Sunday 20 June 2010

Growing pains of geocaching related websites

A few days ago, the webmaster of globalcaching.nl was questioning whether he should continue the site or not. On metacaching.nl there has been no activity at all recently and geoaching.nl is struggling with decreasing number of donators. What is going on the world of geocaching related websites?

Like any other organisation, geocaching websites go through different phases as they grow. This process is described in theories. Interesting is, because the process has been described, the growing pains could have been predicted and thus prevented.
Let’s see what the problem is according to one of these theories, the theory of Greiner. This theory states that each phase ends with a crisis. The phases can follow in a random order but this is the most common sequence:



Looking at the youngest website, globalcaching.nl, in its first year after the release it has already passed the first phase. New, creative tools have been made and a leader has described a clear vision to be followed: ‘Give the geocacher tools to find the most suitable cache listing according to his needs, without setting rules or influence the available geocaches.‘

Globalcaching.nl is now in phase 2. More and more tools have been added to the website and the amount of work is getting too much. Also the criticism that comes with executing a vision became almost too much for globalcaching.nl which was the reason for questioning the contingency of the website. A vacancy for a new programmer has been put on the website, which has not been filled yet.

To go through the autonomy crisis, a lot more is needed than a programmer to get the work done. The key will be to activate the user base. This can be done by involving small groups of users in the design of new tools on the site or giving them a specific role in the organisation, like forum moderator. When the user base is activated and involved, they will help globalcaching to get the work done by using their network to find the resources to make their design reality.

Most important however is to secure the contingency of the website. If the current owners stop their work for the website, their must be someone who can step up and continue the work. If the contingency is not secured, the user base cannot be activated. Nobody wants to put his precious efforts in the hands of a single person.
About Metacaching.nl I can be short. There has been some creativity which resulted in some interesting tools, but for further growth a vision is needed which makes this website stand out from the rest. A leader is needed who can create and execute such a vision.

Geocaching.nl is more complicated. This website already exists since 2002 and already has a significant organisation. As I already said before, the number of donators is dropping which is a sign of a crisis. Other indications are that no new tools have been developed recently and volunteers are leaving there position in the organisation pretty quickly for various reasons. Shortly said, the new middle layer of the organisation is failing to deliver results because either they are not capable to do so or the top of geocaching is in their way and worrying about the details. These are symptoms of a control crisis.

A good look at the middle layer is advised. Are they able to translate the demands of the community into solutions which fit into the vision of the top of the organisation, or are they only executing the vision of the top of the organisation without looking at the community? This is really important as the middle layer is the link to the geocaching community and they are the only ones in the organisation who can react to changes in the community.

Also some attention is needed for the top of the organisation. Are they making sure their vision is executed or are they executing their vision themselves? In other words, are they able to let go the details into the hands of the middle layer and trust on the creativity of the middle layer to execute the vision of the top of the organisation?

All geocaching related websites in The Netherlands are struggling at this moment. All of them have something good about them and I hope for the geocaching community that they will get out of the problems so that they can offer us useful new tools and we can keep on using the big amount of information on the forums.

Sunday 6 June 2010

Garmin Oregon; Trashbin or...

First I would like to thank someone. I would like to thank the guy who was telling something about his weird hobby Geocaching at the television show 'Kopspijkers' back in 2005. Finding tupperware boxes with help of million dollar satelites, that's weird! But wait a minute, this sounds like hiking, navigating and challenge. I like those things! This sounds like something for me! Thanks man, for this great addiction!

A few months later I bought my first GPS. Let's see if geocaching is something for me. It had to be cheap GPS because I did not want to spent a lot of money on a hobby I did not even know I liked. So I bought my first GPS on ebay and it happened to be a Garmin Etrex H.

Now, 3 years later, Geoaching appeared to be something I like a lot. So, I treated myself with a new, more advanced GPS last Christmas. First I was looking at a Garmin GPSMAP60CSx but this one is missing the Wherigo functionality, a very promising new trend in Geocaching in my opinion. When I read about the Garmin Dakota and Oregon series, I was sold. The Dakota is also missing the Wherigo functionality but the Oregon had all the options I wanted.

There are a few different versions of the Oregon. The 200 is the most basic version. The 300 has an electronic compass added, the 450 has detailed maps added included and the 550 has a camera but not the cards.

The first test for my Oregon was 'Van de Kaart', a recommendation. According to the description, this cache is not very easy and various options of the GPS need to be used. All I need for a good test! It was January 2nd and the first thing I discovered is that it is very hard to use the touch screen with gloves. The next thing I discovered is the accuracy of the Oregon. I found all waypoints within 2 meter of the GPS indication. With being used to the avarage accuracy of the Etrex, something like 20 meters, this was a major improvement. I do not like searching but I really like finding. Now I could tell whether the waypoint information was hidden on the trashbin or on the restplace right next to it. This will save me a lot of searching without finding! I would never have found a difficult cache like 'Van de Kaart' with my Etrex.

Another big improvement compared to the Etrex is the map. When you enter a new coordinate you hit the 'view map' label and you can immediately see whether the new waypoint makes sense or not. Now, I can immediately see whether I made a miscalcalculation or a typo so my waypoint appears to be in the water or on the other side of a river, which has happened a lot in the last 3 years.

Using the Oregon is very easy. I never needed the manual (is a manual included anyway?) for 'Van de Kaart', which includes a cross projection and multiple different date notations. There are also some strange things, like it seems that the Geocaching module of the software is only written for traditional caches. The additional waypoints of multicache are loaded as seperate waypoints and not as child waypoints related the the geocache. Also creating a new waypoint for a multicache is not very straight forward and is only possible from the main screen. What I also have not been able to do is getting the geocaching dashboard active when navigating to a normal waypoint. This dashboard is the most usefull dashboard because it is the only one with the map and compass active in a single screen. If somebody has managed to achieve this, please let me know!

Another missing thing is the danger area option, which is used in more and more caches recently but I was a bit lucky I did not need it for 'Van de Kaart'. Hopefully this will come in a software upgrade soon. For software upgrades, by the way, use the Microsoft approach and install the upgrade when the first hotfix is available which fixes all the issues in the new version because the bugs can be very disturbing. Another point of concern for me was battery usage, but allthough the Oregon is using more power then the Etrex, you can easily spent a day caching on a single pair of batteries.

Besides these few minor remarks, I am very pleased with my new Oregon. If you are thinking about buying one, Do not think about it, just do it!