Hey everyone, here's a quick recap of 2023 and the roadmap for 2024!
2023 Review: Positive Feedback!
I implemented traffic tracking tools in June 2023, with the site primarily featuring spots in Brittany. In August, I added FFVL sites in France, and in December, based on friends' travels, I included Madeira, the Canary Islands, Switzerland, and California.
- 11,000 unique visitors
- 220,000 page views
The visit peaks were due to posts in Facebook groups.
80% of the visitors are French-speaking.
We now have 3,562 spots listed, including 3,131 paragliding sites, 243 kitesurfing spots, 128 surfing spots, 33 wing-foil spots, and 17 windsurfing spots.
The feedback has been positive, and your messages are encouraging!
Roadmap for 2024
First objective: Self-fund the site
Currently, I cover 90% of the costs, with overall operations, server, and auxiliary service fees amounting to β¬1,200 per year.
A donation page was set up, and I collected β¬120 - a huge thank you for your support.
Three elements represent 80% of the site's memory and computing power consumption:
- Extracting weather data (Meteo-France, NOAA, etc.) and calculating the optimal operating slots for each spot several times a day (4 times)
- Calculating and serving the optimal slots for spots to each user based on their location.
- Retrieving and processing weather station data
To fund the site, I'll reserve access to the forecast algorithm two days a week for premium members. Premium members will be able to create private spots and have access to other features like offline atlas access and experimental functions (reporting, carpooling, AI).
Much of the data offered on the site comes from open-source projects. To thank them and support these initiatives, 5% of subscription amounts will go to open-source projects.
More budget, more servers, more memory, more power, more spots, more users, more features, you get the idea :)
Second Objective: Become Your 2nd Favorite Weather App!
I'm not looking to compete with Windy or Windguru; my idea is to offer new services. Windy displays wind maps well but doesn't suggest where to go; the information is the same for all users, it's not customizable according to one's needs, it's not collaborative, etc...
I'd like to develop services around the weather and outdoor sports communities like real-time reports, carpooling, travel guides, etc. - services not covered by the big sites but useful for planning and optimizing trips or vacations.
Checking Spots Guru alongside Windguru or Windy would already be a sign of success :)
To do this, I will follow 4 development paths based on your feedback, resources, and the time I can dedicate.
List All the Spots on the Planet
A more powerful server will allow listing all the spots on the planet. Currently, my database consists of:
- 15,000 paragliding sites
- 10,000 kite-surfing, wing-foil, and windsurfing sites
- 5,000 surfing spots
No matter where you are on the planet and what you ride, you'll always have a spot nearby!
While waiting to make them available, feel free to ask me about your region or your future vacation spot.
Usability and User Experience
I like simple and intuitive interfaces; I'm improving the user experience based on your usage and encountered issues.
My goal is to provide the most accurate and reliable information while spending the least time in front of a screen.
I'd like to improve the use of weather stations on the site by offering more stations and making real-time and historical open-source weather data available.
For example, all the METAR weather stations at airports and heliports around the planet.
Community and Collaboration
The community is at the heart of my project. I'm going to improve collaboration features and create a system to facilitate carpooling and real-time reporting.
Creating spaces to share advice on spots and travels. I'd like everyone to contribute and benefit from each other's experiences.
The Technology of the Moment, AI
LLMs (Large Language Models) with ChatGPT have marked 2023. This technology, coupled with the Spots Guru database, will offer a personalized assistant to plan your trips or answer any questions.
A little exclusive: I'm currently testing an LLM model fed with French content on paragliding in France; once it's relevant, I'll adapt it for surfing and kiting.
If you have a pro ChatGPT account, have fun with it and give me feedback!
Open Source
I also continue to support open-source by donating 5% of my subscription revenues to projects that share my values. I firmly believe that sharing knowledge and resources can change the world for the better.
In 2024, your support counts!
Beyond accessing new features, taking a premium subscription is like giving me a boost to continue improving Spots Guru. More than funds, it's encouragement to pursue this mission: to offer you the best sessions near you or on the other side of the planet.
Follow this link to access Spots Guru Premium
Seb