New technologies and valorization of the geoheritage :a project combining social networking, treasure hunting and adventuorous game
Résumé
A project combining social networking, treasure hunting and adventurous game in interpretation of the geoheritage This presentation proposes the first results of the french partners of a program gathering four Europeans territories in a Leader and transnational Cooperation project called: Heritage Interpretation through new technologies (HINT). The laboratory EDYTEM (Environnement, dynamiques et territoires de montagne) associated to the aspiring Chablais Geopark try to develop new tools for geosite interpretation. A review of the digital technologies used for the valorization of the geoheritage into the geoparks network proposes a typology of the realized or current projects. The aim is to rank tools and technologies used but also the objectives pursued by these realizations (interactivity, cartography, 3D-reconstitution, geo-catching, augmented reality, smartphone applications, web 2.0 interfaces ...) for in situ or ex-situ experiments. Geoparks and aspiring Geoparks territories aim to use their geological resource sustainability for the economic benefit of their locality, largely through supporting tourism in the region. This study tries to analyse if the geoparks territories can be considered as an innovative milieux for the development of the digital technologies applied to the e-tourism. Each partner of HINT project investigates the implementation of a practical pilot project in interpreting geoheritage. By combining new technologies such as digital nomadism, social networking, augmented reality and gaming (e.g. treasure hunting) we want to design completely new geotouristic products mixing serious and adventurous games into fieldtrip educational supports (Cayla, 2010). The objective is to prolong the tourist experience beyond the visit and to allow during the time of a geotouristic adventure to create a community which from the virtuality of the web can take shape into the real world. For that, a web platform combining various services in a mash-up dedicated to the creation of a virtual community during the time of the adventure will be created. The mash-up will integrate a webmap, social networking interfaces, augmented reality tags, rich media contents... The scenario of the treasure hunt will contain various stages: Creation of a virtual community by the solving of a geological enigma giving the departure point of the adventure. Meeting of the community at the departure point of the adventure. A pedestrian rally through the Chablais searching signs thanks to the indications supplied by geolocalised augmented reality via smartphones. At end, a meeting point where all the geological informations gathered during the adventure will take sense for the reconstitution of a part of the geological history of the Chablais. This pilot and innovative project will be developed for summer 2012 in order to test new experience products and services for geotourism (Scherrieb, 2005).