[Loadstone] Loadstone PointShare/gRoute and databases

[monty at loadstone-gps.com]

Hello All,

While I was away it seems like there has been a lot of chatter regarding 
sources of Loadstone-compatible point resources and I thought I would 
clarify a few things - clearing up misinformation that I often see on this 
list.

There is only 1 officially supported points repository for Loadstone and 
it  is called the Loadstone PointShare.

There are two ways of accessing the Loadstone PointShare:

1.  Visit: http://www.pse.loadstone-gps.com

2.  Access via the Loadstone-GPS web site

The Loadstone PointShare contains points of interest from around the 
world.  It is populated by you the users ((if nobody shares then nobody 
benefits).  Some users (including members of the Loadstone development 
team) have supplied large datasets of points.  These include all road 
intersections in Canada and the USA, all transportation stops in the 
United Kingdom and thousands of personally created points.  I happen to 
know that most of you (yes, even some of you that periotically complain 
have not been good little boys and girls and have not shared your points) 
- I can include myself in this category at times too!

Is there room for improvement on the Loadstone PointShare?  Yes, there's 
loads of room for improvement.  A group of volunteers has been setup to 
deal with this but lacks leadership and direction at the moment so if 
anyone would like to help then please let me know.

gRoute and Open StreetMap are not officially supported at this time and 
officially have nothing to do with Loadstone.  This might change in the 
future but this is the way it is for now.

It very much surprises me that so many people over-look the points 
available to them  from the Loadstone PointShare.  I realise information 
is a bit thin on the ground in most areas of the world  (I myself live in 
a country that isn't well-served by the PointShare) but many Loadstone 
users live in Canada and the USA and have access to very good information.

Remember that Loadstone does not replace good mobility skills.  The 
original intended purpose was for you to mark points along a route when 
going somewhere for the first time and then using Loadstone to help during 
subsequent trips.

Now, with the Internet users can acquire the coordinates for an intended 
destination  (on their PC or through Loadstone's newly supported onLine 
tool  menu) and plan a route prior to going on it.  In fact to prove how 
well this works, last week I was in London (a city that I don't live in 
and am not hugely familiar with the streets/areas etc) and I spent the day 
independantly wandering around - using Loadstone to guide me with the help 
of some points of interest from GoogleMaps.  It was a pleasant experience 
and I'm still here to write about it!

We continue to put effort into the Online tools area in Loadstone and I 
hope to  get time in the near future to continue working on scripts that 
can be used in the OnLine tool menu.

Thanks, and I hope this clears up some confusio.

Monty