Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/38754
STAFF bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com editor@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Janice Burton Joy Crowe stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com Charlie@upandcomingweekly.com OFFICE MANAGER Laurel Handforth officemanager@ upandcomingweekly.com ACCOUNTING Mary Catherine Thompson accounting@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alicia Miller art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Mar tin, Pitt Dick ey, Margaret Dickson, John Hood, Jhana Lewis, Erinn Crider, Karen Poppele, Heath- er Griffi ths, Beth Solzsmon-Carpenter–––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan Street P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: (910) 484-6200 FAX: (910) 484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a “Quality of Life” publication with local features, news and infor- mation on what’s happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per per- son. Subscriptions can be purchased for $30 for six months or $60 for 12 months, delivered weekly by first class mail. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Hal@upandcomingweekly.com Charlie Rogers MARKETING/SALES Hal Nunn ASSOCIATE EDITOR Stephanie Crider PUBLISHER Bill Bowman INSIDE PUBLISHER’S PEN by JOY G. CROWE QR codes are popping up everywhere, on packaging, in magazines and now in Up & Coming Weekly. You may have noticed the new icon on our cover that looks like a bar code. That is a QR code. Short for Quick Response, this two-dimensional barcode originated in Japan. All sorts of data can be stored in the barcode and decoded at a high rate of speed — hence the name quick response. The QR code was used successfully by vehicle manufacturers for tracking parts. With the widespread use of smartphones, the QR code has become a new marketing tool for manufacturers, retailers and restaurants. With a free QR code reader application, your iPhone, Blackberry or Droid can quickly scan a code and have you on your way to more info. The QR code can redirect you to a web site or even a video. Rob Kallmeyer, a web developer with Brain Box Inc., explained that many businesses have started using QR codes in place of the popular phrase “for more information, please visit our website at…”. They can also be pointed to a specifi c resource instead of asking the user to enter a lengthy URL which is prone to typographical error. “Space both in print media and the physical world is usually constrained. QR codes provide a path directly to the digital world where we’ve been taking advantage of hyperlinks for years. That’s what QR codes are, physical hyperlinks,” explained Kallmeyer. “By seeing them like this, we have been able to do things such as embed unique identifi ers, allowing us to automatically record where they were scanned from. Questions such as ‘How many people from that trade show visited my site?’ now have answers.” Shelby Adams, a web specialist with Advantage Newspaper Consultants, agrees that QR codes are a great way to shorten a long URL. And while it’s hard to imagine a business not having a website, Shelby notes that “QR codes are great for very small businesses, such as landscaping services, who may not invest in a website. They can have all of their business information on Facebook and create a QR code to direct people to ‘Like’ their page. Putting a QR code on the back of their business card keeps them from having to write out www.facebook.com/joes-landscaping-and-stump-removal.” And, Adams reminded me that QR codes don’t just have business applications. Anyone can create a QR code and there are many websites that can be used for generating them. People can include QR codes on party invitations to provide a link to directions or include a QR code on their resume to stand out from a crowd of applicants. Whether people will actually scan and use them is yet to be seen. A QR code on a LEGO package will take you to more information about the fi gure and instructions for building it. The QR code in the Circa ad in our publication takes you to the restaurant’s mobile friendly website where you can see the menu, check hours or call for reservations. The UCW QR code will take you to our website where you can access our fl ip-edition and get direct links to our advertisers’ websites. As the world spins faster and faster, QR codes are yet another way for our society to get instant gratifi cation. Is it a help, or just hype? You decide. Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly. JOY G. CROWE, Associate Publisher, Up & Coming Weekly, COMMENTS? editor@upandcomingweekly.com Go ahead, try it. Scan the QR codes below and go on a virtual scavenger hunt. Email a list of the fi ve sites you visit, along with your name and phone number, to offi cemanager@upandcomingweekly.com for a chance to win dinner for two at a local restaurant. Calendar ........................................... 14 Concert Connection ........................ 18 TV ..................................................... 19 Movie Review .................................. 21 Free Wheelin’ Feelin’ ....................... 22 News of the Weird ........................... 23 Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 23 Classifieds ........................................ 24 Games .............................................. 26 QR Codes: Help or Hype? Fayetteville’s Weather Forecast August 12 Thursday August 11 Saturday August 13 Fayetteville’s Weather Forecast Friday CalCall 910.354.1679l 910.354.1679 Sunday August 14 Monday August 15 Tuesday August 16 High 99° Low 75° Partly Sunny 4 UCW AUGUST 10-16, 2011 High 95° Low 74° Scattered Thunderstorms High 96° Low 73° Scattered Thunderstorms Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. High 92° Low 74° Evening Thunderstorms High 94º Low 74º Scattered Thunderstorms WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM High 99º Low 73º Sunny 24/ 7