[MassHistPres] "apps"

Sun Sep 5 10:34:44 EDT 2010

I am forwarding an email from a young man who I had the pleasure of working with when he was a sophomore in high school to prepare some preservation awards programs.  He has some interesting  and objective comments. 

Ann J. Chapdelaine, Chairperson
Town of North Attleborough Historical Commission
Town Hall 
43 South Washington Street
North Attleboro, MA. 02760
Office 508-699-0152

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Justin Kwan 
To: Ann Chapdelaine 
Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2010 1:14 AM
Subject: Re: Ann Chapdelaine

Hi Ann,

I am in China right now. I've been there for 5 weeks now. Last week and this week are vacation, so I am in Beijing right now. I come back on Sept 12.

The Provincetown map idea looks interesting. It sounds like there are two ways you could go - simply placing markers in a google map or create a full iPhone application. 

I'm actually very intrigued by the idea of using iPhone applications for tourist applications. Since I live in Lowell, I have wondered if the National Park Service has a need of similiar applications.

If the application is simply going to be markers on a map - google maps is the easiest way to go. The user would have to open the iPhone web browser and navigate to the map. You can also create an iPhone app that can access the map (the user only has to download the app and doesn't have to navigate to the map through the iPhone web browser). If the application has supplemental content about each location - history, photos, music, video, then an application is definitely the way to go.

As far as how successful an applications can be - I don't know the market well enough. The questions that stand out are 1) Is it OK to support the iPhone only. What if a person has a different kind of phone? Should applications be created for the Android, for example? 2) Is it OK that the user needs to download the app in order to use it? - maybe an iPhone friendly website is better 3) Will users benefit from supplemental content or do they really just want directions?

Is there some kind of MA database for historical sites? Eventually I could even see some kind of iPhone app that can tap into a database of all historical sites in MA and show information, photos, and directions about those sites. Think about that for an exciting project....

I think it's exciting to be able to make any body of information more accessible to people, especially something as important as historical information. Probably much more valuable to the world than apps that pull information on TV shows, actors and such...

I'll mention a project I've been trying to get going. I created a website for people to be able to upload some photos of their artistic creations. The idea is that people in the local area would be able to contribute and have their own online community rather than DeviantArt or etsy, for example, that host people from all around the world. The idea would be to get people to look at local art instead of buying art at IKEA or something simliar (although buying capabilities are a long way off).

So I launched the site (http://www.culturehive.com). I started off by getting a few users to sign up (friends and acquaintainces), but it was really hard to get them to upload any content. So after about a month, there are a bunch of users, but not a lot of content. (Then I  went to China). I thought I'd be able to get some friends and acquaintances to get about 10 solid users with good content, so that I could use this to reach out to other people through facebook and other in-person contacts I make, but that didn't quite pan out. So now the site might need a little reinvention (more differentiation from etsy and deviant art) and a different marketing approach.

So the reason I brought my site up is that it is supposed to be a database of art. It could potentially be accessed through the culturehive website or an iPhone app. In general, the internet and iPhone apps have evolved to the point where this question is very important: how to get people to use YOUR database of content whether it is contributing to the database or reading information from the database. In the case of a Provincetown iPhone app, it is a small database of 50 locations in Provincetown. That can be scaled to a database for all of MA (given time and resources). But the point is, in the end, it is all an information source where people can draw information. You want the most people drawing from that information that you can. The lesson to be learned here is that the marketing strategy is just as important as actually creating the content and application.

In short, creating an iPhone app on historical sites is very cool. It's even cooler if you can get people to use your app.

Are you asking me if I want to work on an app or just for the information?

Justin

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/mailman/private/masshistpres/attachments/20100905/52776f34/attachment.htm>