Dear MMDers,  I have seen many lamentations concerning the declining
numbers of people who are interested in things mechanical and the
declining memberships of enthusiast/collector clubs, such as AMICA.

I have come across a great little app for an iPhone which I suggest
could be copied/adapted/stolen for an app of great usefulness to
mechanical music enthusiasts, as well as making our activities known
to a wider audience.

It is called "ANPAC CHROME".  It is an app for classic car enthusiasts
that lists all the up-coming car events and sorts them by distance from
your current, or a specified, location and then by date.

If something similar were produced for mechanical music enthusiasts,
it could list up-coming events and shows, and even private collectors
who were willing to allow people to view their collections.

As many of us retire and have more time for driving around, it
would be great to be able to quickly look up on a smartphone or
tablet what is on, or available for viewing, in the current
neighbourhood.  I will be in North America next year for a 7-week
self-drive holiday and something like this would be very welcome.

An app such as this would be backed by a database on a server
which would have to be managed.  I suspect it would be preferable
to reduce admin by allowing exhibitors and collectors to add and
edit their own information.

A system such as this would obviously cost money to develop and
maintain, but maybe not too much.  Perhaps it could be funded by
selling the app and/or by a levy on membership subscriptions of one
or more collector/enthusiast clubs.  I would be happy to contribute
in that sort of way.

Please have a look at "ANPAC CHROME" to consider whether the idea has
potential and whether there is any way of getting it off the ground,
i.e., is anyone interested, or knows anyone who might be interested,
in pursuing the development.

Kind regards,
Geoff Ward

 [ More at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chrome-from-anpac/id335088337?mt=8#ls=1 
 [ and
 [ http://www.anpac.com/news-and-events/press-releases/iPhoneAppReleaseUpdate.pdf 
 [
 [ I'm curious: what is the ratio of functioning antique and classic
 [ cars compared to functioning mechanical music instruments?  What
 [ is the ratio of money spent?  -- Robbie