TierraWiki came up with the basic ideas for this site on a mountain bike ride in Spain in Parque Natural Alcornocales. There are very few maps of mountain bike trails in Andalucia and even fewer route descriptions.

Unfortunately, the honest truth is that it has been very difficult to share this information. God bless Garmin, who make great GPS devices, but wow, Mapping really needs an ease-of-use overhaul and that is only the first step in the chain of pain in sharing GPS information.

Likewise, it is appreciative of all the outdoor sites that exist today, from which you may discover many areas that are interesting to explore. However, the vast majority remain one way instruments -- pushing good information out on the outdoors -- but not allowing users with perhaps an order of magnitude more experience in a particular area to contribute back in order to improve its content.

TierraWiki was project that blends Google Earth with Wiki technology for outdoor enthusiasts that might be interesting to your readers. The humble goal of my site, TierraWiki, is to create the most complete reference to the outdoors in existence.

The premise of this site is to take Wiki and GPS technology and make it work for the outdoor world. They have done more development (see extensions) to make this easier, but the MediaWiki folks the vast majority of the credit for the technology that this site is based on.

The wiki is based off of the same MediaWiki technology as Wikipedia that have built extensions to:
1. be able to use the GPS track information from our outdoor activities to build a comprehensive trail map that you can access not only on the web but also through Google Maps and Google Earth,
2. enable location based search to make it easier to find outdoors information in the vicinity of another location, and finally
3. have exposed a Google Earth network link that allows you to always have the latest trail map in Google Earth as well as articles that are geotagged.

Basically, here the community go out and use the outdoors on their favorite trails and then upload their GPX tracks to build the trail network. Then have some algorithms that will be working on that can merge this track data, and eventually, will let users plan outdoor trips and have a look at just what they are getting into across the web and Google Earth before they do it (nothing is worse than finding that "extra mountain" on your mountain bike ride).

However, technology is only the foundation. The real heart of this site is you. The goal of Tierrawiki is to make it as easy as possible to share and find outdoor trails for mountain biking, cycling, hiking, mountaineering, trail running, cross country skiing, and horseback riding.

It is you that will make it work. It is your local knowledge, your expertise, and most importantly, your contributions, that make this site thrive. If you are new to community, have a look at the Community Portal to understand how you can get started. If, however, you are a long time contributor to this site, then again, thanks for all your help.

Unfortunately TierraWiki stopped their operation for various reason. But nothing to be worried. There are still so many GPS community Wiki-style project to share bike, hiking, skiing, and running routes where you may share your knowledge and allow you to upload, edit and share GPS data, and both offer exporting to KML. Here are some promising new genre of community site here. Check them all out.

Trailguru is for visualizing, exploring, summarizing, and sharing the outdoors
Wikiloc - GPS trails and waypoints of the World
EveryTrail - GPS Travel Community, Share your GPS Tracks, Geotag your photos
MTBGuru: mashing up GPS data, photos and maps to share mountain biking, road bike, hiking and other outdoor experiences
MotionBased is a web application that translates GPS data into functional analysis and online mapping for endurance and outdoor athletes
GPSies - GPS, Tracks, Trails, Tours, Converter
GPS Visualizer is a free utility that creates customizable maps and profiles from GPS data (tracklogs and waypoints), addresses, or coordinates
Sanoodi is one of the world's leading community platforms for runners, joggers, walkers, cyclists and people who enjoy any of the 30 different outdoor activities.
Norway Mountain Areas
Trekking/ Hiking Trails, Biking, Safari, Paddle/Kayak Surfing, Rock Climbing & Mountaineering, Surfing, Diving, Snow - Travel Guide, Packing List and Packing Preparation
Africa Hiking & Trekking Adventures
Caribbean Outdoor Adventure
Google Earth Community Forum
Ogle Earth: A blog about virtual globes, with a special focus on Google Earth
Crankfire - a Connecticut based, New England focused mountain biking community.
Online International Flight Logbook in dirrerent languages
Plan a flight and view GPS track logs with Google Maps and Google Earth
Paragliding forum
Bikemap - Cycle routes can be mapped or uploaded from GPS devices
Nokia Sports Tracker
Global Positioning System (GPS)
GPS World magazine
Google Maps with Street View
Google Earth Live