Cha-Ching! The Rewards of Geocaching

I have stumbled upon an arguable new form of social media that we have not discussed—geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing). Geocaching is basically a scavenger hunt using a global satellite positioning system. It is a sport “where you are the search engine.”

How geocaching works:

You can go to the geocaching Web site to create a free account. The site explains the definition in its FAQ’s page:

“Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for GPS users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a GPS unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the Internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to
find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide
variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something
they should try to leave something for the cache.”

Many caches contain a log book that asks that you record when you found the cache and who you are. You can also create your own caches and record their locations (coordinates) on the Web site. A huge rule in geocaching is that you should NOT move a cache.

When I search my zip code in the Athens area there are 829 records. This “sport” really is pretty in-depth and there is much more to it than I have described. You really need to visit the Web site’s FAQ’s page to get the complete idea.

I am bringing this activity up in the context of social media for the obvious reasons. It is a great way to interact with people by actually getting out there and DOING something. I think it may be a great way to feel connected to your community too. The process of finding a cache takes you to places you may never knew existed in your area. I think this is a great form of social media for those who enjoy the glow of the sun rather than the glow of a monitor.

twitter tweets for two days!

For those NOT in this class, we have a social (media) experiment for you to follow!

For the next two days we will be Twittering at least once every 12 hours. Probably more. Some of us asked what the flipping point of Twitter is ... others already think they might like it.

Follow us -- all Twitterers are being "followed" here under my much-outdated account: http://twitter.com/kaye.

org use of twitter

Here is the great Todd Defren post that Kelly Jones & I were talking about today in class outlining how a company could use Twitter.

Facebook and iTunes team up against MySpace

Although Facebook and MySpace serve similar purposes, in my opinion they never seemed to compete directly. While Facebook’s sole purpose (at least originally) was to be a social networking device for college students, MySpace seemed to entice a younger population as well as a majority of those interested in the music scene. Unlike on Facebook, bands on MySpace could create pages and offer clips of songs to constantly attract new fans.

Most of my friends have accounts only on facebook, but many of musically inclined friends, as well as my high-school-aged sister, prefer MySpace. Until recently, the two entities seemed to draw separate crowds.

Now Facebook may be taking steps to compete directly with one of the only unique characteristics of MySpace – it’s music scene. According to TechSpot.com, Facebook soon “will reportedly let bands and labels create artists pages, and allow various widgets to be embedded for music promotion, organizing events, and more. Among those widgets would be iLike, the most popular app inside Facebook, but will also include iTunes widgets for listening to 30-second song samples, and eventually allowing users to buy music through Apple.”

The article does mention that this news has not been confirmed officially by Facebook or MySpace, and another Web site claims Facebook may not be teaming up with iTunes but could in fact be creating an iTunes competitor.

Bloggers and news sources are wondering whether this possible new Facebook application will lead to the downfall of MySpace or whether MySpace’s history of being a cyber home for musicians will win in the long run.

With all of the Facebook hype in recent news, I believe MySpace’s glory days may become a thing of the past. If musicians transfer their Web sites from old “spaces” to new and possibly “cooler” pages on Facebook, MySpace will have lost a majority of it’s remaining fans.