Off the printed page, into cyberspace, with just a bar code

Exploration is an innate human trait. The desire to go beyond boundaries or to discover what was previously unknown. Just look at the accomplishments and exploration of Erik the Red, Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Gertrude Bell, Amelia Earhart and Neil Armstrong.

I’m not sure if it is going to merit the same type of global impact as the aforementioned explorers, but you can add the Illinois State Athletics Media Relations Office to the list.

Thanks to the creative mind of Kevin McCarty, a second-year graduate assistant in the office, the ISU Athletics Media Relations Office is going to unveil some new technology in the football and men’s basketball game programs this year. The technology centers around a bar code called a “quick response” code, or QR code, for short.

What does this mean for the Redbird fan? It means that the award-winning game-day programs sold at Hancock Stadium and Redbird Arena will not be limited to a set amount of pages. Each program will still be stapled, but with the QR codes they are now boundless, so to speak.