Contributing to crowdsourced datasets

[Jammer]

With Active Captain having been co-opted, what are the best places to contribute local information?


I would like to write some comments about my recent river trips (Minneapolis/St. Paul) while the information is still fresh in mind, and am unsure where to do it.


There appear to be no commercial cruising guides covering this area in any meaningful way. Is there likely to be any interest from any publishers in expanding coverage? Which ones?

[Herreshoff]

Consider Zulu Waterways. It is gaining traction in the US while already popular elsewhere. Easy to add information with lots of options. Would love to have your knowledge shared with the community.

Zuluwaterways.com or download the apps.

Full disclosure: I am involved in its operation.

[ranger58sb]

ActiveCaptain still works, with some slight changes but mostly as before.

-Chris

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

ActiveCaptain still works, with some slight changes but mostly as before.

-Chris

Well, what's the situation in depth? I don't want to contribute to something that is in the process of being turned into a closed, vendor lock-in, expensive, proprietary database -- something where if I switch chartplotters in future I can't access the data I contributed myself.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by Jammer

Well, what's the situation in depth? I don't want to contribute to something that is in the process of being turned into a closed, vendor lock-in, expensive, proprietary database -- something where if I switch chartplotters in future I can't access the data I contributed myself.

Fair questions; don't know. In the meantime, it's one of the few games in town... and Garmin is seeming like they'll keep it open, even if there have been a few burps recently (European privacy rules, etc.) and even if a few third-party apps have dropped support. Even that could be temporary. Or not.

-Chris

[Nicholson58]

I got interested in Zulu Waterways. Once I was started, it was addictive adding in locations and data where we’d been. It’s kind of nice sharing some of the tricky bits about certain places. There are still many locations with no information at all such as Gulf of California. The eastern Caribbean was also blank. We cruised two seasons in the eastern Caribbean so there was quite a bit we could add. I’ve been reluctant to do much in the USVI & BVI because we have not been back post hurricanes.

https://www.zuluwaterways.com/register
https://www.zuluwaterways.com

It’s easy to add icons at new locations and you can add to/edit existing icons. Adding photos is easy too. I have placed images from our camera or the net to illustrate what places, marinas look like.

[lasercaster]

I have been using Moorspots for a couple of months. It’s especially nice because of the photos and alot of places worldwide already. They seem to have it now only available as an App for ipad and iphone, but that works for me.

www.moorspots.com