BTE at 'Geosaurus unleashed'

How would you explain BTE to a professional geoscientist? Recently, we (Jacob/Diamondman and Gideon/Xylo) were invited to hold a presentation about BuildtheEarth.net at the ‘Geosaurus Unleashed’ event based in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. We were asked to present 1) how we use geographical datasets to create our Minecraft world and 2) what social aspects we have to consider while building that would not need to be considered in a pure mapping project. This was the first opportunity for us to present BTE to a scientific audience and therefore gave us an opportunity to think about BTE from a different perspective. As such, we want to share our experience and discuss the event.

What is Geosaurus Unleashed?

This is an event held for freshmen and returning college students of the faculties of geology and computer science from the St. Louis area. The aim of this event is to showcase different use cases for geodata science and motivate the students to explore new ideas. Geosaurus Unleashed is organized by T-Rex a geoscience innovation center in St. Louis.

Preparing a ‘Scientific’ Talk about BTE

Let’s take a step back: Why were we even invited? Well, it turns out that the organizers are fans of PippenFTS and have followed the progress of BTE from the very start. As geoscientists, they were amazed of how our project manages to bring so many, especially young people, into a system that teaches the basics of geoscience. From their perspective, BTE is an amazing way for young people to know a lot of the basic toolkit of geography and geology.

This geoeducation aspect is often overlooked, but it is true that BTE is a place where many people learn about coordinates, mapping, navigation, landscaping, city planning, and many, many other topics that touch upon geoscience. Now combine this with the possibility to get in contact with professional geographers and maybe even motivate a few students to join BTE, and you will understand that we were only too happy to join the event and talk about BTE.

But how do we present BTE to this kind of audience?

We decided to build the whole talk about the theme of “You have to care about a place to build it” which is one of the fundamental motivators for builders. Apart from that, caring and being emotionally attached to the places we build is also a driver for much of the conflict and social dynamics within BTE that make it different from most mapping projects. Finally, this theme gave us the opportunity to talk about the lack of geodata for some remote places in the world. Clearly, this was lot of topics to fit into a 20 min presentation.

More than a Map

What makes BTE different from a citizen science mapping project like Open Street Maps? The first point is the addition of aesthetics in BTE. On a map, a build is represented by a simple rectangle while our amazing BTE builders have to choose blocks, think about techniques, and try to use the limited range of possibilities that Minecraft offers in order to build a structure that portrays the shape and feeling of the real world. This means that our builders spend much longer on each building, as well as conducting research (such as utilizing coordinates, images, and architectural plans), and thus they form a connection to the places they build. This is amazing, but it can also lead to frustration and conflict, such as when the decision is made to rebuild something that has already been completed.

Furthermore, we have to consider many real world influences that do not play into usual mapping. Take a place like Area 51, a protected site where entry is strictly prohibited. On a map you can just draw an empty rectangle and write “Area 51” but how do we handle this in BTE? Do we try to build something? Do we simply leave it empty? In other places such as the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt and Uluru in Australia, entry is prohibited (e.g. for preservation or out of respect for indigenous cultures) in the real world. Should we allow people to climb them in Minecraft?

Hic sunt dracones

On historical maps the map authors would add the comment “Hic sunt dracones” (“There be dragons”) to regions they did not know anything about or just to fill places that they felt were too empty (such as deserts or mountains). You can find a lot of funny comments and additions in old maps. From made up mountain ranges to islands that were only added as a copyright protection. Should we add dragons to the places we can not build?

Another aspect that makes BTE special as a mapping effort is its interactivity and the fact that it shows a virtual memory of the earth. As already mentioned, most builders recreate places they care about. This usually includes their hometowns (e.g. neighborhoods, local restaurants, and downtown buildings) or areas within their country or state that they've visited (e.g. vacation homes, landmarks, and travel sites). However, this can also branch into culture as a whole, with places such as film locations and celebrity homes being represented, and holidays also being celebrated.

Not only are these personal and cultural memories represented, but world events also effect what builders choose to recreate. This could include remembering specific people (e.g. Queen Elizabeth II's place of death, Balmoral Castle, being built), but more importantly they can involve building places destroyed by wars (e.g. Mariupol, Ukraine) or natural disasters (e.g. Gyumri, Armenia).

This leads to a separate idea: The recreation of places which will be destroyed, such as Tuvalu, an island nation which will be mostly gone in a hundred years at the current rate of sea level rise. Simon Kofe, the Foreign Minister, has already come up with the [Future Now Project](https://www.tuvalu.tv), which seeks to rebuild Tuvalu in the Metaverse. However, we can do our part and recreate Tuvalu in Minecraft, making it accessible for young people to visit and understand the challenges of this amazing nation. (Are you up to build Tuvalu and preserve it for future generations? Join the island server of BTE Oceania hub.bteoce.com)

Learning while Playing

Previously we mentioned, that one of the reasons BTE was invited to speak at Geosaurus was its role in Geoeducation. Learning about places like Tuvalu is only a small part of this. There are actually many occasions where BTE members can learn valuable real life skills while playing. This starts with basic geography, mapping, and orientation but the builders also learn about different architectural styles, city planning, design, and different building styles around the world. Indeed the cultural learning that we gain after staying for some time in BTE is amazing. Where else can you read about buildings and cultural sites from around the earth and then immediately jump into a chat with people from these places to learn even more?

But we build up our knowledge and real life skills not only during the building phase. When you present your build to the community and you write a short text about all the things you learned about this build you teach others. And the finished builds can do a lot more teaching. Some Build Teams (and main BTE) are cooperating with schools and use our finished worlds in classrooms. How cool is it to learn about how the pyramids were built in school and then jumping into the Minecraft server with your whole class to experience how far the ancient Egyptians had to move those stones? An amazing opportunity, especially for those who might not get the chance to visit these places in real life.

The builders that stay longer and take on additional responsibilities as staff members or team leaders also gain a lot of practical knowledge in topics such as organization, team leadership, public relations and in some cases diplomacy. I (Xylo) myself only got to really practice those kinds of skills during my Master/PhD degree at university and I am constantly amazed at the skills that build team leaders have shown and developed over the past years.

Okay enough about what we wanted to talk about at the event.

Facing the ‘Saurus’

The event started with a presentation by Dr. Josef Kerski, a geoscience educator at Esri (the company that develops the ArcGIS software which can be used to analyze geodata), and he talked about how their software can be used by citizen scientists to map and evaluate data. Then we held our presentation on BTE and the places we care about. Unfortunately, not many people joined the meeting live so the discussion round after the talks was rather brief and none of the students reached out after the talk. However, in the following days we followed up on the conversation with the organizers as well as Josef, who put us into contact with a number of further geographers who might help us to obtain interesting datasets and other opportunities to present BTE in professional settings (also the event was recorded and will be distributed to other educators over the following weeks).