"BOG"....Why are they using EO Data??????

A look at the copyright notice on the bottom of that home page may answer your question
Plus a read of the ExplorOZ / Beyond IT Terms of Use here may prove enlightening

http://www.exploroz.com/TermsofUse.aspx

Whilst a question for EO to answer, I have always worked on the basis anything I contribute to the EO site gives IT Beyond the right to use it in anyway or form it chooses, including on-selling the content.

This is born out in the Terms and Conditions.



In terms of the BOG site, my guess is that site has outsourced and pays for information from IT Beyond...

If that is the case, good luck to David & Michelle, it is an endorsement of the great product they have produced, and also hopefully a source of revenue as I suspect there is nothing cheap about providing the EO resource and service, for which most people don't pay for...

Mind you, look at most sites you contribute to, they will most likely be similar.

Cheers, Baz - The Landy

I wonder if we will see a compilation book of Doug T's Sunday histories published
Elsewhere and not by Doug as he no longer has copyright
Ross Nielsen

GREED...Its the way of the world.

Hey Stephen I can’t believe you didn’t know of this. It has been that way for quite a few years. It was the same with Tri-athlon Oz. They use the same unique platform of David and Michelle’s creation. I reckon that you would find that most people who own a Bushtracker would no doubt be members or visitors of this site and contribute in exactly the same way including tracks, treks and places.

Who knows, if Ultimate weren’t such a tight-arse mob, there would be huge value in them being on a similar platform and then you’d be right.

I wouldn’t see this as being a case of ‘on-selling’ rather value adding to a unique product and one that many people see the worth and benefit of by contributing selflessly for the benefit of all. This includes the likes of you, micko, equinox and quite a few others who quietly go about adding to the ever expanding knowledge base that EO has become.

I didn’t think you would need to incentivise your desire to travel and to share by seeking profit or reward. The danger in that is that with the razor thin margins in E-business these days, it might soon go under.

Another difficulty would be in assessing just what is of value and what is simply dross clogging up the system. Is a picture of a bend in the road or a walking track really providing value to the forum readers? I’d reckon not as much as something meaningful like the location, description and picture of a water hole for example. Another thing I’ve found is that in many cases, there is no narrative added, simply a photo and a GPS with an identifying tag like ‘intersection’. It’s always more interesting if there’s something of relevance added.

Take a breath, park your indignation and have a bit of a think. There is a long history of individuals who thought they were bigger than the EO site (or that it owed its existence to them) and where are they now.....pimping themselves over on Facebook ha ha.

Stephen - There are thousands of websites that encourage people to put up good, useful information for free, and then the website owners on-sell it - or sell advertising to businesses based on the customer base the website owner has built up.

It's the way Facebook has made so much money - and it's the way of the internet world.

If you can't cope with it - start your own website, post what you want to post, and claim copyright on it, and sell access to the site or sell advertising to businesses, based on the number of readers you have.

I come here to glean a bit of info, give some hard-earned info in return, in a "like-for-like" move - and if David and Michelle can build a business and make some money onselling the forum information or client base here, then good luck to them.

It's a free world, no-one makes you contribute to anything, and you can choose exactly how much you want to contribute.

It's no different to the real world, where other people often glean useful and highly valuable information from you in conversation - and you get nothing in return! Some people are masters at it.

I have contributed vast amounts of useful and valuable information to more than one website - but I started to realise it took up too much of my time, and many people were getting extremely valuable information for nothing, that I'd taken a lifetime to accumulate - and they were getting it for nothing!

As a result, I drew back from my contributions and I now choose to be very selective about how much information I supply on forums.
I'll always supply advice on problems - but I no longer supply highly technical and valuable information for free, as I did for a number of years.

It's your choice. One of the problems with the internet is the inability to control who gets your info and photos, and where it goes, once you post it online - as many girlies with naughty photos, have found to their dismay.

As result, you have to be careful and think about what you are posting, and do you consider it has value and importance to you, that you would prefer not to lose control of - and which you may be better off utilising in some other manner, that benefits you, and not others.

Cheers, Ron.

"Moral rights are personal legal rights that cannot be assigned. However an author can consent to have their moral rights infringed."

Source: http://www.nteu.org.au/policy/research/ip#General_IP_Questions_3

I remember from somewhere way back that David & Michelle were asked by Bushtraker to build their forum for them.
They obviously use the EO site template and just change the colours and headings etc to suit the respective site.
They do the same for their Triathalon site.

I.T. Beyond Pty Ltd owns the database that EO is built upon and they obviously wear all the costs in supporting that database, severs, maintenance, bandwidth etc etc.
Clearly I.T. Beyond is receiving a fee to build and manage the BOG site and its incorporated into the database shell that EO is built upon.

Given the BOG site has about 400 members paying about $50- membership, I don't think anyone is getting rich out of it.
I think you will find that the BOG members are no different to EO members, it's just they access EO via a customised site.

I think it's great that a small enterprising Aussie family business is out there having a go and trying to survive in a very testing market.
If they can lever off their existing business model and survive then they get my support.

Stephen, you contribute a powerhouse of great information that helps all travelers regardless of where they come from, what about all the overseas non financial members that access your contributed information as one example?
Please don't stop your contributions, I for one appreciate your input.

Stephen,

The BOG (Bushtracker Owners Group) are an Australian 'Not for Profit' that have been incorporated to provide a non business operated (ie: not run by Bushtracker the company) club for people that travel Australia in the Bushtracker Caravan.

I.T. Beyond has for over 10 years worked with this group to provide forum and website services. These services have been provided at not much more than cost to this association in the view to being able to enhance our business and database services. A few years back I proposed that the BOG adopt a parallel copy of our site like TriathlonOz in order to reduce my costs of maintenance and to provide a more open sharing and data collection platform.

I can assure you that the I.T. Beyond monthly revenue from the BOG is less than 2 hours of my consulting time and has been done in the best interests of being able to collect more relevant travel data for our collective user base.

We have been working on a rewards system for the EO platform however at present and in the market as it is now we have had to divert our energies to revenue generation as shop revenue is almost non existent, advertising revenue is about 1/3 - 1/4 it was 2 years ago it is getting very difficult. We have not increased our membership pricing, not introduced credit card charges and still try to offer a really good platform to all our users.

We had hoped the BOG association may have provided us with other customer opportunities for our software platform however this has not eventuated.

It is a shame there is not more we can offer but in the market right now we are happy that we are still in business.

David

Amazing! - EO is a unique resource and has the potential to have the most comprehensive Australian map resource available.
Thats gotta cost a lot to keep up and running.
It has been a labour of love for most - if not all of its existence.

Why? Because Michelle and David took the risk and applied their passion and knowledge for well over a decade to make EO what it is now.
It has always been a 2 way street we use the info on the site and the site uses our info to be more useful and accurate for all users.

Sharing our data because EO enabled us to do so!

Sharing has made this resource what it is - keep it in perspective!


Lets face it David is a genius as far a website development goes.
What is the reward for pulling all this together??
Why go into business at all?

Does anybody have an idea of the monthly Data bill EO attracts?? It is huge.

Rather than resent that EO may make good profit one day - imagine what the site could do with more financial resources to make it even better...Imagine "Augmented reality", VR Tours - it already has the most advanced Road Conditions report in the world - can be updated in the field in real time by anyone given access to the system e.g. Park rangers, councils, police, remote station owners, roadhouse owners - just sitting there ready to be funded - wow who knew that??

If anyone believes that they have data, info or skills that can make this site better than it already is - I reckon they could always ask for a job. (pay in lieu of the value of the contribution of course)!

Stephen,

This is a plea for you to reconsider your proposal to no longer add to Places on EO, and I presume, related areas such as Treks.

It is through contributions such as yours and a few other knowledgeable and dedicated EO travellers and explorers who post their findings here, that others like myself are able to become aware of and assess the practicalities of visiting remote but significant places of history and interrest in our great land.

Sure, there are other sources of information out there, but what you post here on EO is particularly relevant to what this community is all about.

You, Mick O, The Explorer and others to varying degrees have prompted me to broaden my horizons and ask about treks and places that I might otherwise have not known about or been unwilling to attempt. Based on your reports and forum input, I have gone places that otherwise I would not.

You and your cohorts are an inspiration and a motivation. If I feel that way then I'm sure there are many others who do as well.

Please don't retreat into a shell

Best Regards

Frank

Hi Stephen, when we post on EO, not only members, but all the world, can read it anyway.

ExplorOz is completely cloned as http://www.4wdaustralia.com.au/.Check out this thread on it.

It is the Martin's business Stephen, and as per the conditions The Landy posted, they can do this sort of business transaction.

If it doesn't already happen, perhaps it would appease people if the contributions were acknowledged on each site, ie submitted by StephenL from ExplorOz? I would hope that places submitted by members on the other sites are available here and duly acknowledged as well. A more open approach would give a feeling of an extended family of sites rather than what appear to be opposition sites, and perhaps not provoke the reaction it has from someone who is a very loyal and valued contributor.