Comment by renn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by renn | Hacker News Reader

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Thank you for the first point, but more importantly, the second.

We know about the important function of paper cards in the world. When people ask us who our competitors are, we respond with 'paper cards'. The only we we will solve the business card problem is by playing well with these paper cards.

What you see on E today is the basic system we've designed to handle contact information with an additional visual layer. Features to handle paper cards - and mimic paper cards for that matter are things we're working on passionately. We know what it feels like to get a great looking business card, with a nice choice of paper, excellent typography, etc. But I'm convinced in time we will find an equally attractive solution - though it will not be overnight. The transitions from vinyl to cd to mp3, or printed books to ebooks have also take years.

Our added benefits however (stored geolocation of meetings, synched notes, etc.) are features we're getting great feedback on.

One of the issues here is that paper cards aren't just a well-entrenched and pleasing communication tool, but they're also a status tool. American Psycho is the model here—If I give you my business card and you see that it is letterpress-printed and impeccably typeset, you know that I have excellent design sense—but also that I have more money than you. Really good business cards are expensive. Whereas even if you create an e-business card that allows for complete typographical customization, there's no implicit class message because the only difference between a simple, banal card and a beautiful one will be taste (thus I don't think it would be a space worth expanding to; when there's no status message encoded in a design issue like that, the most simple and uniform formatting tends to be privileged. Hence the low-class associations with people who send emails encoded with extravagant fonts and colors). And of course nobody would participate in a system where you had to pay more for an e-business card that was more nicely formatted.

The fact is that the purely utilitarian aspect of business cards is a very minor element of their continued use. As a way of giving somebody your phone number, they're absurdly overevolved and ripe for supercession. But as a medium of social display, it'll be a lot harder to shake loose of them.

Best response so far. However, we don't feel that this (the business card as a status symbol) can't be translated into a p digital form. We will be pushing out features that allow for more sophisticated designs, and optimized connections methods will make the whole concept more of a commodity. However, we know that until we get to a point where adoption of (whichever) online business card service reaches some kind of critical mass we have to play well with paper cards. Like I've answered before, this won't be solved overnight.

But even if your card is well designed, with offset typography: "Eggshell with Romalian" type (continuing with the American Psycho references) - come back from a conference, trade fair or event with piles of cards that lost all context - that's where our system shows its power first and utmost. The context of a meeting is just as important, if not more, than the card itself. Eventually you'll want to follow up on a meeting, track sales trajectories, etc... Information your paper card will not remember.

Final note: have a look at our video and see if you can spot the reference.

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