The new site and geospatial backend is now live for testing at trails.namadgi.au! We have a small amount of test data on it just so you can see how it operates. We haven't opened account registration to the public just yet, but just so you know, this will be a 100% free site. 

The new site is a web application for documenting the park, with emphasis on mapping, photography and exploration on foot. Users (that would be you) can upload GPS tracks, mark points of interest with coordinates and photos, and write articles that tie these together into trip reports.

Record your adventures!

The core data flow is: You go hiking! When you get home you can do any or all of these:

• Upload a GPS track of your route (.gpx file and description), which will automatically be thrown onto a zoomable topographic map with elevation plot.
• Create points of interest if you saw something noteworthy (position and description), which will be placed on a map.
• Upload cool photos from your trip, with captions.
• Write an article (trip report).

You can link all this stuff together:

• Attach photos to your tracks, points of interest and trip reports, which display as a gallery, or apply them as 'cover' photos or banners.
• Attach points of interest (POI) to your tracks.
• Attach tracks to your trip reports.

Your content is available to you through the user menu.

Curation of the map and community pages

The main map, community pages and gallery are curated collections of the highest quality content (not all content). This is necessary to avoid clutter, especially on the map which would rapidly fill up if every item were displayed. So: If an admin finds a piece of user content they deem worthy they can:

• Feature your content: It will be displayed on the home page and listed on the community pages (/tracks, /poi, /gallery). 
• Mark it on the map: Your track or POI will be displayed on the main /map page.

Worthy content is just material that is interesting enough for someone else to want to see or do it, and complete (eg. you added a cover photo and wrote a good description). To avoid duplication, mapped material will be limited to the best available contribution for a given POI or track. The first person to document a place will have no competition, but where duplicates are submitted we will rotate the mapped instance to the best one. Eventually admins may combine contributions to produce a single authoritative entry.

Your own content is available to you via your Account menu (top right), and all content is searchable, including the non-featured content. So people can still find your stuff.

Geospatial search

The main /map page has an 'area search' function - the little target indicator on the top left. Click it and drop the pointer on the map to search for content within a given radius. This is great for finding tracks, POI and photos in a given area.

Rollout

We will start adding some serious research articles now to frame out the main themes of the site. If all goes well, we'll replace the current site with the new software. In the second half of the year we may open account registration to the public (for free ok, relax) or perhaps first to specific groups such as bushwalking clubs.

Whether to allow public contributions or keep it to the team is something we are still struggling with. Obviously it would be great to have a community of contributors, but it is fraught with perils and a huge amount of work.

Give it a try!

Visit trails.namadgi.au to play around with the test server. Check out the map, which the heart of the site.