries instead of books. In February, they published their first booklet in a series, along with 25,000 bookmarks that have the ten key cues.

HyperSpeed to Pages Deep Within a Web Site

Garin explains that cues can deliver people to the right place very deep into a large web site. The company's research shows that if something lies more than three levels beyond the front page, abandonment rates are unacceptably high. A cue's ability to provide instant, precise navigation, says Garin, will give companies more confidence to invest in substantial web sites. Additionally, he believes that people want to use diverse forms of media that are well integrated, and :CRQ allows people to move seamlessly between print and the web.

Harcourt's Buchholz agrees. Additionally, even if a textbook is not printed with cues, the bar code on the book can be swiped to deliver students to web-based ancillary materials for that publication. Those books with cues have the additional advantage of preserving sales of new textbooks because Harcourt anticipates updating the cues with each new edition. Plus, they appear to be offering Harcourt a competitive advantage as professors survey their textbook options. Even so, says Buchholz, Harcourt's choice of :CRQ is much more a decision about strategy and philosophy than finance.

Harcourt and Digital Convergence point to enthusiastic reception of the technology.

Harcourt first introduced the :CRQ technology at a Texas show for junior colleges, TCEA. The number of adoptions there encouraged Harcourt to expand the number of books using the technology.

Casey Green, vp education for Digital Convergence (and yes, the individual behind the Campus Computing Project), has also seen the technology embraced at the K-12 level. While Digital Convergence is focusing their initial education marketing on higher education, a market which adopts technology quickly and has a speedier decision making process than K-12, individual K-12 teachers have sought out the :CueCats and created related lesson plans.

:CueTV on NBC and Videos

Cues are not limited to print. With

:CueTV, audio cues can be embedded in video, and Green expects many suppliers of educational videos to update their products with links to web resources. The most far-reaching application of the technology is through an agreement with NBC. Silent codes embedded in the programming bring viewers to appropriate web pages. Digital Convergence has limited the number of commercial links to two every half hour. Other links are tied to television content. Viewers can opt to have the sites automatically summoned, to simply store the URLs or to have no interplay between the TV and their PC.

Technology Hurdles and Attractive Gadgets Beyond Tethered Cats

:CueCats are available for free at Radio Shack stores along with the software and a 20-foot cable for the television application. Set-up does have a bit of a technology curve for a consumer product seeking wide adoption. The :CueCat plugs into the keyboard port on the PC, and the keyboard then plugs into a port on the Cat. Software is installed via a CD-ROM or download, and activation requires receiving an email with a code from Digital Convergence after registering. The television component requires a splitter for cable users, otherwise, it just plugs into an audio port on the TV or VCR. All this can also be ordered for a $9.95 delivery fee. A wireless TV version sells for about $20.