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Geocaching and Community-Maintained Resources
Community Maintained Resources
Participants are responsible for generating content and administering the site
Can be games, information resources, repositories
Examples: Geocaching Wikipedia Open Source code repositories
Case Study: Geocaching
GPS-oriented game and treasure hunt
http://geocaching.com
Users control every aspect of the activity
The gist of it
“I use multi-billion dollar military satellites to find Tupperware hidden in the woods.”
Neustaedter, Carman, Anthony Tang, and Judge K. Tejinder. “The Role of Community and Groupware in Geocache Creation and Maintenance.” In Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1757–1766.
How Geocaching Works
A “cache” is a box of varying size. It usually contains a log, a pencil, and sometimes little trinkets to trade.
How Geocaching Works
The owner of the cache hides it...
How Geocaching Works
The owner of the cache hides it...
How Geocaching Works
The owner of the cache hides it...
How Geocaching Works
The owner of the cache hides it...
How Geocaching Works
...and posts the GPS coordinates on the geocaching website.
“Geocachers” search for it and, when they find it, they sign the log book...
...and log their finds (or did-not-finds) on the Geocaching website or through the Geocaching app.
Clever Caches
Neustaedter, Carman, Anthony Tang, and Judge K. Tejinder. “The Role of Community and Groupware in Geocache Creation and Maintenance.” In Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1757–1766.
Clever Caches
ibid.
Finding a Cache
Finding a Cache
Finding a Cache
Logging a Cache
How many?
There are over 2 million geocaches, including one on the International Space Station
Who maintains this?
The geocaching website is owned by a company. They maintain the servers and software.
The caches are created and maintained by participants.
Maintenance issues Caches can get wet or damaged Sometimes they are cleared away as trash “Muggles” (people who don’t cache) sometimes
destroy them
Administration
Volunteers administer the activity
People approve caches and check that they follow the rules
After enough reports of a cache problem, admin volunteers may remove it to allow new caches to be hidden
Maintenance
How does a person maintain dozens or even hundreds of caches?
They rely on other people to tell them if the caches are ok or if they need maintenance.
This comes from cachers logging their finds (and “did not find”s)
Cache Owner Tasks
Maintain
Needs Maintenance
DNFs
Do nothing
Found
Info for Cachers
Search or Not
Logs
Description
Ratings
Attributes
Location
More Community Maintained Resources
Community controls content and administration
Wikis
Forums
Repositories
90-9-1 rule (Preece 2006) Lurkers, Casual contributors, Heavy contributors
Wikipedia
Editors(85,000 active contributors)
Administrators(~1,500)
Bureaucrats(~34)
Motivations
Collective Effort Model People contribute if they believe their effort will lead
to outcomes they value
Discuss: What are things people will value? Consider a specific website if that helps.
Wikipedia Motivations
Values - wanting to help others Social - allowing people to engage with others and receive
reputational credit for participating in a good activity Understanding - learning new things through volunteering Career - learning skills that may help with finding, keeping, or
advancing in a job Protective - reducing guilt about one's privilege by sharing with
others Enhancement - serving the community (similar to the
Protective motivation, but without the guilt component) Fun - the activity is enjoyable Ideology - the belief that information should be freely available (Nov, 2007)
Conclusions
Community maintained resources involve participants at all levels of creation and maintenance of the resource
People are motivated to participate for different reasons
Effective resources have cycles that make it easy for people to continue participating
Exercise
Have you worked on in a community-maintained resource (online or offline)?
What was your motivation to participate?
How does your motivation match up with the motivations for wikipedia listed on the previous slide?
