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The GeoJSONic Sneakernet.

A sneakernet moves something by carrying it. You hand it to a person. No server sits in the middle and decides who sees it. GeoJSONic is that, for the places in your life.

The word is older than the app. Sneakernet used to mean walking a disk across the room because the network was the slow part. Here it means your memories move because a person chose to hand them to another person.

Hand someone the note

A note becomes one PDF. The pages are a field report anyone can read: the map, the words, the photos. Inside that same file are the GeoJSON and every photo, video, and audio clip. Hand it over the way you hand anything over. AirDrop, a text, an email, a thumb drive.

Someone with GeoJSONic opens the PDF and the trip drops onto the globe where they keep their own notes. Someone without it can still read the pages. No account on either side. Sharing is free.

PortaDrive reads it on your Mac

PortaDrive is the Mac app. It still turns a PDF into a drive in Finder. Drop one on, work with the files, eject to save. That stayed.

What it adds is a window called The GeoJSONic Sneakernet. The window reads the journal from the iPhone app, on a globe, on your Mac. You can search it. You look at it there. The phone is still where you capture.

The journal gets to the Mac in either of two ways.

Pair once

1. On the Mac, open PortaDrive and open Sync with iPhone. A code comes up.
2. On the iPhone, open GeoJSONic, then Settings → Data & Sharing → Scan the code.
3. Leave both apps open, on the same network.

Notes, photos, and videos copy straight across. No account. No cloud. The phone starts every sync. The Mac only listens. After that first pair, GeoJSONic keeps copying while it is open and PortaDrive is running nearby. Both devices keep the journal. This copy does not take anything off the phone.

Or carry the file

On the iPhone, Settings → Data & Sharing → Export journal (full backup). On the Mac, in The GeoJSONic Sneakernet, choose Import PDF…. One file. No account in the middle.

The copy on the Mac is ordinary files in ~/Pictures/GeoJSONic. notes.geojson is the journal. Photos and routes sit beside it. If both apps disappeared, the files would still be there.

PortaDrive is $8 once, for macOS 14 or later. No subscription. Get it on the Mac App Store.

Ask an assistant

The window is for looking. To write a note, set a pin, attach a photo, or plan a trip, ask an assistant on your Mac. PortaDriveCLI is how that assistant writes. Run it yourself if a terminal is your kind of thing.

The same PDF you hand a person is a file you can hand an AI. The pages read like a report. The GeoJSON and the original photos, video, and audio are standard attachments inside it.

On your own Mac, the assistant talks to the journal through the command line. --json is there so a program can read the answer. An id can be the full id or a unique prefix from the list. The numbers below are an example, not a place you have to use.

See the journal

PortaDriveCLI notes

One note, as data

PortaDriveCLI notes show <id> --json

A note with a pin

PortaDriveCLI notes create "The wash" "Water in the sand after the rain." --place "Tonto" --lat 33.70 --lon -111.40

A photo on that note

PortaDriveCLI notes attach <id> --file photo.jpg --kind image

A trip

The phone draws the road when you open the trip. This command writes the stops. It does not draw the line.

PortaDriveCLI notes trip create <note> --name "Saturday" --stop 33.70,-111.40,Trailhead,start --stop 33.81,-111.55,The overlook,destination

The rest of the commands are on PortaDriveCLI notes help. A route, a scout, or a trip file rides along with notes attach when the file is .geojson.

A new or edited note syncs the next time GeoJSONic is open and PortaDrive is running. notes delete moves a note to Recently Deleted. The phone drops it on the next sync, unless the phone changed it since the last sync.

What does not change

No account. No server holding the journal. No cloud copy you did not make. The journal, the globe, nearby sharing, and this Mac sync are free. GeoJSONic Pro is still $3.99 a month, first month free, or $39 a year, for offline maps, satellite, and turn-by-turn.

Download GeoJSONic on the App Store →
Get PortaDrive on the Mac App Store →