I have so many half written posts and ideas for entries but just have not had the time or drive to finish them. To add to this list, for a number of years, at least two, I have been designing a theme that was to be used as my personal motocross resume website. It’s pretty rough around the edges and was never designed for WordPress. I am also getting more and more into clean designs rather than a grunge look and maybe this is why it has sat on the shelf so long.

I am hoping that I will have more Motocross and Motorcycle related content this year–is it possible to have more of something that you never had before? ha!

One thing I would like to do, is write some event recaps each weekend along with some pictures. One thing is for sure, I need to get this blog some regular content and hone my writing skills, and this would be a good regular lesson as well as make sure I pay attention to the racing throughout the day.

On a somewhat related note, I am moving out of my current place into a near by town this week and MotoHeaven.net has been coming a long slowly due to some crazy bugs which had taken me far too long and far too much caffine. With these two things about to be finally behind me in a few days life should be a little less hectic and a little more scheduled.

Add MotoHeaven.net to your profile by clicking here to go to its Application Page:
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=31923297583

For those interested in motorcycles you may want to continue reading and learn a little bit about what makes MotoHeaven so special.

Community based authoring for the greater good

MotoHeaven is all about sharing and helping out. Just like Wikipedia, MotoHeaven uses community based editing to enable an up to date directory of information regarding safe legal places to ride, moto related events, and other motorcycle industry information.

As long as a visitor of MotoHeaven is logged in, they can freely add and edit listings. And if something should go wrong such as defacement or spam, the listing can be reverted back to a previous state and the offending user dealt with.

What makes MotoHeaven different?

There are a few websites and forums out there that have compiled lists of places to ride, but they all have the same issues: incompleteness, incorrect, out of date, duplication, and are a closed system.

So why are these issues bad? For one, incomplete and bad information is never helpful. Second, closed systems have a limited amount of people adding and maintaining an ever growing list. Once the amount of information reaches reaches a point where the authors cannot keep up with the updates and new additions the whole system fails and the visitors end up with something broken and hardly useful.

How does MotoHeaven work?

Using MotoHeaven does not require you to have an account, but having one gives you some features only available to registered users.

Once a visitor has registered for a free account, they can begin adding their favorite places to ride if they don’t already exist. They can also begin adding information to existing listings.

It’s easy creating new places to ride. In this case I’m creating the Rogers Centre which hosts the annual AMA Supercross.

After pressing Create, you are taken to the Listing Page where more detailed information can be added if you or someone else chooses to do so.

From above you can see the finished listing for the Toronto Supercross.

What benefits does MotoHeaven.net provide to the industry?

Benefits for motorcycle enthusiasts:

• Absolutely free accessible information by computer and Internet enabled cellphones
• Information related to all their favorite places to ride
• Ability to find new places to ride that are local, legal, safe, and recommended by friends
• Get directions to and from
• Rate, comment and review
• Learn about events and get notified when they near

Benefits for event managers, land/track owners, and industry businesses:

• Publicize your event or land/track by purchasing banners and profiles, and sponsoring contests
• Keep in touch with your loyal riders via opt in mailing lists
• Attract new riders by being listed in the largest database of places to ride
• Use tools for generating statistic, demographic and advertising information

Anything Else?

Well this is just the start! MotoHeaven has an enormous list of features that will be added throughout the year.

If this peaked your interest, add the Facebook Application by clicking here:

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=31923297583

You can keep up with the latest news at my blog: http://www.lwp.ca/james/