lwien
Well-Known Member
I just heard about this.
----------------
"After kicking off the Internet 40 years ago, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is again tapping into the Net for a new challenge. The DARPA Network Challenge will award $40,000 to the first person who can identify the latitudes and longitudes of 10 red weather balloons positioned at different parts of the sky across the continental United States.
The 8-foot balloons are scheduled to lift off on Saturday at 7 a.m. PST and remain in their locations throughout the day, until sunset. The contest will be open until December 14, so contestants will have a little more than a week to gather up and submit their answers."
-------------------
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10406752-76.html
They just had the winner on the Steve Colbert show tonight. It was a team from MIT who started a viral search thru Twitter, FaceBook and just about every other social networking site.
So here's the question. How long did it take the MIT team to find them and give out the longitude and latitude of each of the 10 balloons? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 8 hours !!!! Here is where they were:
DARPA Network Challenge Balloon Coordinates
Balloon 1: Union Square, San Francisco, California
N 37 47' 16" W 122 24' 26"
Balloon 2: Chaparral Park, Scottsdale, Arizona
N 33 30' 36" W 111 54' 29"
Balloon 3: Tonsler Park, Charlottesville, Virginia
N 38 1' 34" W 78 29' 28"
Balloon 4: Chase Palm Park, Santa Barbara, California
N 34 24' 51" W 119 41' 5"
Balloon 5: Lee Park, Memphis, Tennessee
N 35 8' 17" W 90 3' 43"
Balloon 6: Collins Avenue, Miami, Florida
N 25 54' 14" W 80 7' 31"
Balloon 7: Glasgow Park, Christiana, Delaware
N 39 36' 30" W 75 43' 51"
Balloon 8: Katy Park, Katy, Texas
N 29 48' 56" W 95 48' 15"
Balloon 9: Waterfront Park, Portland, Oregon
N 45 30' 44" W 122 40' 28"
Balloon 10: Centennial Park, Atlanta, Georgia
N 33 45' 33" W 84 23' 33"
I just find this pretty fascinating knowing full well that I am totally vaked right now. :/
EIGHT FUCKING HOURS.
So now the question is, how do we harness this collective, creative, problem solving power?
One of the hints of how they won this is they told everyone that they would split the prize money if they won. $40,000 pot. They would assign $4,000 for each balloon found. They would split the 4 grand between the MIT team and the person that found the balloon. So...........you get 2 grand if you find a balloon. So...........friends told friends who told more friends, etc etc etc, and 8 hours later,? Whalla...........all balloons were found.
----------------
"After kicking off the Internet 40 years ago, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is again tapping into the Net for a new challenge. The DARPA Network Challenge will award $40,000 to the first person who can identify the latitudes and longitudes of 10 red weather balloons positioned at different parts of the sky across the continental United States.
The 8-foot balloons are scheduled to lift off on Saturday at 7 a.m. PST and remain in their locations throughout the day, until sunset. The contest will be open until December 14, so contestants will have a little more than a week to gather up and submit their answers."
-------------------
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10406752-76.html
They just had the winner on the Steve Colbert show tonight. It was a team from MIT who started a viral search thru Twitter, FaceBook and just about every other social networking site.
So here's the question. How long did it take the MIT team to find them and give out the longitude and latitude of each of the 10 balloons? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 8 hours !!!! Here is where they were:
DARPA Network Challenge Balloon Coordinates
Balloon 1: Union Square, San Francisco, California
N 37 47' 16" W 122 24' 26"
Balloon 2: Chaparral Park, Scottsdale, Arizona
N 33 30' 36" W 111 54' 29"
Balloon 3: Tonsler Park, Charlottesville, Virginia
N 38 1' 34" W 78 29' 28"
Balloon 4: Chase Palm Park, Santa Barbara, California
N 34 24' 51" W 119 41' 5"
Balloon 5: Lee Park, Memphis, Tennessee
N 35 8' 17" W 90 3' 43"
Balloon 6: Collins Avenue, Miami, Florida
N 25 54' 14" W 80 7' 31"
Balloon 7: Glasgow Park, Christiana, Delaware
N 39 36' 30" W 75 43' 51"
Balloon 8: Katy Park, Katy, Texas
N 29 48' 56" W 95 48' 15"
Balloon 9: Waterfront Park, Portland, Oregon
N 45 30' 44" W 122 40' 28"
Balloon 10: Centennial Park, Atlanta, Georgia
N 33 45' 33" W 84 23' 33"
I just find this pretty fascinating knowing full well that I am totally vaked right now. :/
EIGHT FUCKING HOURS.
So now the question is, how do we harness this collective, creative, problem solving power?
One of the hints of how they won this is they told everyone that they would split the prize money if they won. $40,000 pot. They would assign $4,000 for each balloon found. They would split the 4 grand between the MIT team and the person that found the balloon. So...........you get 2 grand if you find a balloon. So...........friends told friends who told more friends, etc etc etc, and 8 hours later,? Whalla...........all balloons were found.