The topic I will be writing about today is a popular website used to find mountain bikes trails and organizations. The application is available for free through Andriod and Apple application stores.. The website, Trailforks.com, is designed to combine GPX (gps) files with Google Maps software and provide a review and communication platform to users.
http://www.trailforks.com/
One of the most critical functions of Trailforks is in its' ability to connect to another GPX file upload/storage site, Strava, and pull those files into its' own data storage space. In addition to storing gps data, Trailforks.com will provide regional reports, a full screen map, a news feed, a ride log, and even a location based recommendation system. Trailforks.com was developed to reduce the difficulty present when looking for trail information and promote a wide spread community of mountain bikers.
My favorite feature is the Trail Karma. This feature allows a user to search for local nonprofits, landowners, and publicly owned trails to donate to the individuals who dedicated their time to developing and fixing trails. The quantity donated will influence the amount of Karma received by an individual. Although, Karma holds no monetary value, it does have an intrinsic value and helps organizations identify potential partnerships or relationships.
I hope you all enjoyed my short response to Q4 posed in the TopCoder Blog.
On the more technical side of Trailforks, the developers at Pinkbike.com implemented a number of analytical tools to enable users and administrators the ability to make decisions based off of quantifiable data. The system stores information regarding gender, number of visitors, seasonal influence on visitation, personal ride log, and GPX data transfer tools. This website and application really do everything for an active mountain biker looking to take advantage of the IoT, data analysis tools and promote the existing community. The term coined for this style of database development is crowd-sourced db development and management. This system encourages riders, builders, and associations to continually update and maintain the database. I think that this Tech Musing ties in really well with Q4 posed in the TopCoder blog.
ReplyDeleteVery cool. Thanks for sharing!
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