"If I'm connected to someone on LinkedIn, I'll always have a way of finding them," says Stevens. "If you rely on a business card and the person moves on, you'll get nothing but a bounced e-mail." The updated information travels with Stevens via a mobile version of LinkedIn that synchs his new connections to the address book on his Palm Pre smart phone.
Stevens isn't the only person tossing business cards into wastebaskets. Frustrated with the limitations of paper, workers around the globe are experimenting with digital ways to exchange contact information. Entrepreneurs, in turn, are racing to develop Web sites and mobile software that ease the process.
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Since card-swapping generally occurs away from desks and computers, most of the proposed solutions are mobile applications. One example is DUB, a service for sharing mobile business cards that is available on BlackBerrys and iPhones, as well as handsets that run Microsoft's ( MSFT - news - people ) Windows Mobile and Google's ( GOOG - news - people ) Android operating systems. DUB's digital cards resemble paper ones, but are interactive, with support for active links to profiles on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
To connect, DUB users simply press a "locate" button in the application. It uses global positioning technology (GPS) to match users, then stores the cards' contact information in the phone's address book. If a DUB user wants to connect to a non-member, he or she can send a digital invitation.
Manoj Ramnani, founder of DUB's parent, DubMeNow, estimates that 500 people download the application every hour onto BlackBerrys on days it is featured in BlackBerry App World. (It helps that the application is free.) In coming weeks, the 14-month-old company plans to unveil an application for Nokia's ( NOK - news - people ) Symbian platform, expand internationally, announce deals with a large group of universities, associations and tradeshows and release more Web-based tools, including desktop widgets and a toolbar for Microsoft Outlook. Within several years, Ramnani hopes DUB will be the mobile address book of choice, with full support from wireless carriers.
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