[aprssig] APRS geocaching ?

[Lynn W. Deffenbaugh (Mr)]

Technically, it's very do-able.  Legally, I wouldn't touch it with a 10 
foot pole.  Where there's money to be made (geocaching.com), there's 
lawyers to protect it.  In actual fact, given the legal stories I've 
read between geocaching.com and ter4acaching.com a while back, I'm 
actually going to drop out of the discussion of how to do it so as not 
to fall into the "guilty by association" gambit.

I'll parse GPX files for local display and let the user figure out 
how/where to get the cache information, but I really don't think it'd be 
wise to start publishing cache information (including even the 
coordinates) without an explicit license from the data source.

Unless someone knows of an open, free, non-license-encumbered source of 
geocaching information?

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ

Randy Love wrote:
> If one wanted, and they could maintain a local info kiosk of
> Geocaches. Again, the problems there are maintenance ( caches come and
> go and are 'muggled' on a regular basis ) and accuracy issues. I guess
> that you could make a script to autoupdate the files for the info
> kiosk. Another issue would be multi-part caches that require a
> combination of finding the first location and hints/clues from the
> cache's page. Most times, that is much more than you'd want to put
> across an APRS channel. But, multi-part caches are in the minority.
>
> Just a little out loud thinking here.
>
> Randy
> WF5X
>
> On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 7:54 AM, Lynn W. Deffenbaugh
> (Mr)<ldeffenb at homeside.to> wrote:
>   
>> Phillip, (Same answer I just sent to the APRS Yahoo group w/PS added)
>>
>> I've considered a geocaching query server, bur the issue I keep running into
>> in my mental planning is getting access to the original cache data.
>>  Geocaching.com has severe restrictions on what you're allowed to do with
>> their GPX and LOC files.  Also, coordinates only down to the hundredths of
>> minutes (instead of thousandths) (unless you add the |DAO| APRS extension),
>> you're going to have a much broader search area than you're used to.
>>
>> I was thinking of an APRS query service where you ask for the closest N
>> geocaches and it would send them back as Item in Message format, but then
>> I've learned that not a single known client implements that feature, so
>> they'd have to be normal objects.  But normal objects don't gate from -IS
>> back to RF without a local IGate operator knowing in advance.
>>
>> APRS can provide the starting piece of the puzzle, getting your coordinates
>> to a query server, but getting the caches, and getting the coordinates back
>> to you in a digitally usable form with high enough accuracy are the two
>> issues I haven't overcome yet.
>>
>> Instead, I'm hoping to add GPX/LOC support directly in my APRSISCE client
>> for Windows Mobile.  You drop your own GPX/LOC onto your phone and the local
>> client will put them on the screen as clickable objects for your personal
>> use.  You get the GPX/LOC using your own geocaching.com logon and put it on
>> your own device for use, no license issues there.
>>
>> I'll entertain any other ideas if you've got them.  I've got the development
>> capability on this end as well as access to APRS-IS.
>>
>> Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile
>>
>> PS.  The geocaching.com Waypoint License Agreement is at
>> http://www.geocaching.com/waypoints/agreement.aspx and states (in part)
>>
>> "Licensee shall not sell, rent, lease, sublicense, lend, assign, time-share,
>> or transfer, in whole or in part, or provide access to the Data, Related
>> Materials, any updates, or Licensee's rights under this Agreement to any
>> third party whatsoever."
>>
>> Phillip wrote:
>>     
>>>  Has anyone given this any thought,  we here in NZ are looking at ways to
>>> use APRS for other things than track
>>>  this track that beacon this and that see where jo blow went etc ..  ..
>>>  How about an addon for Geocaching for Ui-View 32 or AGWPE etc ..
>>>  Lets put some fun back into APRS on a local and country wide ..
>>>  I can't write software other wise I would give it ago it only needs to be
>>> a simple program etc there is so much info on the net
>>> about geocaching I would have thought that this combined with APRS would
>>> be a flier    73 Phillip
>>> ZL2TZE
>>>
>>>
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