Barcode Inventor Norman Joseph Woodland Dies

Sometimes lounging on a beach really can be a good idea. That’s where one inventor was when he found inspiration for what’s now an everyday object: the barcode. Where has inspiration struck you?

That and more in today’s Lunchtime Links:

Raise the bar:  It was a warm, sunny day (we imagine) when Norman Joseph Woodland  (opens in a new tab) absentmindedly starting drawing parallel lines in the sand. It was not long after that after that moment that he and Bernard Silver, then students at a Philadelphia college, realized they had stumbled onto something that could capture product information at the checkout line. We know it as the barcode. Woodland passed away earlier this week (Silver died in 1963), but his legacy lives on in every scan. Where’s the oddest place you’ve ever found inspiration?

Set the date: Does your communications team use an editorial calendar? Kivi Leroux Miller, president of Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com, gives insight  (opens in a new tab) into how others are planning. The findings are surprising: Many nonprofits only have one team member who maintains a personal editorial calendar. The results came from a recent webinar her site hosted. What are your best tips for working as a team on edit?

Can’t touch this: If you own a smartphone, you’ve most likely accidentally hit an ad or two trying to scroll through content. Google aims to put a stop to accidental click with a new barrier feature  (opens in a new tab) for in-app image ad banners, according to a report from CMS Wire. (The feature launched Thursday  (opens in a new tab).) Now, when a user clicks on an ad, a window pops up asking them if they meant to do this, and then takes them to the advertisement destination. Naturally, this move might mean a decrease in ad revenue. Is getting a better customer experience worth a decrease in numbers?

What are you reading over lunch? Share your best links in the comments.

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