Wisconsintrials.org Forums

WOTA Officers and Members, I got the following via email today.  Post your thoughts here, or email him directly, using his email address in his signature line.  I'll set him up with a forum ID here so he can reply to you right here in the forum if you post any questions or concerns.  

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Dear trials clubs officers and members,

My name is Todd Wever and am a NITRO trials club member from St. Louis, Missouri. I am writing to
request participation of your trials clubs and members in a little project I have dreamed up involving
mapping where trials riders live, various clubs' events, and just plain old awesome places we know of to
ride, with possible contact information of land owners or riding areas.

I made a simple sample map this morning using the Trials Incorporated club as an example. I used event
information I found at http://www.trialsinc.org/cfm/schedule.cfm (which I just noticed looks like it is the 2006
schedule...) and member information found at http://www.trialsinc.org/?trigger=member&list . I copied the
data into Excel, and was able to use a technique called geocoding to convert city and state names into
points on the map. To protect people's personal information, I configured the pop-ups to only show the
person's first name, city, and state (even though I wasn't using full addresses to begin with, I did choose to
NOT show last names). I did the same for the event information, and chose to show the round number, the
promoting group's name, contact person, and their phone number.

I work for Esri, a GIS software company, and I made a webmap, which I then converted into a web app.
You should be able to see this map on your computer, smart phone, or tablet device.

You can view the app here (http://esristl.maps.arcgis.com/apps/SimpleMapViewer/index.html?appid=6ed16cfe7fa141a6b8ef03c184a545af&webmap=d460312c0cdf43bab3dc9a0d1ae74a49) . You may have to pan towards the north and west, since it opens up off
center. Be sure to click on event and member points, as well as the images in the pop-ups, which I have
linked to the TI website and schedule.

I've sent this to people associated with NITRO , WOTA , ITSA , MATT , TI , and UMTA . To be honest, I
didn't know there were all these trials clubs in the midwest until I started doing the NITRO series this spring
and dug around online this morning. My short term goal is to map out members of all our clubs (or trials
riders not in a club that we know) to see where everyone is from, and map the location of the year's events.
I'd like to just include name, city, state, and phone number (with permission) so people can sort of
network, and easily find people to ride with if you're traveling or just want to find someone close.

Obviously, we can show as much or as little information as we want. We can show riders' ages, riding
class, bike brand, eye color... ect. You get the point. If there's info in an Excel spreadsheet, we can
choose to hide or show it visually on the map. Further down the road, I'd like to map trials in the whole
country, and/or event results when you click on an event location that has already happened.
Does this sound like something anyone would be interested in participating in? I'm also looking for
feedback on my map, and welcome any questions!

Please feel free to forward to anyone else involved with a different trials club, or anyone else that would be
interested in seeing this!
Thank you for your time,
-Todd <todd.m.wever@gmail.com>