Even among the tech savvy, pretty paper business cards are still the norm. Any tech conference in the country you go to will lead to a pocket full of them, some you may even use. This year at SXSW, some cutting edge types had these old world formalities only as backups. Instead, they asked a question you might hear a lot more of in the future: Are you on Contxts?

Lately we’ve all been hearing similar questions in other situations: Are you on [Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter]? Those same companies might want to look very closely at Contxts’ concept.

Still in a rough and ugly alpha stage, Contxts bills itself as the digital replacement for business cards. The way it works is simple and based on SMS messaging. Give a new contact your Contxts username, and they can text it to 50500 for instant retrieval of credentials and contact information on their phone, including social network information the contact frequents.

Or a user can send the same information directly to a contact from his or her mobile. Contxts also files contacts into a digital rolodex.

This could work if one forgets or runs out of business cards, or is trying to be environmentally friendly by saving paper, or just wants the appearance of being cutting edge.

If this concept takes off with the 21st century business crowd—and why wouldn’t it?—then boom, that’s another print industry standard taken down by a sensible, digital upstart. Some things will always require paper (not sure what, though—well, you can’t wipe your mouth with a digital napkin), but business contact information isn’t likely one of them.

Hat tip to Mashable.