The Social Side of Geocaching

This is a post on two examples of the social side of geocaching.

Yesterday, we attended the third annual Geocaching Colorado Geochat. This was a opportunity for geocachers throughout Colorado to meet the new Board of Directors, fun and fellowship. We played a icebreaker game of Geo-Bingo. One of the squares was to find a cacher who had found a Project A.P.E cache. Luckily, we had one there, but the price of having him sign the square was to wear a pair of Groucho glasses that was a travel bug. You can see our suave look above. I recommend events as a way to meet fellow geocachers and learn more about the sport we all love. Besides, you may win a raffle item like a new unactivated geocoin! Yea, us.

This morning, I happened to be looking at the Facebook application on my IPod Touch. Listed was a request from Cliff Ravenscraft a podcaster from gspn.tv asking "I NEED HELP! Family wants to go GEOCACHING for the1st time. How Do I Do It?" I quickly fired up my computer, and I a few minutes I was live with him providing advice on how to get started. He wanted to use the 3G features of his Iphone, and recommended that he start with the Geocaching.com application, a low cost barrier to entry at $9.99. I gave him a few suggestions, pick a larger, traditional cache, with a low difficulty and terrain rating. I look forward to hearing his experiences in his podcast "My Crazy Life" show #373. It always amazes me the social media tools that are now an integral part of the day to day networking I experience. This meetup and short discussion on geocaching would not have been possible a few years ago.

ipod touch and paperless geocaching

For a post-Christmas gift to myself, I made the investment in a new 8 GB ipod touch. This was after watching the family enjoy their new Ipod touches on Christmas day. I discovered that I could replicate many of the business functions that I rely on with my Windows Mobile based PDA. The new Touch seems to function easier and with less effort then the PDA I was using.

However, the only application I have not been able to find in the Apple App Store is one that will import and use a geocaching GPX file. I hope someone can develop this App in the future (Bish0p, are you listening?) I would try this myself, but the developer kit is designed for Macs only.

However, I did discover a way to at least have a way to display cache listing on the ipod touch using a App called Air Sharing by Avatron Software. This App allow for viewing of various types of document files on the ipod Touch.

I'm also creating HTML export of caches from GSAK, then copying the folder into the app.

The Air Sharing application requires the use of a wireless or ADHOC wireless setup between the PC and the Touch.

Have a safe and enjoyable geocaching year in 2009.