As a GIS (Geographic Information System) and Data Developer, I have had a lot of opportunities to understand the complexity and variety of content. When it comes to digital mapping and e-Scouting, content can be understood as available data layers and resources. While some data and resources may be open to others on the web, it might not be good data. We strive to bring to our users the most accurate and sourced data available.
However, I would like to discuss why we felt a good waypoint management system would need to be developed.
In today’s world of on-demand and sharing of content, we knew that we needed to develop the most complete Data Management System that mapping can offer hunters. Let’s back up to when we launched our Hunt Planner Version 1. At the Western Hunting & Conservation Expo in 2020, we finally presented our Hunt Planner to the hunting and outdoor community. We have taken a bootstrap development approach, which allows us to focus on small development pieces and the users to give us meaningful feedback.
Version 1 of our Hunt Planner allowed users to create waypoints. These were important and a critical aspect of this system. As we continued to develop and enhance our Waypoint Management System, we felt that there were some necessary items that needed to be added. OnXmaps tackled this development and had done a pretty good job. You could say that they had developed a standard for the hunting and outdoor community. As a user of onXmaps myself, I felt there were some things that could be added to a waypoint management system that would enhance our members’ experience. Some key features that we see in many mapping data management systems as well as ours are:
Adding/deleting points
Editing existing points
Sharing points
Adding information about points
Custom icons
Adding other data types
Importing/exporting points
Storing/organizing a collection of points