DARPA Network Challenge Celebrates Internet With Contest: Find Balloons, Win Money

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Agency, has announced a competition honoring the 40th anniversary of the Internet.

The gist of the DARPA Network Challenge, which hopes to highlight how the web and social networking have improved communication, is this: find balloons, win money.

Participants must discover the exact position of 10 large, red weather balloons that DARPA will put in undisclosed locations across the US, and the first person to identify the longitude and latitude of all 10 balloons wins the $40,000 cash prize.

DARPA explains on the Network Challenge site,

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Internet, DARPA has announced the DARPA Network Challenge, 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.

The challenge is to be the first to submit the locations of ten moored, 8 foot, red weather balloons located at ten fixed locations in the continental United States. Balloons will be in readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roadways.

According to the information on the site, you can register for the contest starting December 1, and begin submitting balloon locations starting December 5. The contest is open to people of ages and from all countries, according to the press release.

Comments

[slashandburn]

My team just got http://www.spotbigred.com ready for the contest, we will have prizes and the iPhone app is almost out.

[ziploked]

So, DARPA is experimenting on how to create the "Citizen Network." First its balloons, next "America's Most Wanted," followed by "Whoever we want to find" with an enthusiastic public providing a new type of intelligence infrastructure, all at no added cost.

[balloonsForPeace]

OK here is a better idea:

Balloons for Peace: http://www.darpaballoon.com

[Red40K]

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.

[wentzlaf]

We have started up a site to organize people looking for the balloons including road trips by state. http://balloonfinder.superfunhappy.com

[Kelly Cheatle]

We're going to give this contest a shot- but instead of trying to divvy up dollars for the folks that help us- we're hoping that what we're going to do with the money is inspiring enough to gain their cooperation.

If we win, we're going to build a giant flying cupcake entirely out of balloons.

Yes. I'm completely serious! Check out our plans and the reasoning behind it here: http://findtheredballoons.com/

We'll document the whole thing and share it on teh interwebs. It'll be a grand ol time. Hope you'll help us out!

[sense oar sheep]

an announcement without registration would have been a great test of existing communications and network infrastructure

now, people will create infrastructure specific to this project

[Samcat604]

That is exactly what they are expecting and hoping for. The challenge is not that it gets done. It is HOW it gets done.

[wadenelson1]

If this works they're gonna apply the lessons of the successful balloon finders to locating Osama.

[CaptD]

Now we know what the CIA & others are going to be doing with their spare time at work...

I hope the Gov't will monitor it's own satellite usage to make sure "We the People" are not paying for some Gov't. worker to win...

[sense oar sheep]

yesterday, a twelve year old girl was abducted and an amber alert issued
the girl and perpetrator were found within an hour of the amber alert

our government does more than send blackhawk helicopters to your house in the middle of the night

[sense oar sheep]

project announcement and registration should have been made a mere before the ballons are launched

that would be a challenge

[sense oar sheep]

..a mere day or less....

[IDIOTA]

True

[sense oar sheep]

best medium would be something like HP with a large, geographically disperse, well established, and multi-faceted network

duh

[bynddrvn5]

So once you find a location you put it up on Ebay and see how much people bid for the location, yes?

Not sure what this has to do with the internet but whatever, networking, communication, blah, blah. The internet is blogging about every single thing you have done today, posting embarrassing pictures on your Facebook wall, watching streaming videos of crazy stuff or kittens doing funny things, and shopping for things you probably don't need.

Oh and of course, trying to get some work done, in between checking your tweets, email, Facebook Wall, blogs, and keep up with the fantastic amount of viral videos that friends send to you.

[IUAlumna]

The army has its faults, but it knows how to do acronyms. Anyone reading your article might wonder how they got DARPA out of "Defense Advanced Research Agency." DARPA stands for "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency."

DARPA funds some interesting technical projects. It used to be called ARPA, and its ARPANET laid the groundwork for today's internet.

[StephenJK]

BIG DOG!

[HekmabaJuzimax]

Disintegrate the ballons with a particle beam, land a position in the Weapons Division.
Tell them when Osama will be going to his dialysis appointment, land a job with Military Intelligence.

[moutonnoir]

99 Luftballons
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