Community Geocaching Analysis

8/3/2019 Community Geocaching Analysis

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JULIEN VOLLET

& SYLVAIN BAILLY

COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT : THE GEOCACHING COMMUNITY

1. Getting Started with GeocachingI. Concept

Geocaching (pronounced geo-cash-ing) is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A

player places a geocache somewhere in the world, pinpoints its location using GPS technology and

then shares the existence and location of that geocache online.

The most widely website used being geocaching.com. Each cache has its own associated page,

where cache creators label the cache with terrain, difficulty, and size ratings from 1 to 5. Anyone

with a GPS unit can then try to locate the geocache.

To understand how geocaching community was born, it’s important to know the story of this sport/ social game/outdoor activity…

II. History

GPS Users get an Instant Upgrade

On May 2, 2000, at approximately midnight, eastern savings time, the great blue switch* controlling

selective availability was pressed. Twenty-four satellites around the globe processed their new

orders, and instantly the accurac y of GPS technology improved tenfold. Tens of thousands of GPS

receivers around the world had an instant upgrade.

The announcement a day before came as a welcome surprise to everyone who worked with GPStechnology. The government had planned to remove selective availability - but had until 2006 to do

so. Now, said the White House,

anyone could «precisely

pinpoint their location or the

location of items (such as

game) left behind for later

recovery.» How right they

were.



London, Paris, New York, Beavercreek?

For GPS enthusiasts, this was definitely a cause for celebration. Internet newsgroups suddenly

teemed with ideas about how the technology could be used.

On May 3, one such enthusiast, Dave Ulmer, a computer consultant, wanted to test the accuracy

by hiding a navigational target in the woods. He called the idea the «Great American GPS Stash

Hunt» and posted it in an internet GPS users’ group. The idea was simple: Hide a container out in

the woods and note the coordinates with a GPS unit.

The finder would then have to locate the container with only the use of his or her GPS receiver.

The rules for the finder were simple: «Take some stuff, leave some stuff.»

On May 3rd he placed his own container, a black bucket, in the woods near Beavercreek, Ore-

gon, near Portland. Along with a logbook and pencil, he left various prize items including videos,

books, software, and a slingshot. He shared the waypoint of his «stash» with the online commu-

nity on sci.geo.satellite-nav:

N 45° 17.460 W 122° 24.800

Within three days, two different readers read about his stash on the Internet, used their own GPSreceivers to find the container, and shared their experiences online. Throughout the next week,

others excited by the prospect of hiding and finding stashes began hiding their own containers

and posting coordinates. Like many new and innovative ideas on the Internet, the concept spread

quickly - but this one required leaving your computer to participate.

Within the first month, Mike Teague, the first person to find Ulmer’s stash, began gathering the

online posts of coordinates around the world and documenting them on his personal home page.

The «GPS Stash Hunt» mailing list was created to discuss the emerging activity. Names were

even tossed about to replace the name «stash» due to the negative connotations of that name.

One such name was «geocaching.»

Read more

In English here

In French here

http://www.geocaching.com/about/history.aspx

http://www.geocachingenvrac.com/lhistoire-du-geocaching

http://www.geocachingenvrac.com/lhistoire-du-geocaching

http://www.geocaching.com/about/history.aspx



III. Today

Today, there are over four million people actively engage in

the sport with thousands of local interest groups littered all

over the world (www.geocaching.com). It’s over 1,500,000

geocaches around the world including description, hint,

attributes, gallery photos, trackable items, and recent logs

IV. To play this game

Geocaching requires these 8 steps:

1. Register for a free Basic Membership. (http://www.geocaching.com/)

2. Visit the «Hide & Seek a Cache» page.

3. Enter your postal code and click «search.»

4. Choose any geocache from the list and click on its name.

5. Enter the coordinates of the geocache into your GPS Device.

6. Use your GPS device to assist you in finding the hidden geocache.7. Sign the logbook and return the geocache to its original location.

8. Share your geocaching stories and photos online.

What are the rules of geocaching?

• Ifyoutakesomethingfromthegeocache(or«cache»),leavesomethingofequalorgreatervalue.

• Writeaboutyourfindinthecachelogbook.

• Logyourexperienceatwww.geocaching.com.

THE MOTIVATIONS THAT GEOCACHERS HAVE FOR

PARTICIPATING IN THE ACTIVITY ARE:

•GIVINGPURPOSETOWALKSAND/OREXERCISE,

•EXPLORINGPLACES,•IMPROVINGONLINEPROFILESANDSTATISTICS,

•FEELINGCHALLENGED

•COMPETINGWITHOTHERS.



2. Why Geocaching is a community?

I. Community exists in geocaching in several ways.

•cachingisnotjustanactivitywhereonegoesandfindscaches.Aportionoftheexperience

occurs online, where cachers log their geocaching activities and read the profiles of others.

There are various forums or blogs on the community’s web page where member interact and

share their geocaching experiences :o http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/

o http://blog.geocaching.com/

o Some examples (only in France)

• http://www.geocaching-france.com/

• http://www.geocacheurs.fr/

• http://www.cachezone.fr/

• http://www.geocacheurs-de-provence.asso.fr/

• http://geocacheurslyonnais.over-blog.com/

o The same examples for each country worldwide

•Weseeevidenceofcommunityinthesmallwherepeoplewillcacheinsmallgroupsandthus

turn the activity into a social occasion. For example, parents might cache with children, or a

group of friends might cache together.

• Apartfromtheonlinecontactwithmembersofthecommunity,peoplefrequentlyorganisewhat

they call «Event cache» where interested community members attend, to socialise, share

ideas and go on group cache hunting expeditions

• Trustandcollectiveresponsibilitybecomeimportantformoveableitemsknown

as Travel Bugs (TBs). These are items tagged with a special travel mission. Forexample, a travel bug placed in a cache in New York City might have the goal of

reaching Los Angeles. Cachers then move the travel bug between caches to fulfill

this mission.

•Geocachingisnotjusta

consumption activity. Many

cachers spend a portion of

their time creating caches

for others. In this way, the

community is self-sustai-

ning

**

*

* *

*

The goal of the Groundspeak Forum is to promote the

activity of geocaching and GPS usage. It is an open

forum sponsored by Geocaching Inc. for discussing

all aspects of geocaching, benchmark hunting, GPS

usage and other Groundspeak-related GPS gaming. It

is a friendly social network for GPS enthusiasts around

the world. Forum moderators are generous volunteersthat give up their time to help build a better commu-

nity. Discussion forums are moderated to preserve the

spirit of an open, interactive discussion without offen-

ding participants.

It’s a part of the website with some regular entries of

commentary, descriptions of events, or other mate-

rial such as graphics or video.The blog objective is to

secure the loyalty of the community of geocachers on

the Geocaching website.

Local geocachers and geocaching organizations oftendesignate a time and location to meet and discuss

geocaching. These get-togethers are listed as Event

Caches on Geocaching.com. Anyone is welcome to

attend Event Caches. They are great way to meet your

fellow geocachers and you can even earn a smiley by

logging the event.



II. A Community of practice

There are four crucial features of practice borne out by MacIntyre’s definition (“In the real of orga-

nization: essays for Robert Cooper” Par Robert C. H. Chia – page 54):

1. “A practice is a complex form of social activity that involves the cooperative effort of human

beings; it is coherent and, therefore, bound by rules and it is extended in time”. Here, he goes

on to explain that practices are institutionalised and that the underlying logic is that: “although

practices alone are articulate forms of social action, if they are to be sustained, they will inevi-

tably become institutionalised”.

2. “Every practice establishes a set of what MacIntyre calls ‘internal goods’, meaning goods that

can not be achieved in any other way but by participating in the practice it self”. The idea here

is very similar to the literal saying that ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’. It behoves on

an actor to fully participate and engage in a practice in order to appreciate and share in the col-

lective practice and understanding of the practice. By contrast an external good is something

that can be achieved without participating in a practice e.g. money, fame etc. He concurs that

“where as the achievement of internal goods benefits potentially the whole community who

engage into a particular practice.

3. “Participating in a practice necessarily involves attempting to achieve standards of excellence

operative in the practice at the time. Unless one accepts the standards of the practice into

which one has entered and the inadequacy of his/her performance vis-à-vis those standards,

he/she will never learn to excel in that practice”.

4. “Every practice has its own history which is not only the history of the changes of technical

skills relevant to the practice, but also a history of the changes of the relevant ends to which

the technical skills are put”.

Taking the four crucial points in order, the idea of individuals taking personal responsibilities for

the safe transfer and movements of key artefacts like travel bugs along as well as the mainte-nanceofcaches,arejustfewexamplesofthecooperativeeffortsofactorsinworkingtogether

to sustain the shared understanding of their practice. With regard to the second feature, the

creation of caches which is an integral part of the caching experience, the analytical skills requi-

red in solving puzzles to find location co-ordinates, the sometimes laborious activity of searching,

and the associated thrill in finding a cache and exploring novel locations all together can never

beachievedexceptbyparticipatinginthepracticeofgeocaching.Whileanindividualmayenjoys

thisexperienceduringhishuntingexpedition,thepersonwhohidthetreasurealsoenjoysallthethrills involved in preparing and hiding the cache, as well as being able to share his view about a

particular location with an unknown person. This implies the “internal goods” delivered by geoca-

ching does not benefit an individual alone but rather, the community of geocachers by continuing

the advancement of the generic social aspect of the practice.



III. Mapping the structure of the community (practice)

**

* A Geocoin is a special

coin created by

individuals or groups

of geocachers as a

kind of signature item

or calling card. Like

Travel Bugs, each

Geocoin is assigned

a unique tracking IDwhich allows them to

travel from geocache

to geocache or to

be passed amongst

friends, picking up

stories along the way.

*

*

Documents

Community Geocaching Analysis