Hey gang, I just wanted to follow up on a comment, Kempermaniac posted in another thread. Since I don't want to further derail the thread, I decided to start a new one.
What do we know about the problems of developing e.g. a librarian? Nothing do we know about it, that's the simple truth. And if somebody of us knows, why don't you create it?
You're right, we don't know. But my take on this is that maybe we should know.
In other environments, metadata is well documented. Think about ID3 tags in MP3 audio files. Or think about EXIF or even XMP metadata in image files. It's relatively easy for those with some programming experience to come up with software to edit, analyze, handle these kinds of metadata. If there's a clear distinction between the metadata block and the actual profile/rig data, there's no need to publish the structure of the core data. Just the metadata structure could be documented and published and thus made accessible to all kinds of developers.
Of course I'm not in the position to know or judge on Kemper's internal business plans. If they decide to keep exclusive control over every aspect of their product, that's probably fine .... although I tend to believe this would be a mistake regarding the metadata. There are so many smart people here that could potentially extend the Kemper universe with some amazing tools, from web applications to smartphone apps to computer software that facilitates rig management. Often these kinds of 3rd party tools even provide the respective mothership with great ideas, for free.
We've seen CK's comment on swarm intelligence ... I won't totally nail him on the wall for this. But still I think he underestimates the potential creative power of a highly convinced and motivated swarm.
One last comment on this topic for now:
I think it would be pretty easy to reverse engineer the metadata structure and come up with some tools. Afair, there had been one project already. But I won't jump on this boat unless Kemper decides to officially open up this specific path.
Hope I could at least correct some of your comment, Kempermaniac.
Cheers,
Martin