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With worldwide reach and ease of use it’s no wonder that SMS (short message service) has become, in the words of Ronald  J. de Lange, "…the most successful non-voice service for mobile operators in the history of telecommunications…". A bold statement indeed, but right on the money, I think. With estimated volumes set to reach nearly 5 trillion messages in 2011 (that’s trillion, with a T), this medium is poised to reach epic levels of use. Let’s look at a few stats:

Portio Research states that:

SMS has generated revenues of 89 billion USD in 2008, and the world has seen traffic of almost 3.5 trillion SMS messages in 2008. Our forecasts predict that SMS will become a 100 billion USD business by 2010, and worldwide total traffic will reach almost 5 trillion messages in FY 2011, and growth will continue from there.

And Alan Moore, in his killer document The Glittering Allure of the Mobile Society, asserts that:

SMS text messaging is used by twice as many people worldwide as e-mail, and through SMS text messaging you can reach three times as many people as through any messaging platforms on the Internet

Clearly, SMS is a powerful and important  method of modern communication and is not going away. While its UI is sparse–completely text based–it works on almost every phone worldwide (with some carrier restrictions across countries, of course).

One of the most useful features of SMS is its ability to react and respond to short codes. What’s a short code you ask? There is an in-depth description here, but the basic gist is that a short code is, well, a short  code or string of numbers to which you can send "keywords" as messages. At  the gateway/server level out there on the cloudy information superhighway known as teh interweb, these codes can be magically processed and return specific, automated data, based on the keyword sent. You with me so far?

But how does the average consumer use SMS short codes to benefit their own personal digital needs? It seems complicated. Well, it is and it isn’t.

There are two kinds of short codes, dedicated and shared. The dedicated ones are EXPENSIVE. It’s not like buying a domain name, no sir-eee-bob. Short codes are controlled by aggregator companies and by the Telecom carriers and getting a dedicated one will cost you– like, $15,000 to $30,000 a year. Plus you would have to set up all the infrastructure yourself to handle the code and responses. It’s not cheap nor easy.

Then there are shared short codes which are basically dedicated codes that  someone or some company with "dough-re-mi" and technical prowess to spare, purchases control of, sets up infrastructure for and agrees to share with users, for smaller fees or for advertising revenue. The keywords associated with shared codes therefore become the identifiers between those sharing the short code. You still with me? Kinda?

Well, don’t worry about the gruesome underbelly of the concept… here is a brief test to get the idea across, and also to introduce one of the shared short code services that I am highlighting in this post. It’s a service provided by contxts.com and it is meant to change how people swap business card info.

*NOTE! IF YOU TRY THIS TEST IT WILL SEND ME YOUR PHONE NUMBER, so don’t try it if you are concerned about that.  Don’t worry, I will not call you :)  Also, you could be charged by your carrier depending on you messaging plan. Use at your own discretion as I am not responsible for whatever freakiness ensues with your carrier or other parties. I posted a picture of returned results below to illustrate the concept. But if you still want to try it out…

1. Take out your cell phone or Smartphone

2. Open a new empty SMS message

3. Make the recipient 50500

4. In the body of the message, simply put the word getdonovan

5. Send the message

If you do this, you will receive and automated text message back with some of my contact information. Namely, my twitter username @getdonovan, the twitter username of my bluegrass band @btkb, as well as links to my twitter page, personal blog, the blog you are reading right now, and my band’s twitter page. Pretty nifty eh?

It’s all outlined on contxts’ web site but here is an excerpt that explains what you can do once you create an account with them.

There are two ways to connect with a colleague. Regardless of whether they have a profile on contxts or not you can exchange your credentials.

From your phone, you txt “send 3034759204” to 50500 (where 3034759204 is your recipients 10 digit number)  –  Your recipient will receive all of your contact information.

Your contact txts “username” to 50500 on their phone  — You will receive a request confirmation (unless you have it turned off). Upon accepting, your contact will receive your information

Additionally, when people request your info, their numbers are captured in your contxts profile page, which means you can store them there and enter them into your address book later, when you are back at a computer. You can also set the system to automatically notify you, via text message, whenever someone requests your info, so that you could enter that info directly into your Smartphone’s local or networked contacts right then and there.

The Pros

What’s great about contxts? Well, for starters it’s a free service. Also, there are no advertisements which means you get more characters to use for your content. Finally, it is very easy to use. There is not a lot of clutter in the admin section of the web site and conceptually it is a simple process–you either send a number or ask for a keyword.

Setting up an account is easy too. It consists of entering your name, username (your keyword), password, mobile number, email address, 140 characters of SMS goodness to broadcast to others and BOOM… you’re done. Your username and phone number will be linked together to create your unique id. Anyone who texts your username to 50500 will receive a text message back with the info you specified in your profile. That’s it. Easy.

Once again, we see innovative ideas brought to light, in part, by laziness. And I mean that as a COMPLIMENT! It’s boring and duplicative work to transcribe contact info from paper to digital. This system is built to ease that hassle. It’s a good idea. Appropriate for the times.

The Cons

The only "cons" to contxts, are that I can’t figure out how to clear, edit or organize captured phone numbers in the profile.  Also, there may be some old fashioned, non digital people to which you still need to get your info–clients, associates, etc. They may not think the whole SMS/short code thing is quite as cool as us nerds in the herds, so you will still probably need to have a few paper cards on hand, just in case.

P.S. Thanks to friend and former colleague @afhill for tipping me off to this service.

The bottom Line

Contxts.com’s system for sharing information is easy to use and efficient. I like it for that. I bet you will too (especially if you are a compulsively texting, gadget-freak like me), which let’s face it, you probably are if you follow this blog regularly.

Jay Donovan (50 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook