computer science

SCVNGR

SCVNGR is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand SCVNGR rather than just read about it. In short: SCVNGR (SCaVeNGeR) was a social location-based gaming platform for mobile phones, like a location-based social network, SCVNGR was part game, part game platform. History SCVNGR was founded by Seth Priebatsch.

Key takeaways

SCVNGR belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect SCVNGR to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of SCVNGR from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

SCVNGR (SCaVeNGeR) was a social location-based gaming platform for mobile phones, like a location-based social network, SCVNGR was part game, part game platform.

History SCVNGR was founded by Seth Priebatsch. In February 2011, it was speculated that SCVNGR had reached over 1 million users. In March 2011, SCVNGR launched LevelUp, a mobile payments platform to increase engagement and loyalty at local businesses. As of 2021, scvngr.com redirects to thelevelup.com, a spinoff company and product that was acquired by GrubHub in 2018.

Description The application had both a consumer and enterprise component. Companies, educational institutions, and organizations could build challenges, the core unit of their game, at places on SCVNGR from the web. The service also supported SMS. SCVNGR built a game "layer" on top of the world. Players could earn points by going places and doing challenges and could broadcast where they were and their activities to their friends on Facebook and Twitter. By doing challenges, players could unlock badges and real-world rewards, such as discounts or free items. By June 2010, over 1000 companies, educational institutions, and organizations had built on SCVNGR by creating challenges (and often rewards) at their locations.

Uses

Education At educational institutions, SCVNGR was mostly used as a tool for orientation for prospective and new students to college campuses (for example at the University of Louisville in Kentucky). Rather than having a traditional tour guide approach to orientation, colleges used the SCVNGR application to entice students to visit places they want students to know about, to receive rewards and as an icebreaker for meeting new people. The app was also used for orientation to campus libraries; for example, librarians from Boise State University and Oregon State University have created SCVNGR hunts and documented its use for library introductions for international students and bibliographic instruction.

Electronic literature Louise McHenry and Marlene Ahrens, two students at IT University of Copenhagen, used SCVNGR to develop a location-based narrative where participants played a detective and investigated the theft of two fifth-century Viking artifacts, the Golden Horns. This narrative relied on visiting the actual locations for the story, where participants needed to complete challenges to obtain information about the theft and the characters.

Festivals As part of the 2011 Humana Festival of New American Plays, 2amt's David Loehr used SCVNGR to "to let the audience engage, and to engage around the show instead of necessarily during the show."

Funding In June 2008 the company raised a $35k Seed round with DreamIt Ventures. In August 2009 a $750k round was raised with Highland Capital Partners. In January 2010 a $4M Series B round was raised with Google Ventures, Highland Capital Partners and DreamIT Ventures. In January 2011 an additional $15M round was raised with Google Ventures, Balderton Capital, and Highland Capital In June 2012 a $12M Series D round was raised with Google Ventures, Transmedia Capital, Highland Capital Partners, and Balderton Capital – and in August of the same year an additional $9M Series D round was raised with T-Venture.

See also Geosocial networking Gowalla Location-based game Social network game Gbanga

References

External links Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2014-09-26)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with SCVNGR

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what SCVNGR claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to SCVNGR before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about SCVNGR ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of SCVNGR

In research: SCVNGR appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses SCVNGR in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: SCVNGR is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2010s electronic literature works, American electronic literature works, GV companies, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for SCVNGR outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study SCVNGR in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what SCVNGR means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain SCVNGR out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is SCVNGR in simple terms?

SCVNGR (SCaVeNGeR) was a social location-based gaming platform for mobile phones, like a location-based social network, SCVNGR was part game, part game platform. History SCVNGR was founded by Seth Priebatsch.

Why does SCVNGR matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study SCVNGR?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on SCVNGR.