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Find 10 balloons, win $40,000
Okay smarty-pants, here's your chance to get rich quick. DARPA, the research arm of the US military-industrial complex that invented the Internet along with Al Gore forty years ago, will commemorate that anniversary with the DARPA Network Challenge, giving away $40,000 for going on a wild goose chase looking for red weather balloons.
DARPA will be tying up 10 of the eight-foot balloons somewhere in the continental United States, all in fixed locations and visible from nearby roadways. Your job is to find them. The first person to identify the location of all ten wins $40,000.
The best way to win would be a team effort. DARPA calls it "a competition that will explore the role the Internet and social networking plays in the timely communication, wide area team-building and urgent mobilization required to solve broad scope, time-critical problems." Start getting ready, because the fun starts on December 5, 2009. We predict a winner will emerge on that same day, probably with some help from Twitter.
DARPA network challenge, via Boing Boing
By Rex at 1:32 PM ON 10/30/09
I see a civil suit in the new future.
Someone's going to broadcast the location of one on Twitter and sue the winner because they claim they provided a clue.
By PTRICKY at 1:53 PM ON 10/30/09
You couldn't win that case with Johnnie Cochran.
By haha at 2:17 PM ON 10/30/09
But what about the Wookie defense?!... thats pretty much fool proof!
But yeah there probably will be a winner the same day.. I know I'll search for people posting locations and try to win that way (doubtful).
By Bankert at 2:19 PM ON 10/30/09
I guess it would depend on the rules. Money going to the person who reports the location of all the balloons regardless of how they found that information. If someone is really interested in winning and posts the locations on twitter then it would be there loss.
By Trainwrekk at 3:40 PM ON 10/30/09
I imagine there will be twice as many people posting fake locations as people posting real locations.
By Bill at 5:48 PM ON 10/30/09
If the balloons are released at exactly the same time in the daylight, and the "roadways" are well-traveled highways, the contest will be over in two minutes. It will be a near-tie between twits and iPhone/Android appers, who will have the edge because they can send GPS-tagged guaranteed-non-Photoshopped photos automatically with one click, appearing on a google map for everyone to look at.
What is DARPA really testing here? And why $40,000? I'm guessing that some division of DARPA wants someone to develop and field test a robust spotting app, and all they had in petty cash was $40K...
This sounds like a way to implement the UK's 'internet eyes the snooper's paradise' without actually having to invest the money for 1 CCTV camera for every 14 people...
By John Fenley at 2:18 AM ON 11/02/09
Red40k.com will be setup to take balloon location submissions and paypal $3000 to the first email address associated with a correct balloon location, if we win the $40k.
By new hidden object games at 6:22 AM ON 11/03/09
Player needs some strategy here.
By SlashAndBurn at 1:23 AM ON 11/14/09
My team just setup http://www.spotbigred.com, we will take submissions by iPhone App, Phone, TXT messages and web form, and will offer multiple prizes for each balloon, not just the first spotter.
By Chris Hanson at 4:05 PM ON 12/02/09
I’ve established a team of my own, called Team DeciNena. We will win because we have the wittiest name. ;)
And we are “cupcake-free”.
No, seriously, whomever wins will be using a mixture of all sorts of tactics from team recruiting to passive data mining. I'm sure there will be a lot of disinformation out there, and it will be important to combat it.
Join us, it's free, and you could actually win something. We're even sharing some reward money with those team participants who DON'T themselves find a balloon.
on your cellphone!
Text DVICE to 72434
editor@dvice.com
Chris Hanson:
I’ve established a team of my own, called Team DeciNena. We will win because we have the wittiest name. ;) And we ...More »