I met briefly with Maggie Maguire, CEO of the Abbotsford Convent today about my interest in placing a geocache on the Convent grounds. On the way, I stopped to pick up Down on the Farm, a popular cache at nearby Collingwood Children’s Farm, to take with me to the meeting.

Ms. Maguire seemed resistant to the idea at first, but was curious enough to ask where I would imagine placing the cache. After I’d outlined some of the considerations for placing a cache, she seemed a little confused, and asked “Just how big is it?”

I pulled the small, one-litre plastic container out of my bag, placed it on the table, and explained that it was actually a fairly large cache by urban standards. She relaxed visibly. “That’s the whole thing?” she wondered as I opened it up and showed her the contents.

It seems that when I’d originally described geocaches as “small containers”, she had immediately thought of Monkey’s solar studio, a solar-powered recording studio housed in a standard shipping container in a secluded corner of the Convent property. I guess “small” is a relative term!

Once she understood that all we were talking about was a little plastic container, Ms. Maguire warmed to the idea immediately, expressing her amazement that geocaching was indeed a popular pastime. “I think it’s very cute,” she said more than once.

Before I left, she offered several good ideas for where the cache might be placed, and what other features of the Convent the clues for finding it might involve. Now I need to take a walk around the Convent to find a good spot.

Tonight, Jess is training along with the rest of the company’s “Technique” group of up-and-comers in preparation for putting on a season of Harold beginning in July. Meanwhile, I’ve visited a couple of nearby geocaches following reports of a geocoin in the area and have now settled down in a quiet courtyard to partake of the peace and serenity (not to mention the Impro Melbourne wireless network).

Harold—at least the way we play it, which is more formally known as the Unstructured Harold—is a free-form improvisation format where players riff on a particular word or theme through a series of scenes, movement pieces, musical numbers and whatever else happens to come about. These are revisited (or not) until the whole thing culminates into a (hopefully) satisfying conclusion. Sarah Kinsella, Impro Melbourne’s foremost authority on Harold, directed the format during Unforeseen Stories, and is leading the training of the Technique group for their July run.

Because Harold is almost entirely different every time it is played, it’s one of those formats you can fall in love with after seeing a particular show, and then get frustrated with as you attempt to recapture that magic. On the other hand, Harold also tends to produce a new and different kind of magic every time it is played … which is what keeps me coming back for more.

From the project page:

A portable application for JavaME/MIDP-enabled devices (including most mobile phones) that enables you to browse an XML database of geocache information—in particular, the Pocket Query data generated by the geocaching.com web site—wherever you go.

Web site coming soon. In the meantime, marvel at this alpha screenshot, and read on for the full project description.

Geocaching is a sport/passtime where participants use a GPS receiver (GPSr) to locate caches of trinkets hidden throughout the world, the coordinates and accompanying clues for which are published primarily on the www.geocaching.com web site.

Pocket Pocket Query (PPQuery) is a JavaME application for any mobile device supporting the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) specification. This includes most mobile phones currently available, as well as many PDA-style devices (e.g. BlackBerry). The application is built upon the J2ME-Polish framework (GPL Licensed) to provide a slick user experience and optimal device compatibility.

The primary function of PPQuery is to assist geocachers in the field by providing a useful interface to browse a database of geocache information on a portable device. This type of database is typically stored in an XML file known as a Pocket Query. The www.geocaching.com web site generates Pocket Queries as a service to its paid members, and sends them to a user-designated email address.

Because many mobile phones do not allow JavaME applications to access files stored on the device (e.g. a Pocket Query XML file), and because over-the-air transfer of such data is generally expensive under current phone plans, the XML Pocket Query data will be bundled inside the PPQuery application JAR file that is installed to the user’s device. If the user wishes to browse an updated Pocket Query database, he or she need only bundle and install an up-to-date PPQuery application JAR file to the device.

This project will also provide a web-based interface (initially, at least, written in PHP) where geocachers may upload a Pocket Query XML file, and download a JAR file (and accompanying JAD descriptor) containing a device-specific build of the application along with the pre-processed XML Pocket Query data, ready to be installed to their device.

The possibility exists to integrate with www.geocaching.com so that Pocket Queries may be sent directly to the processing script, and the resulting JAR file emailed to the user; however, as this will likely involve significant use of server resources and bandwidth over time, this facility may be developed separately as a paid service (without the use of SourceForge resources, and in compliance with the GPL license of the J2ME Polish framework).

Initial test releases of PPQuery will be in English only; however, full support for localized releases will be built into the application from day 1, and assistance with developing translations will be solicited from the community prior to the first general release.

The most similar existing application is Geocache Navigator, a commercial product that downloads geocache data over-the-air and also integrates with in-device and Bluetooth GPS receivers. It is only available on a restricted set of devices through a subset of US cellular phone carriers. As mentioned above, PPQuery saves the user from paying wireless data fees by relying on a portable database of geocache data rather than downloading this data over-the-air. It will also be freely available for many more devices, regardless of the user’s mobile phone carrier. At least in its initial release, PPQuery will not provide a UI for available GPS receivers; however, this may be added as an enhancement in a future release.