OU PhD Research into Geocaching

[+cakemaker]

Have sent mine in too. Will await feedback with interest.

[+cone_dxf & family]

Response added, Good luck.

[+bargee]

done it

[+studlyone]

Done, good luck with the studies and I hope all the data is usefull to you.

 

Ian

[+madcats]

Many thanks to everyone who has responded. I'm getting some really rich data. Many have expressed an interest in the results. Obviously, it will take me some time to do the full analysis, however I should be able to pull out the simple statistics fairly quickly and will post them up in the Groundspeak forums.

 

Did you intend to target UK cachers? It seems like you might end up with half UK and half not, which - depending on which different ways people are bonkers worldwide - might mean that you have figures which are neither representative of the UK, nor the world as a whole.

 

Anyway, I filled it in, and I did say I live in France.

Thanks for filling it in. I didn't intend to target any nationality of cachers. I hoped (perhaps naively) that by posting my original message in the general geocaching topics forum, that it would be read by a spread of cachers worldwide. If I could have posted an invite in every country-specific forum, I would have, but I think that would have counted as cross-posting and I'd have lost the permission to use the forums for my survey. When it was suggested that I post in the Uk forums to ensure some UK response, I couldn't resist it as I am a UK-based student.

 

And I'm really interested in what makes you bonkers (although I tend to refer to it as "enthusastic" ).

[+Mr Nibbler]

That's another response in the bag for you. Good luck with the research.

[+gazooks]

Filled in and submitted

[+The Cache Hoppers]

Completed

[+kewfriend]

ditto - and I managed to tell the truth!

[+Just Roger]

Only just seen this as I'm on holiday and havent had an Internet connection for some time. Completed it now.

[+weston wanderer]

Completed it. Good luck, looking forward to the results!

[+maxkim]

done as well

[+Fifth Barrowcliffe]

Yet another one sent. And xcuse the spelling - I am still getting used to this keyboard.

Edited June 17, 2007 by Fifth Barrowcliffe

[+Rubarbb]

Completed

[+Baskerville Bogtrotters]

Just seen the request. Survey filled in and sent. Good Luck.

[+Eclectic Penguin]

Waddled in with mine

[+madcats]

I shall be taking the web survey off-line tomorrow at 11:30am UK Daylight Saving time. I will download the data and post a summary of the raw results in a new thread next week. I'll include a link to that thread here.

 

I'm very grateful to all of you who have provided me with contact details and offered to participate in follow up interviews. I shall be in touch in July/August to organise this.

 

I'd like to thank all of you who have taken the time to participate in my web survey. The response rate has been fantastic and I have got some very rich data. In the 3 weeks from when I first published the web survey and posted my invite in the forums, I have received over 650 responses This is a really high response rate, so I feel pretty happy with my choice of geocachers as my target group of enthusiasts.

 

Of course it helps having caught the bug myself. The OU held a Festival of Research in June at which students were encouraged to produce a multi-media performance of their research. I created a virtual geocache leading people from one to another research performances of other students. This went down well.

 

The OU library are now planning organising a geocaching event for some guests in July that follows a similar model, and I've been asked to write a short "Learn about Guide" on Geocaching to be published in the Educational and Professional Development Prospectus.

 

It still surprises me how few people have heard of Geocaching. Hopefully I can help rectify this as I publicise my research