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WINNER 2006 of the "Prix Ars Electronica 2006 - International Competition for CyberArts - Category Digital Communities"
A Distinction goes to:
"Codecheck"
www.codecheck.ch
The Codecheck project is an effort to create an informed “community” of consumers who are able to critically assess products prior to reaching their
purchasing decisions. Whereas certain initiatives pursue this aim primarily by condemning retail offerings that are potential health hazards, Codecheck takes a different approach: it helps consumers decipher the product’s barcode. The way this works is as simple as can be. A potential buyer uses his/her PC to enter the product’s numerical code and sends it via Internet to codecheck.ch; what immediately comes back are comprehensive definitions and information from experts about ingredients like sodium laurent sulfate and E250. The result is the creation of a reference work that is constantly being expanded and updated with contributions from manufacturers, wholesale distributors, specialized labs, consumer organizations and individual consumers. Potential purchasers thus have access to a wide variety of information, opinions and reports, a body of knowledge that constitutes a solid basis on which to form an opinion about a particular product.
Plans are currently in the works to enhance this system by building in mobility. For example, a shopper in a supermarket could use his/her cell phone’s camera to photograph a product’s barcode and then send this image as an MMS to codecheck.ch, and the relevant information would immediately be transmitted back. By linking up diverse technologies (photography, Internet, telecommunications) in this way, Codecheck represents a step in the direction of well-informed consumers.
//// contact
// New York
the:artist:network
424 Broadway 6th floor
New York, NY 10013, USA
Tel. +1 718 395 2526
________________________
// Basle
Gueterstrasse 302
CH-4053 Basel, Switzerland
Tel. +41 44 586 89 79
roman{at}bleichenbacher.net
http://www.bleichenbacher.net
