14 DAY TRIAL // Fotopedia Heritage, a new iPhone and iPad app, offers free access to thousands of works from photographers and curators from the Fotopedia community who’ve brought together over 20.000 photos illustrating 3.000 points of interest within all World Heritage sites. Fotopedia is the world’s first collaborative photo encyclopedia.
“Fotopedia Heritage in cooperation with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, brings together 20 000 photos, illustrating all World Heritage Sites and 3 000 points of interests, thanks to the contribution of thousands of photographers and hundreds of curators,” Fotopedia announced today.
“It is a free application on iPhone and iPad,” the company said in a press release.
Fotopedia Heritage has been developed by a the team led by Jean-Marie Hullot, former CTO of NeXT and Apple's application division. NeXT was an American computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California, founded in 1985 by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, after his forced resignation from Apple.
As the app was being coded, the Fotopedia community added and curated the photos thus ensuring high relevance and quality, Fotopedia said.
"This application reinvents the coffee table book experience. It is made of more photos than a book can hold and complemented with rich and useful web information. There is no end to the journey proposed by Fotopedia Heritage, there is no last page in this book," said Jean-Marie Hullot, Fotopedia founder and CEO.
Using Fotopedia Heritage, iOS device owners can navigate content easily, by tags, and learn more about each place by reading rich descriptions from UNESCO and Wikipedia.
Initial tests on the iPhone version of the app show that it’s not bug free, with some of the descriptions being displayed on a small portion of the screen. However, imagery provided on the Fotopedia web site shows that an iPad is much more appropriate for using the app.
Users can also localize each site precisely by browsing an interactive map. TripAdvisor travel information is available for the World Heritage Sites a person may be interested in, should they plan a trip.
Francesco Bandarin, Assistant UNESCO Director General for Culture, and Director of UNESCO World Heritage Centre, said:
"UNESCO's World Heritage mission, embodied through the World Heritage Convention, is to support countries around the world in identifying and protecting the planet's most outstanding cultural and natural sites."
"Fotopedia Heritage offers a beautiful way to navigate and discover these sites. This application helps raise awareness about our cause and encourages everyone to ensure our world's heritage is here for the next generation," Bandarin added.
According to the app’s page on the iTunes App Store, Fotopedia Heritage requires iOS 3.1.3 or later and is compatible with all iOS devices.