By Graham K. Rogers

After I downloaded the new Fotopedia app that focuses on the nobility of women I put it with the other apps from the same developer. It appears to me to be the most overtly political of the output from this source. Perhaps because of this -- despite the usual excellent quality of the hundreds of images -- the app seemed to lose some of the usual effects that Fotopedia output conveys to me.

Fotopedia Background

• Fotopedia Heritage
• Fotopedia Wild Friends
• Dreams of Burma
• Images of North Korea
• Fotopedia Japan

As a bonus, some of the apps (like Fotopedia Wild Friends) report free updates to content which I am able to download, so these apps are evolving as the new material arrives.

To do the content full justice, I am examining the iPad installation here. The app is also on my iPhone, but the smaller screen is less useful unless the device is connected to a projector or LCD TV.

Of them all, the wildlife app was the only one with anything that might be thought of as having a message, but only in the same way as a reader of National Geographic might be drawn to the plight of a specific group of endangered animals, such as whales or some turtles. We would gaze at the photograph, examine the information and mentally wring our hands; or perhaps actually be inspired to do something, like donate (or even protest).

Fotopedia Women of the World

This app is apparently part of the World Bank's strategy in publicising the "Getting to Equal" initiative -- a noble and just cause -- but with only a 9-line foreword from, Robert B. Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, this message seemed a little tame.

The app follows the tried and trusted Fotopedia layout with its opening screen that shows the selections available and links to other apps in the series. There was also the usual good selection of tools to the side of photographs for viewing options, information and search. On the top toolbar there are three icons: favourites (a star), Export and on the far right a pull-down thumbnail viewer that allowed me to scan quickly through the upcoming images and skip those I was less interested in (with my first rapid scan through the images) and display the more dramatic. As with other apps in the series, Export may be made to Twitter, Facebook, by email and "Wallpaper" which saves a copy of the chosen image in the Photo Album.

Occasionally, while running through the images, there was a blank screen and the gear-wheel appeared indicating a download of content was taking place. While I was using the app, this was rare, and certainly a cause of my location at the time, but did suggest wifi or 3G would be useful to keep things running smoothly.

What makes this app, like all the others in the Fotopedia series are the photographs. There are almost 500, which as far as I can tell are all by Olivier Martel. As there are personal themes here, there are some unusual inclusions and (for me) some equally unusual omissions.

While the images of French Nuns and Bretons at religious festivals are noteworthy in terms of personal sacrifice, the suffering of women in certain war zones around the world was not displayed, while there were plenty of images from areas of former conflict, like Laos, Vietnam and (especially) Cambodia. While Singapore also had entries, there were none from Malaysia, Thailand or Burma (where just this weekend Aung San Suu Kyi was able to speak at a Barcamp held there).

Information revealed by the (i) tool icon at the left side of the screen in other Fotopedia apps has always contained a description of the photograph. Information provided here was only related to the country and its relationship with women (e.g. voting rights, equal wages, female circumcision). There is also information on the particular country borrowed from Wikipedia, with a link to that site. What the specific photograph was and what it might be intended to convey was missing leaving a gap. All there was at the bottom of the screen was an index display, such as Women of the World > Russia > Karelia > Petrozavodsk.

As well as the collection of photographs, there were two photo essays (of 12 and 10 images respectively) and an Introduction by Olivier Martel with 11 images). As well as a brief introduction, these photographs did have a description available below which immediately gave a more full context to each of those displayed. When the same images were viewed in the main display section, there was no information, other than the generic country data.

The message seemed skewed to me. There was a disconnect between the theme as given by the sponsor (World Bank) and the collection of images that trumpeted the nobility and (to an extent) success of women. The app ignored the daily suffering that many still endure. Nonetheless, it still contains several hundred worthy images.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.