NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

[krays]

For me,clarification was found in the NEOM White Paper, once I took the time to read it through in context. Excerpts below--

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A compromise is a standardized approach where sponsors and proprietary vendors collaborate to allow all codes to be scanned by all suitably equipped mobile devices, thereby creating an open mobile barcode ecosystem with maximum functionality and maximum reach. One way to do this is to require all mobile barcodes in the ecosystem, including proprietary barcodes, to contain an interchange syntax that can be read by all participating proprietary applications in order to determine if it is theirs or not and, if not, to then send it to an identified routing service, so that it can be sent to the appropriate mobile code service provider for processing. This approach requires that all participating proprietary mobile barcode service operators issue codes with this interchange syntax and also modify their client applications to process it, so that all mobile codes can be appropriately routed. This kind of approach is currently being promoted by Neustar with their Mobile Barcode Clearinghouse Service.

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Another approach, and NeoMedia’s recommendation, would be to standardize partial indirect barcodes, so that each contains both the URL address of the service designated to process that particular code and an index value to be used by that service.

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NEOM definition
Partial Indirect, often referred to as Managed Direct
There is also a third kind of mobile barcode, sometimes called a ‘partial indirect’ or ‘managed direct’ barcode, that provides many of the best features (and some of the limitations) of both direct and indirect mobile codes. Referring to this type of mobile barcode as a version of ‘direct’ is in fact a misnomer, in that any barcode that includes an index and thus requires a resolution server, is by definition ‘indirect’. Thus, the term ‘partial indirect’ is the more accurate description.
A partial indirect barcode contains a fully formatted URL so it can be read, like a direct code, by any mobile code reader that is capable of reading a mobile code’s symbology (e.g. in the case of QR mobile codes, any QR reader), but it also contains an index, so that when it is sent to the site indicated by the URL it functions as an indirect code.
Partial indirect mobile barcodes have the advantages of not requiring a specific preinstalled or downloaded client and of being intermediated by the server designated in the mobile code’s URL, so they can be both monitored and managed. But they have the disadvantages of being larger, unless carefully designed (because they contain both the URL and the index – more characters), and of not providing ancillary profiled routing information that is passed with the URL such as psychographics and demographics, if they are not processed by a client application on the mobile device, since this transaction-specific information is not contained in the code URL.
One approach is to use partial indirect barcodes to provide universal reach (e.g. to phones equipped with any QR reader) but to invite the consumer to download the reader application in order to attract indirect barcode clients capable of collecting and passing transactional information to the server.

http://www.neom.com/resources/white_papers