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Linda Rockwood, Utica, N.Y. –
Inventor and Designer
An innovator, a savvy businessperson and most importantly,
someone who cared deeply about snowmobiling, Linda Rock-wood
was a pioneer in the snowmobile trail web map and
smartphone app design business. She founded Mohawk Val-ley
GIS (MVGIS) in 2003, which first helped the local snow-mobile
clubs in New York, before working with other states.
Rockwood knew that there was a need for snowmobilers and
snowmobile clubs to have a web map to locate parking, trails,
gas, food and lodging. Her vision for a map that could be con-tained
within a person’s cellphone when riding the trails –
while not being tied to a paper map – brought industry to
where it is today with the technology to allow snowmobile
riders to use their smartphones to navigate snowmobile trail
systems safely.
She began soliciting the input of several snowmobile clubs
to help improve and refine her app so it could be used to as-sist
with volunteer snowmobile club operations and also aid
in raising funds. Later versions included functions such as au-tomatic
trail conditions, which allowed for refined groomer
scheduling and groomer tracking that kept riders informed
of grooming activities. She was also able to incorporate a
profit-sharing system on the app, which gave participating
clubs a simple fundraising platform. Dozens of riders wrote
and shared how helpful the app was in hazardous situations,
especially white-out conditions. The GIS technology helped
riders confidently explore new trails.
Rockwood’s New York State snowmobile app was way
ahead of its time. Soon her app was adopted in other states
from the Midwest, snowmobiles will become a big part of life.
Putting his journalist skills to work, Prusak plays a major role
in keeping all facets of snowmobiling alive and well.
In 1993, Prusak started at what was then Ehlert Publishing
as an associate editor for Snowmobile Magazine, Snow Goer,
Snow Week and Snowmobile Business. He was quickly promot-ed
through the ranks and by 1995, was managing editor and
then lead editor of all four publications in 1996. Prusak’s en-thusiasm
and journalistic talents were needed and couldn’t
be contained to only snow related motorsports. In 2002, he
was promoted outside of the snowmobile group as associ-ate
publisher of other magazines such as Powersports Busi-ness,
Boating Industry and more. Ultimately everybody who
knows Prusak knows that snowmobiling is his passion. So, in
2003, he was once again promoted, this time to publisher of
the snowmobile group, and also served for periods of time as
editor/publisher of ATV Magazine, ATV Sport, UTV Magazine,
Trailer Life and others, concurrently.
In Prusak’s 27-year career, he has participated in 27 Rode
Reports/Snow Shoot testing events, 27 consecutive Hay Days
events, 25 Eagle River Derby events, 24 of the last 26 Big East
Powersports Shows, more than a dozen ISCs and many other
major snowmobile events. Wherever people gather at a major
snowmobile venue, Prusak will be there covering the story. In
addition, he has personally ridden snowmobiles in 23 states
and provinces, and has attended events in an additional sev-en
states and provinces where he hasn’t snowmobiled – yet.
34 September 2020 | snowopsmag.com
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