Trackspotting comes from our passion for outdoor activities, particularly those related to mtb or road bike, and for technology. But let’s summarize a bit: what is Trackspotting?
The Technological Base
In recent years, the mobile phone has become an incredible concentration of technology. What used to be a device for communication now evolved into a small computer equipped with accessories, every day richer. Some time ago, different functions corresponded to different devices, but today a smartphone performs all the tasks in a better way (mp3 reader, handheld gaming devices, etc). In particular a smartphone is a wonderful GPS receiver with maps of the entire world!
The Right Mix: Sport & Technology
Millions of sportsmen perform outdoor activities every day. They often record their activities, taking with them a smartphone to review their route, speed, heights, etc. And vice versa millions of people are looking on the internet for their next destination. The best is when they can follow, with the GPS function of their smartphones, the track that someone else has recorded before.
That’s it. Trackspotting.
The philosophy of Trackspotting is to collect the contribution, in terms of GPS track and description, of each one and share it with others. We were inspired by the “wiki” philosophy though we are not sharing the same technical platform nor the encyclopedic purposes. In Trackspotting the subject is limited and the primary search is done through direct consultation of the entire world map or by searching for specific keywords. However, the total freedom made available to users to add, create, edit, and delete contents remains unaltered.
Trackspotting is meant to be a guide and is not about competition. We want to share detailed descriptions, photos, maps, and comments to keep you on the trail. We want you to explore new tracks and to help other riders to discover your preferred ones. While we keep trace of your private rides to register your performances, we discourage sharing tracks that we already know!
Work in progress
Trackspotting is a new project with the scope of creating a free platform for sharing sport tracks and routes. As you will see, the project is still a big work in progress. The Trackspotting team is VERY small and we are just outdoor sport enthusiasts and we are totally amatour in web-platform building. This is why we need your collaboration and any comment or advice will be highly appreciated.
In this blog we will post any news or update concerning Trackspotting. In addition to the comments in the blog you can also use the forum.
Thank you!