| I came here to say a version of this, so I'll just comment/expand on your post. First, like you, I don't think business cards are the solution. Not only are they insanely wasteful, but the only way to "stand out" of the pile of business cards someone inevitably has at the end of an event, is by having the best or most clever design, which is of course all subjective anyway. I too have started handing my phone over to people I meet who I actually want to engage with later, and usually this involves trading phones, so I can give them my information as well (it's more likely one of the two of us will actually follow up). That said, it's almost always a different medium where we exchange information. It might be sending a text, adding to contacts, friending on Facebook (if we're really hitting it off), following on Twitter, or simply sending an email. By the end of the night I've initiated conversations in multiple places, and it becomes harder to follow up and remember who is who. This is why I DO think the design of this application is actually pretty great. The idea of it all being centrally located, based on time/encounters, as well as showing faces, does make sense. The execution, and real-world use however, is where it falls short. Like others in this thread, I also agree that having someone take a picture of themselves is potentially awkward (I'm sure some people would be perfectly happy to do this, but I'd personally feel odd about it). The last problem is what kills Bump for me, and that's that it's rare that others have Bump as well. We both have to have the application for it to work, and because of that... I've deleted Bump (as have others). I suppose Evernote has half solved this here, but the trading part of the demo does face this problem. What makes more sense to me is working with a service like Rapportive, and based on one piece of data, instantly pulling in everything I need to know about this person for future reference, as well as all of their networks. |