Got an App for Your Content? Why You Need to Get One

by John O'Keefe-Odom
AgXphoto.info

PDFs and JPEGs are the loose-leaf notebook paper of our time. Document file bundles, like .doc and .pages are actually collections of files under an arbitrary name. They are like the loose-leaf binders of our time.

In order to have a level of control over content packaging and distribution that's comparable to what artists and authors have had for centuries in libraries and bookstores, artists need to build their own applications to hold their own content.

The computer company who built your computer did. Their content is no more holy than your own.

Their content, their programs, are different only in that they're more socially expected. With the rise of the iPhone, we see that users are willing to install applications that do little other than hold content.

The main innovation: trust.

In the past, we have seen the concept of the surprise application download associated with receiving a computer virus, or malware, or any kind of instructions for the computer beyond the user's understanding and control.

Well, don't surprise them. Apple doesn't. Every iPhone user expects to download apps.

One of the innovations that Apple has brought us socially is that we now have large collections of users who are willing to download apps, and there's been a social protocol created for making this an acceptable procedure.

Imitate iTunes and application distribution if you want success. Some of the key points demonstrated over there are:

• Simple registration scripts to confirm and control distribution by CPU serial number
• Cocoa (Objective-C) applications, often built with Apple's own XCode, included with every Mac. [They also have an excellent support site. Cocoa uses "C", a computer language that has been around since 1961. So, decades of programmers are out there who can help you, if you are not smart enough to build the whole thing yourself.]
• Establishing a relationship with the user, the reader, that they are about to download a program before they do it
• Use of simple download buttons and links through web pages to establish a book "storefront" that serves as a known distribution point for authorized materials
• Some type of branding or description of who is allowed to give out a copy of the material and where those sites are ("only authorized dealers at: xyz.internetsufix")
• A general description of what they are about to download
• No sneaky extras; give them only the content they asked for.

With some of those ideas in mind, I'll be working on some of my own applications to hold photos, photo slideshows, and of course, my book. I think these ideas are interesting enough, and executable enough, to be a part of many of my future projects.

Why give out your collected material unbound? Have you ever gone into a bookstore and bought a loose sheet of notebook paper with the writing you wanted on it? Do you buy novels in looseleaf notebook binders?

Should your readers? Should your photo viewers?

Can't you build, of have built, one of those apps? The technology has been at our fingertips for years. We just haven't seen what was before us. Good luck. Proceed with confidence.

Get out there and code some of those already made text and photos into C.

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