Improved live tracking for the SSA membership?

Bravo!!! The tasks are actually showing up today in Glideport.aero for the tasks at Perry.

Watching it, and replaying it, becomes immediately & dramatically more interesting.

Imagine what else is possible with a little care and feeding…

https://youtu.be/p9P2M5DtdPc

On Friday, April 21, 2017 at 12:08:18 PM UTC-4, Sean Fidler wrote:
This is useful and interesting info. Thanks.

The bottom line is that SSA tracking system can only be as good as the quality and detail of the tracking data which it receives (and the overall percentage of properly function trackers, which probably needs to be improved from 5% to a consistent 95%+). Today, Glideport "feature" mostly Spot Sat Trackers (10 min max tracks, no altitude data) and a large number of pilots without any tracker (sat, mobile or Flarm, or ADS-B) at all. Just watch Glideport.aero at any upcoming SSA contest. Watch Perry contest today (now). I'll give $20 to anyone who can prove (video) that they watched today's Perry tasks tracking continuously for more than 20 minutes and enjoyed it. It's just embarrassing. No tasks, low quality tracks, etc. It doesn't need to be this way. It shouldn't be allowable for it it be this way!

Glideport is a highly capable product. Brilliant in fact. It's downfall is that it requires SSA members to care. It is simply being underutilized (aka ignored) both by pilots and contest organizers. I suspect the motivation to further expand and improve Glideport must be quite low when the overall SSA member adoption is so poor. So we have very low overall adoption and a stagnant tracking system which is not being showcased, enhanced or improved. Typical...

Without a focused leader, without a goal, without infectious passion and enthusiasm, without an exciting marketing plan, without innovation, without news and updates on milestones, without persistence, without steady promotion, without a balanced and determined effort to meet said goal, without the serious drive required to not allow mediocrity or failure, few such things succeed.

If mobile phones are going to be part of the answer (and I'm doubting that is the case at this point), the app developers need to be motivated (and compensated) in order to keep these applications up to date and constantly improving. The android app developer (IGCDroid) gets a few bucks at purchase, I think. He has made some updates and it actually works fairly well. The iOS app (GlideTrack) is free (I think) but, unsurprisingly, has also not been updated since 2014!!! Can you imagine how much iOS has changed in nearly FOUR YEARS? It simply does not work on my iPhone 7+. These developers should be annually compensated with an annual fee. In return, the app code should be maintained top notch with regular updates, device testing, and even training & support. Perhaps even efforts to innovate (example, integrate with sat device when out of range), etc., or even to build commercially available dedicated on/off simple trackers!

It would be so easy to take this tracking opportunity from a clear failure (complete with crater) to huge, exciting, star of the art, positive success...it just needs stronger, more passionate leadership and a new plan.