I totally agree with the approach that the administrators are taking to lock down the edit capabilities to themselves. This ensures that the data can be trusted, which is not something that can be said very often with the wondrous World Wide Web. I also understand the limitations and constraints of the administrators, since there is nobody on the "payroll", just guys doing stuff after they are done with their jobs for the day. When the day comes that v2.0 is released, I'm sure it will look and function great. Re-sizing photos...ugh.
While I am not part of the industry, I would like to help out if I could with the data gathering on the lifts. As a Mechanical Engineer in the automotive and other industries, and someone who is both a perfectionist and good at collecting and analyzing data, I am currently building a master list of lifts with the most accurate data possible. My sources have been mainly this site (using the SAM Lift Construction Surveys as the master unless corrections have been noted), ski area websites/maps, and a (very) few ski areas that I have contacted directly. I have compared this data to Google Earth and Gmap-pedometer.com to ensure it makes sense (i.e. looking for typos or just incorrect info) for some areas, but have a LONG way to go. The final check would be to contact each area's staff to verify the data. Throughout the process, I can certainly document the source of the data for each lift to show its legitimacy. Even if this site doesn't need or want the info, I'm enjoying the process and learning a lot about this continent's wonderful ski areas.
The only caveat...just like the administrators, I work on this in my (little) spare time, with a full-time job and family. However, I might try to accelerate the pace if I know it might be used here.
My questions to the industry folks:
- What is the most trusted source of data - SAM Lift Construction Survey, Manufacturer records, Ski Area data, etc.?
- For those areas (e.g. much of the Midwest) where dirt has been moved around significantly and the existing US Topo maps that feed Google Earth are incorrect, do the ski areas have accurate data on the lifts?
- When ski lifts are relocated, do they do the measurements on these lifts and keep the data like the manufacturers do when new lifts are installed?
- Is this data considered protected or confidential by any ski areas (e.g. may expose overblown data from marketing, private owners not wanting to divulge anything, etc.), and do you think they will be willing to help by supplying data?
- I notice the SAM surveys have not been posted for the last few years, most likely due to the work on v2.0. Can anybody supply these, or are they now proprietary (since they are not available on the web - understandable)?
- When contacting a particular ski area, who is the person who is most likely to have access to the lift data (e.g. lift maintenance manager, etc.)?
This post has been edited by DetroitSkier: 02 February 2013 - 07:10 AM
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Kicking Horse, on Mar 16 2009, 07:55 PM, said:
I guess you have at least 10 times the number of lifts that we have down here. Good luck with the project. 
