Strava, Komoot, and the Activities of Others

This year, as I walk and hike with others, and as their activities are shown along my own, in the list of participants, so I begin to follow people I know on Strava, Komoot and other social networks focused on sports. Notice how I didn’t call them social media. The reason for this is simple. We’re sharing GPS tracks that are categorised by sports.

This weekend I saw that one or two people I know seemed to do group activities and I felt left out, because I had not seen them advertised on GoSocial or Meetup.com. Either that or I wasn’t attentive when they showed up.

To preserve privacy I will say that it is nice to see people do things in Geneva, Vaud, Valais, Neuchatel and other locations nearby. It’s nice to get that sense of local community.

With Strava, Komoot and other social networks, especially in the easy dayys it is easy to see people doing things in distant lands. They might have been in the US, in France, in Spain, and other places.

Recently I have started to see people doing things locally, within easy walking distance of where I am. I like it. I like that it’s local.

Years ago, when I was interviewed by the TSR (Now RTS) for Nouvo, I was asked about Twitter and I said that I didn’t expect it to thrive in Switzerland because users are sparse and spread out, so it’s hard to meetup and do things.

Now, as I see Strava, and Komoot grow in Suisse Romande, so the likelihood that people I hike with are also tracking their activities. For a while it was likely that people I cycled with were on Strava. Now hikers, runners, and other sports enthusiasts appear as participating in the same activity, and I can add them, or they can add me.

If I see that an account is private I do not add that person, unless they add me first. I also avoid liking too many activities. I don’t want people to feel that I am invading their personal space.

With Komoot I recently noticed that it is very easy to crop the start and end location of an activity. This allows me to share local walks more easily, without showing precisely where I live.

With Komoot the focus is different. With komoot the idea is to find new routes, and new ideas. The idea is to find lists of ten things to do near one place, or to see route options from Point A, or to Point B. The goal is inspiration, rather than competition.

If you notice a route that you would like to follow you can make a copy, and then use the komoot app on your phone, or garmin instinct, or other, to follow the route during a hike.

And Finally, as more and more people get Garmin, Suunto, Apple and other devices so the number of people we spot walking, hiking, cycling or other, with us, increases. If enough people track some walks, so the likelihood that new cycling and hiking routes being created increases. Each of our walks, hikes, and bike rides creates a heatmap. Planners can use these heat maps to create new and interesting walking routes. I want my GPS tracks to show that we need walking and cycling routes between villages, next to roads, so that “mobilité douce” becomes more convenient, and commonplace.