Karen O'Keefe, The Snark Hunter
On any given day, I might be doing any of the following with Pompey, 3muddogs, or BBI Dragon:
- Playing poker
- Estimating the size of an extinct cinder cone
- Examining a bus stop shelter for hidden magnetic objects
- Trying to spot a salmon ladder in a natural area
- Translating a message from Navajo to English
- Solving a Sudoku puzzle
- Searching the woods for hidden Tupperware or an old ammunition canister
- Stealthily lifting up lamppost skirts
- Walking a labyrinth in a cathedral
- Lurking near a telephone pole while carrying exactly 67.6 fluid ounces of water
- Sitting on a park bench in a park in Eugene while my sister in Idaho operates a nearby webcam via the Internet
- Cleaning up a local park
- Hiking through the forest and feeling around a desiccated tree stump
- Climbing a rock formation
So, you might ask, am I some kind of government agent? A spy, perhaps? A detective? A scientist? Just crazy?
Nope, I am a geocacher and I am one of more than 5 million people around the world who use Global Positioning System (GPS) technology in a sport called “geocaching”.
In each example, I was trying to “earn” permission to log a “find” on geocaching.com. So far I have logged nearly 1,000.
Geocaching?
I was so happy to discover a sport for nerds! Geocaching started near Portland, OR and has expanded to well over a 1.6 million caches on all seven continents, in over 100 countries. Even International Space Station has a geocache–in locker 218!
This begs the question, what is a “cache” and what might I find? A cache can be a container, an event, a geological formation, a landmark, and even a webcam photo. When the cache is a container, geocachers trade trinkets of various kinds. I once traded a lovely gold coin for a souvenir from the Beijing Olympics, which I then traded for a stuffed animal with a mission to go to Hawaii. To find a cache, I sometimes go online to download latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates to my GPS receiver and then set out to find a container; while at other times, I solve a puzzle to find the coordinates. I often use my iPhone. Other cachers use Droids or Blackberries.
Geocaching Adventures
Let me tell you about one of my favorite geocaching adventures: I was in San Francisco with my sister (aka Pompey), and we looked on geocaching.com to see if there were geocaches nearby (there were). In fact, when we entered the nearest cache’s latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates into Google Maps, we discovered the location was right up the street from us (albeit the steepest street in San Francisco).
The “House of Peace and Grace” turned out to be a “mystery cache” on top of Nob Hill, where we had a 360-degree view of the city. At Grace Cathedral, the cache site, we were required to identify sculptures and artists of some amazing Italian artwork and send our answers to the cache “owner” for credit to log the cache. While we were at the cathedral, we met the bishop and walked the labyrinth in an outdoor rotunda. Without having a purpose, Laurel and I would have missed what we found at the cathedral. You will hear similar comments from most geocachers.
Another favorite cache was the “original stash” plaque, which commemorates the first geocache ever placed. Geocachers are clever—and some create diabolical caches that take some serious observational and thinking skills to find, while others place large containers in fairly easy-to-find areas. The only limit to any hide is the imagination of the cache hider (and some strict rules).
In July 2010, I attended Geowoodstock, where geocachers from around the world gathered to trade stories, trinkets, cache ideas, and look for geocaches together.
Although geocaching has been around for more than 10 years, it is just starting to enter the public domain (now you occasionally hear about it in TV shows and on the news). I learned about geocaching on my round-the-country trip in 2009 and have been hooked ever since. I was happily surprised to find a sport that was ideal for techn0-geeks, who are generally technically savvy, excellent problem solvers, creative thinkers, and quick learners.
I also love that geocaching is inclusive: some caches are wheelchair accessible (referred to as “handicaching”), while others require the skills of a mountain climber or SCUBA diver. With more than 1.6 million caches in place around the world, there are plenty for everyone to find—and in fact if you go on geocaching.com right now, you may be surprised to find some in your neighborhood.
Geocaching and Content Strateg
What does Geocaching have to do with Content Strategy? Geocaching:
- Develops technical skills: I know much more now about maps, GPS technology, public benchmarking and city planning, Web coding, and availability of various tools. I’ll know even more after the next caching adventure.
- Supports relationship building: I once took my boss caching at lunchtime, where we found a couple of caches within walking distance of the office. Our short outing gave us time to get to know one another while doing something fun.
- Fosters team building: One day I planned a surprise geocaching activity for my writing team. I showed up for work with a picnic lunch, and we set out to find two nearby caches, which we couldn’t have found without concentrated teamwork.
- Enhances problem-solving skills: Some geocache hiders (which can be any geocacher, by the way, including me) are especially tricky and like to place caches that take real problem-solving skills. Puzzle caches are good examples. I often feel successful just figuring out how to approach solving a puzzle. Some are easier than others (transposing Braille into letters) and some are wickedly difficult.
- Hones observational acuity: When you know what you are looking for and your GPS has brought you within 5–10 feet of a cache, you learn to start looking for what is out of place (does that pole look EXACTLY like the one next to it? Why is there a pile of sticks in that stump?).
- Provides a wide variety of opportunities for learning: I never would have expected myself to be lying in bed at night pronouncing Navajo words out loud—words that were used by Indian Code Talkers working with our US military to send messages to our troops overseas during WWII.
- Sends us outside: Many people look at geocaching as walking (or biking/hiking/kayaking) with a purpose…and are using it to lose weight!
Oh, and you may call me Karen, but I also answer to Snark-Hunter (a nod to Lewis Carroll’s great poem The Hunting of the Snark).
Preparing for the Intelligent Content Geocaching Adventure
New to geocaching? Then attend my session, Geocaching: Business or Monkey Business?, Friday, February 24 at 7:00am in the Sunset Meeting Room (Hotel Zoso Conference Center, lower level). I’ll teach you everything you need to know to get started, demonstrate key facets of this activity, and prepare you for Saturday’s group adventure (sponsored by Adobe). Bring your laptop, tablet, smartphone, GPS (or just yourself) and learn everything you need to begin participating in this fun, new game. And, if you choose to join us on Saturday morning (meeting the Hotel Zoso lobby at 9:15am, we’ll depart at 9:30am) I’ll guide you to some of the many geocaches hidden in and around Palm Springs.
More information on Geocaching
Listen to my podcast interview for more information.
