Hello everyone..

I was wondering if anyone is willing to give some feedback on this idea that I had. I put a site together combining Google maps and fishing spots etc. I made this and didnt really do anything with it and felt like seeing if anybody thought this would be cool or useful.

http://www.shawngo.com/hotspots.php

It's all free, I'm not trying to make money or spam, I just thought that this could be neat. Basically you locate your fishing spot and just add some details about it. The longitude / latitude is adjusted each time you click on the map, you can add up to 3 links to images etc.

Check it out.. maybe it could catch on... or is there something out there similar? It would be easy to make changes, addons etc. For instance, keeping track of specific users to see all their locations.

The idea is to present a general view of people's fishing spots (lakes, rivers, ponds etc), not the exact GPS coordinates of your honey holes.

I also have something similar,
http://www.shawngo.com/reader/xwi.php
which is a list of about 3,000 Wisconsin lakes. I have this data for all 50 states. Just wondering if this idea has any bites.

Ok, enough rambling, check it out and have fun!

Thanks,
Shawn

I recently made some improvements to the hotspots page. Here is a list of a few of them.

* Added ability to search for location by GPS DMS format.
* Added ability to search for location by decimal format.
* Combined the above. Both show results if either are submitted.
* Added ability to search by Country.
* Added ability to search by Address (within the USA).
* Added a Quick-Add form for quicker location adds.
* Changed the Default Theme
* Modified existing themes.

I have a few more ideas that I'd like to get set up this week. If anyone has any feedback on the, improvements (IMHO), feel free.. it would help tremendously (as it has already)!

http://www.shawngo.com/hotspots.php

I also have the database info on thousands of lakes in the US and other locations internationally if there were any use for that.

Thanks again,
Shawn

shawngo

Good idea however, I pluged in a GPS cord. for a area on Joe Pool lake and it came up approx 8-10 miles to the west. I am going to insert some additional data from other areas to see what happens It may have been a glitch, but hey will get it worked out thanks for the info.

Tom H

Ya, the converting script doesn't do a very good job.

Last night I converted my Google Maps data to the Google Earth format. You can definately see the error in calculation.

http://www.shawngo.com/hotspots.php

The link is there to find the Google Earth link.

Or here...
http://www.shawngo.com/generator.php for direct link

Hope you all enjoy,
Shawn

Shawn, do you by any chance work in the GIS or remote sensing field?

As a matter of fact I don't.

Can I take that as a compliment?

I'm trying to focus on a specific region next. Sort of use it as a prototype to see what I can make of all this data and map stuff. All in favor of New York?

Cheers,
Shawn

GPS Tagging seems to be the next big buzzword in this all_to_do_well web2.0 hype. GPS Tagging essentially means attaching geographical information (long,lat,alt,etc) to a given media type, for instance images, and then mapping that media. Flickr and others have done this rather successfully and it is really hitting home.

I have done something similar with this interactive map. I have added the capability to add images, links, comments, and soon to add a few more bells and whistles. I also have the ability to overlay topographical maps for a given area. There is geographical data for nearly every body of water (with some exceptions) in the United States. With that said, it is possible, given a specific region (due to the size of the database), to create an incredibly interactive mapping system. A few drawbacks from the current Google Maps implementation is that the map resolution hasn't caught up in less populated areas. I now have the data from the HotSpots page deliverable in KML format, which is what Google Earth uses to define locations. Google Earth is probably about the coolest free geo utility I've seen. It does some amazing things and there is a terrific community of developers coming up with new ideas.

What I would really like to do next is focus on a particular region as sort of a test subject by pooling together (pardon the pun) the lake/river/etc data and combining it with user input. Aside from catching fish whilst perusing the site, the possibilities are near endless. The ability exists to keep certain data private from normal access which means that a group of individuals could create their own private map system. Does this sound like fun or what?

I'm running a poll at http:/www.shawngo.com/hotspots.php and was curious if anyone had any more input of what they think would make this application really useful.

Thanks again,
Shawn

Take a sneak peek at the new full screen design of the Fishing Hotspots page!!

http://www.shawngo.com/gmaps/

It is still under construction so if you find any bugs/glitches please let me know.

Thanks again,
Shawn

Good idea but the good ol navionics chip works just fine to.

I have recently updated the map to the next version of Google Maps! It is a lot quicker at retrieving the data points. There are some other new bells and whistles as well.

Check it out at
http://www.shawngo.com/gmaps/

I'm also going to start on private group map access. If anyone is interested let me know. I might need a couple people to help test it out.

Thanks,
Shawn
shawngo.com at gmail.com

Thanks Shawn, nice work! I am sure that it is appreciated by all of us. I certainly do appreiate it. Thanks again.

Great idea so far, I really like it. I think something like this where people can actually mark a spot on a lake where they caught fish with a description of what they were using etc... would really help people. Use this map of Fork for example.... http://maps.google.com/?ll=32.869207,-95.585175&spn=0.134664,0.2314 Mark spots you caught some fish and then what you were using etc... Could build up a huge amount of data this way. Again great work but I like this kinda stuff, I guess I am a geek that fishes!

Thanks for the positive feedback! It's nice to develop something that is used by others.

An engineer just contacted me to see if he could help with development etc so I might do a bit more work on the site.

I'll let you all know when it happens.


Thanks again,
Shawn