I NTRODUCTION TO G EOCACHING Many of the first half of these slides are adapted from Doug Earl. The second half of the slides are excerpted from Caraman Neustaedter’s CHI presentation

G EOCACHING AS S OCIAL N ETWORK There is a friend network underlying geocaching.com Example of online social networking in larger context Gaming Collaborative community efforts

W HAT IS IT ? 1. Someone hides a weatherproof box in the woods. 2. The latitude and longitude of the box is published on the Internet 3. Others go out and find the box using their portable using their portable GPS. 4. Finders sign the log, trade trinkets. 5. When they get home, they log the find on the Internet.

I N A NUTSHELL “ “I use multi-billion dollar military dollar military satellites to find Tupperware hidden in the woods.”

W HAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ?

… OR N ANO C ACHES

… OR …

W HAT ’ S IN A G EOCACHE ? Log book Pen/pencil Trinkets to trade Info sheet

H ISTORY May 1, 2000 – selective availability of GPS removed. Accuracy went from ~100ft to ~10ft First cache hid in Oregon Geocaching.com launched in September 2000 There are ~1,050,000 caches hidden around the world (and one on the International Space Station)

N EARBY …

W HERE THEY WON ’ T BE Terrorist targets (bridges, airports, etc.) Within 150 feet of a railroad National Parks * Private property * Closer than 0.1 miles to another cache * Unless approved by the property owner

W HO HIDES THEM ? Anyone who has a geocaching account can hide a cache All caches are approved by moderators

T YPES OF CACHES Traditional Multi-cache (multiple steps) Mystery Cache (with puzzles) Group Events Virtual (no object, but must report info)

P UZZLE Take the number and convert it to binary. Plug it into the diagram above. The most significant bit goes into A and the least significant bit goes into Z. When you finish solving the diagram take the results and convert them back to decimal format. When finished, N0-N15 will be for the north coordinates and W0-W11 will be for the west coordinates. (Keep in mind, the zeros are the most significant bit) The formats when finished should be N38 ##.### and W 77 ##.###

P UZZLE ijnqtqtpnqxipigygengwgozgnjqtngwgkjpiqjigwgpetqgpetqhpisqgoa xvgoqogugiqxogugiygengwgozgnjopwkjpiqwqtngwgqvjgpetqhpisqgo

F INDING A C ACHE Get a GPS device (garmin, handheld GPS, iPhone) Find a cache at

Unique identifier

T HEN … Put the coordinates in your GPS device Go to the cache and look for something out of place When you find it Sign the log in the cache Report your find on the geocaching website

T RAVEL B UGS Travel from cache to cache (not collectible!) Usually have a goal, Examples: Visit all baseball parks, all capitals Have picture taken with Final destination: Alaska, South Pole Journey is tracked on geocaching.com

TB E XAMPLES Dog Tags with unique identifier attached to something

T RAVEL B UG L OG E.g. d=e23548a9-077c-41f8-bc24-3d83fa3a6ffa d=e23548a9-077c-41f8-bc24-3d83fa3a6ffa

THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY AND GROUPWARE IN GEOCACHE CREATION AND MAINTENANCE carman neustaedter kodak research labs anthony tang university of british columbia tejinder judge virginia tech

THE MESSAGE location-based experiences can be enhanced by leveraging community and groupware

LOCATION BASED EXPERIENCES large range of experiences location + content content generation and maintenance is difficult relevant content fresh content easy-to-maintain

RESEARCH QUESTION how can LBEs effectively permit content creation and maintenance over time?

METHODOLOGICAL STRATEGY evaluate a successful LBE large worldwide user base established culture

METHODOLOGY 1. geocaching participation beginner: 15 finds, 1 hide intermediate: 50 finds, 1 hide advanced: 250 finds, 10 hides

METHODOLOGY 2. online survey mostly open ended snowball sampling: , twitter online forums 185 completed surveys mostly US/Canada range of ages and experiences

GEOCACHE CREATION

CACHE CREATION anybody can create a geocache guidelines e.g., 0.1 miles apart, no terrorist targets volunteer review

FLEXIBLE MEDIUM free form text

FLEXIBLE MEDIUM no container constraints range of LBEs

D IAMOND IN THE R OUGH

FAVORITES “One of my favorites was one that had me puzzled for a while. In the end I figured out that you had to get water and pour it into a pipe that would make the cache float to the top. But you had to hold your finger on a hole at the bottom to stop the water from flowing out.” – Male, Age 54, Canada

QUICK CREATIONS “Everyone always says it's not about the numbers. I think to a lot of people it is about the numbers and getting to a certain point. This is a nice and easy cache that I wanted to hide.” – Excerpt from Cache Description in New York

PFLC A LTOID T IN H IDE

CREATION CUSTOMS learn as you participate customs create consistency

EVOLUTION OF CUSTOMS “[It is in] Plain sight (you can see it 100 feet away), log book only, blends in well enough that it usually takes several trips to find… I wanted it to be challenging and unique to the area. And it was and still is.” – Male, Age 50, Illinois, USA

GEOCACHE MAINTENANCE

physical objects in the real world weathering muggles check on geocaches but most don’t! people rely on others!

“I monitor them through s, but not usually by visiting the site. The cachers arround [sic] here are very responsible and would never let a cache fall into disrepair. It's teamwork!!” – Female, Age 30, Virginia, USA “At least 2 of my caches have not been checked on in over 5 years. They seem to be fine from the logs.” – Male, Age 42, Nebraska, USA

ONLINE LOGS

FOUND IT LOGS searcher: accomplishment, blog creator: no maintenance needed prospective searcher: positive review

DID NOT FIND LOGS searcher: blog, bad experience creator: tough to find, maintenance prospective searcher: negative review, competition

“I only post a DNF if I'm convinced the cache has gone missing. Usually I think I'm just too stupid to find the cache so I don't post a DNF. I watch the cache and if other people find it I'll go back and try again.” – Female, Age 50, BC, Canada

NEEDS MAINTENANCE LOGS searcher: inform creator creator: fix the cache prospective searcher: negative review

DISCUSSION

CREATIONS flexible medium creativity not stagnant

CREATIONS flexible medium creativity not stagnant two creation paradigms: lightweight / sophisticated

REGULATORY CUSTOMS create and pass on customs permeable bounds slow changes consistent, yet not stagnant long term participation

REGULATORY CUSTOMS create and pass on customs permeable bounds slow changes consistent, yet not stagnant long term participation permit activity to grow yet maintain its core attributes

MAINTENANCE collaborative acts varying benefits underlying groupware system maintenance in the small

MAINTENANCE collaborative acts varying benefits underlying groupware system maintenance in the small maintenance: lightweight + well defined + focus on participation (not maintenance)

THE MESSAGE location-based experiences can be enhanced by leveraging community and groupware