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04 Aug 2007
Locations as MicroContent
I started playing with an application (MicroContent Client) called RapidoMap by app4mac. It is a mix between AddressBook, iPhoto and Google Earth. So I quickly wondered about the extra value of this application.
Basically it is an application that manages locations. Usually a location is part of a MicroContent Item. Thus a picture can be taken at a certain location, a person lives at a certain location, etc. This application however realised that a location is a MicroContent Item in itself. This is certainly true when one thinks of a house, a tourist attraction, etc. One should not think of a location as some place accurate to the centimeter. And this opens some interesting possibilities.
This application is there to manage locations. A location is at is basic just a longitude and latitude. The application adds to a location a name, an address, a phone number, a category and comments. One can view location either in a table view or a map view.
A location is created by double-clicking on a point on the mapview, thus centering the map and selecting 'new location' from the menu. One can also select an address card and let the application figure out where it is on a map. Or by entering the lon/lat or address. Locations can be put into categories to sort them a little bit. These categories can be accessed through a list-view, reminiscent of other MicroContent apps.
The interesting thing however comes through the integration with the other iLife apps. The user can open the integrated media browser and for instance select an image and drag and drop it to a point on the map. This will created another location. One can also drag&drop images to existing location and thus setting the location for these images. In fact one can do this also iLife content, such as audio, video and bookmarks. In fact one can do this for any file (drag&drop from the desktop is also supported).
It all looks very interesting. However whether it is useful, I do not know. I never had the need to manage locations. I started playing with locations, but is was just playing for the moment. However that need might grow when we start to create more and more geographic related data.
As geographic data is not readily available in teh MicroContent we create, this app might be useful. And the idea that a location is a MicroContent type might be an important one. This application should then shine in it's realtion with other MicroContent Types.
AddressBook - The application should have the possibility to import cards from the AddressBook app, or even better vcard files. As longitude and latitude are normally not set in a Address Book, an insert into AddressBook card would be useful.
iPhoto - images can be taken from iPhoto and some image work can be done in RapidoMap, however I do not want another image management solution. As one sets an image to a location, it would be nice when it can be fed back into iPhoto and especially in the EXIF data.
Google Earth - I see Google Earth many as a location browser, similar to a web-browser. But not as an application to create and manage locations. RapidoMap should however be able to export and import KML-files, in order to make this integration easier.
Plazes - integration with Plazes, probably through KML-files would be interesting.
Flickr - the application allows exporting to Flickr. This is especially interesting in order to export geographic enabled images. However I can also use the Flickr export in iPhoto or Skitch for that matter. So why use this one? And how about Panoramio?
Snyway I have to play a bit more with this application, to see how I would use it and what my needs will be.