I love the idea of digital networking. Nothing is worse than the old business card swap, especially when you’re on the receiving end of an early 90’s photo card. The people over at Linkedin are reveling in the Card Munch App. It is an app that scans business cards, records the information onto a digital card and matches details with the users linked in profile. Showing extra info such as education, previous roles and recommendations. Handy. But I do feel a little lost about this app. I see that it is bridging the gap between yesterday and today’s networking world. And something that is equal to 4 tonnes of paper and saves 67,348 consumer hours (according to PSFK blog post) has to be good right? Card Munch is munching through traditional business cards and turning them into digital recorders. But why bother to do the business card transaction in the first place?

Ideally I would only need a solo business card on a lanyard around my neck for easy scanning access. Everyone has their scan and voila we are connected. If I was a conference organiser my next batch of willing participants would get their business card details on a cheap lanyard and happily scan their way to network heaven. So that we do actually save the 4 tonnes of paper.

But I am not a conference organiser and oddly I don’t feel like wearing my business card around my neck just for kicks. So I will just download the app, add the stash of business cards in my bottom drawer to the 2 million already scanned and wait patiently for business cards to quietly hand over their networking reigns.

http://www.cardmunch.com/

graph via PSFK: http://www.psfk.com/2012/01/digital-business-cards.html#ixzz1jgb0e94t