GeoCheckpointing

[Scott]

I've just been targeted with a Facebook advert for GeoCheckpointing: "a family-friendly outdoor activity". After a quick poke around, I'm not clear whether or not it's a commercial organisation.



As far as I can tell, geocheckpointing is like geocaching, except that the caches aren't hidden - so a cross between geocaching and a permanent orienteering course?

The current geocheckpoints seem to be concentrated in Central Europe, with only one in the UK. So not really that interesting at the moment, except that is perhaps worth pointing out their (relatively) attractive website.

[frog]

It looks like geocaching but without the "treasure" (ie plastic crap) to find. I like boxes full of plastic crap though so prefer geocaching. There are also no travel bugs or geocoins in geocheckpointing (more interesting than the plastic crap although I think all but 1 of the geocoins and travelbugs I've released have been nicked now)

[Another180]

GeoCheckpointing

The idea that this is anything like orienteering should be purged from the face of the earth

[Copepod]

However, reading the posts in this cache, Wandlebury Present, many geocachers like the orienteering connection - see http://coord.info/GC2BQ6C

[frog]

I agree it is nothing like orienteering, in that neither running speed nor navigational ability are necessary for geocaching. There is some overlap in the people who do both hobbies though, just like between cycling and orienteering, although geocaching also attracts alot of middle aged couples with small dogs who wouldn't cycle or orienteer.
Both hobbies have a "finding hidden things" element to them though so I think some geocachers may be tempted to orienteer.
This link http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... ?wp=GCX3GX
to one of the Ed permanent course geocaches hidden by an INT member shows that the 2 hobbies can be combined looking at the comments on the site.

[AAH]

It's presumably a commercial enterprise - Geocaching is run by Groundspeak who are a commercial set-up so perhaps that's the inspiration (compare the quality of the marketing materials, promotion etc. on the Geocaching.com website and email circulations with BOF and weep...). Although it's not clear whether it is commercial the fact they are paying to advertise on Facebook suggests it is a commercial enterprise.

The interesting thing here is that they are presumably targeting FB advertising at orienteers using the keyword orienteering. Presumably, orienteering could target geocachers using the keyword geocaching...

[roadrunner]

I guess geocaching.com is indeed commercial, but it's free to participants (in the same way as Parkrun), with their costs being paid by sponsors. This does seem to be an area where orienteering has been missing out, especially in recent years. I know from personal experience with road races that it's harder to get sponsors these days, and orienteering's low profile certainly can't help, but then again geocaching isn't exactly something that most of the population understand, and they've managed it...

[AAH]

I guess geocaching.com is indeed commercial, but it's free to participants (in the same way as Parkrun), with their costs being paid by sponsors...

Kinda... having tried geocaching at one stage, I rapidly found myself paying $30 for a 'premium membership'. This gets you some extra facilities, e.g. can find out about 'premium only' caches (quite a lot of them - some people prefer setting them as they get trashed less) and much better search facility (Google maps with icons on it). They get some sponsorship but I don't think it looks like it would come close to their income for the premium memberships. They also sell merchandising etc. (not something BOF should do beyond a couple of T-shirts etc. as it would negatively affect the ecosystem of businesses around orienteering which brings in a lot of benefit).

If BOF was set up according to modern e-commerce it would work a bit like this: the home page would be set up more for beginners, with links to fixtures list, results and sections more of interest to regular users. It would not currently have an article about BOF membership card errors on page 1, that would be page 1 of the members section. There would be lots of 2 minute videos introducing people to the sport, what to expect at your first event, how to navigate, how to get round your first course, videos of people going round courses, how-to videos and articles on using a compass, animations showing you about the map key etc., how to orient your map etc., as well as videos of races, Jukola, interviews with elite orienteers etc. Enough for someone to get lost for an hour or two looking at it. Clubs would be encouraged to link to all of this from their own websites.

Although you could easily search the fixture list if you don't like mailing lists, it would make it very easy to sign up to a mailing list but make sure it got people's approx post code. It then sends out customised geo-targetted emails every few weeks, including links to local events and local clubs, plus a link to a new article/video or two, maybe some beginner focussed articles, some news stories of the wider world of O and videos etc.

Most of this is a push to get people to go to some events and keep in some kind of contact with them. Some thought would have to go into the frequency of messages. It methodically pushes the benefits of club membership and has an unmissible link to sign up. Users can then set up a £10 p.a. annual auto-recurring credit card payment to get 'club' membership. The system is integrated with individual clubs mailing lists so they start getting club newsletters and circulars etc. Once people have club level membership they occasionally get BOF-generated emails start pushing them ads for level A and B events, holiday events etc., still geotargetted to some extent, frequency carefully thought out.

For 'Premium' membership (£30 p.a. + option to make a donation, gift aid option) you get to enter level A events and level B without a premium, get on the ranking list etc. It has by now switched off the beginner messages and you get more typical BOF communications, with some options to opt out.

At least I reckon that is what an internet start-up would put in its business plan...

[Guest88]

Interesting post - the City of London race website did very prominently feature GG's excellent video of the previous years race, and also had excellent entry figures. I was thinking that maybe some of the other urban races should link to the same video.

[Paul Frost]

AAH, an excellent breakdown of what could happen, all that technological filtering is available now, not just some dream of the future.

There is no reason why it needs to be a commercial project for all that to happen, it's just good usability design.
But it does highlight the need for a website to meet the needs of two audiences. I'm in the process of re-thinking the SOA website, and the balancing of content on the front page between newcomers, members and the media is the most difficult.
The most common way to identify users is to place a 'cookie' on their computer so that future visits could be tailored to suit, but the new cookie laws are making this impractical now.

But your post gives plenty of food for thought, it's just a pity that very few people will read it, as the title of this thread is not going to catch peoples attention. It's like this on so many threads, the original post kickstarts a different discussion than intended and then it's hard to know when to reply or start a new thread that without the preceding comments looks a bit random.

[AAH]

Glad the post was of some interest and yes, I imagine that burying it away at the bottom of a thread on a different topic doesn't help!

The directive on cookies will be interesting and it will be harder to direct people with different goals to different parts of a website. I wonder if the practical solution will be to set web sites up so that there are clear links from the home page that will take people to pages which will be a bit more customised for their particular needs... not necessarily saying 'beginners this way' but perhaps having a small number of clear buttons or options which take different users to different places, rather than menu bars which are consistent across every page of a site, as is currently normal? Of course, the SOA website already does this to some extent with mini-sites for SEDS, the national centre etc. and already seems very good at providing easily findable information for a range of users.

[Mrs H]

It's brilliant but....

(not something BOF should do beyond a couple of T-shirts etc. as it would negatively affect the ecosystem of businesses around orienteering which brings in a lot of benefit).

BOF definitely haven't worked that one out yet!

[Gross]

It's brilliant but....

(not something BOF should do beyond a couple of T-shirts etc. as it would negatively affect the ecosystem of businesses around orienteering which brings in a lot of benefit).

BOF definitely haven't worked that one out yet!

Perfect start to a New Year of BOF Bashing Love it !

[IanD]

On the subject of cookies, if you block cookies for the BOF website, it won't log you on when you input id and password. But it won't tell you that it hasn't logged you on, let alone why!

[andypat]

We tried to find a local geocache the other day and a tree had fallen on top of it! A lucky escape.....