Community Geocaching Analysis
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Transcript of Community Geocaching Analysis
8/3/2019 Community Geocaching Analysis
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/community-geocaching-analysis 1/6
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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
*
*