Give your (#libcampuk11) cake a QR code

I break my blogging drought with a quick post fleshing out an idea I had yesterday evening.

You may have heard of Library Camp - an 'un-conference'-style event happening a week Saturday in Birmingham.  The good people organising it have invited attendees to bring along a cake (we all know that librarians like cake).

Some people have been talking about making their own name badges, and including QR codes on them so that people with smartphones can find out more about the person in front of them.  Well, that's all well and good, but what about those of us who are more interested in new cake recipes than other people?

And lo! The idea of QR codes for cake was born.  Thus far in life, I've been a bit QR-code ambivalent. But being able to get to the recipe for a cake you're currently eating - sounds perfect to me.  Carrying on reading if you want a step-by-step guide...

First of all, you need to decide what you want to link to with the QR code. I'm going to be making a beetroot cake, so I'll be linking to this bit.ly bundle all about the cake: http://bitly.com/bundles/maedchenimmond/1.

To get a QR code from a link, I use bit.ly again, although there are lost of other services that will do it.  To get your code, go to the bit.ly homepage, paste the URL of the page you want to link to into the box, and click on 'shorten'.  You'll see a shortened link appear below - click on the 'info page' link next to it. That'll take you to another page with stats and information.  On the right will be a QR code - click on that to get a bigger verison, then right-click to copy or save the image.  Now you can paste or insert that image into any document you like.

Et voila! People can now use their magic phones to find out all about your cake.