This question is inspired by <a href="http://mathoverflow.net/questions/40005/generalizing-a-problem-to-make-it-easier/40010#40010">an answer of Tim Porter</a>.<br><br>
Ronnie Brown pioneered a framework for homotopy theory in which one may consider multiple basepoints. These ideas are accessibly presented in his book Topology and Groupoids. The idea of the fundamental groupoid, put forward as a multi-basepoint alternative to the fundamental group, is the highlight of the theory. The headline result seems to be that the van-Kampen Theorem looks more natural in the groupoid context.<br>
I don't know whether I find this headline result compelling- the extra baggage of groupoids and pushouts makes me question whether the payoff is worth the effort, all the more so because I am a geometric topology person, rather than a homotopy theorist.

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Do you have examples in geometric topology (3-manifolds, 4-manifolds, tangles, braids, knots and links...) where the concept of the fundamental groupoid has been useful, in the sense that it has led to new theorems or to substantially simplified treatment of known topics?
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One place that I can imagine (but, for lack of evidence, only imagine) that fundamental groupoids might be useful (at least to simplify exposition) is in knot theory, where we're constantly switching between (at least) three different "natural" choices of basepoint- on the knot itself, on the boundary of a tubular neighbourhood, and in the knot complement. This change-of-basepoint adds a nasty bit of technical complexity which I have struggled with when writing papers. A recent proof (Proposition 8 of <a href="http://www.msp.warwick.ac.uk/agt/2009/09-03/p049.xhtml">my paper with Kricker</a>) which would have been a few lines if we hadn't had to worry about basepoints, became 3 pages. In another direction, what about fundamental groupoids of braids?<br>
Have the ideas of fundamental groupoids been explored in geometric topological contexts? Conversely, if not, then why not?