The DOD, 10 red balloons and $40,000

Alicia Leonard · 2009-12-05T21:02:19.000Z

[SIZE=3]A DOD department has launched 10 red balloons and offered $40,000 to the people who find all 10. They say it is a game designed to study how people use social networks. I'm very curious about what is going to happen with this data. I have to admit this strikes me as a little strange and that takes a lot. What do you think about this? Part of me wants to think it has something to do with artificial intelligence due to it showing how humans network through the Internet.[/SIZE] It almost sounds like it's too much fun to have been hatched by the military: Find 10 giant, red balloons hidden somewhere in the U.S. and you could win $40k? But it's true. Today the [URL="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GadgetGuide/story?id=4866365&page=1"]Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency[/URL], or DARPA, "launched" 10 eight-foot-wide red balloons in a nationwide high tech treasure hunt. Open to anyone in the country, the DARPA Network challenge is designed to explore social networks and Internet communication. Finding balloons will require players to build and motivate nationwide networks of people to join the hunt. The balloons, which will be visible only during daylight hours, are "moored, 8-foot, red, weather balloons at 10 fixed locations in the continental United States," DARPA explains on its [URL="https://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/default.aspx"]Web site[/URL]. The agency added that the balloons will visible and accessible from nearby roads. The first person or team to send in the correct geographic coordinates for all ten balloons will pocket the $40,000 prize. Only those who have registered can submit locations and receive the prize, but they are free to divide the money however they'd like. As of Friday, at least 2,000 people had registered for the contest and DARPA said the number continues to grow. [URL="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/red-balloons-military-offers-40k-contest/story?id=9252014&page=1"]What's With the Red Balloons? Military Offers $40k in Contest - ABC News[/URL] [IMG]http://a.abcnews.com/images/Technology/ht_red_balloon4_091204_mn.jpg[/IMG] The DARPA Network Challenge is designed to explore social networks and Internet communication. Visible only today during daylight hours, 10 giant red balloons will be moored in 10 different locations across the country, requiring players to build and motivate nationwide networks of people to join the hunt. [URL="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/red-balloons-military-offers-40k-contest/story?id=9252014&page=1#"][IMG]http://a.abcnews.com/assets/images/icons/icon-arrow-up.gif[/IMG][/URL] ([URL]https://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/Gallery.aspx[/URL])

SoWal Insider

Dec 5, '09 · 3:02 PM8461

A DOD department has launched 10 red balloons and offered $40,000 to the people who find all 10. They say it is a game designed to study how people use social networks.
I'm very curious about what is going to happen with this data. I have to admit this strikes me as a little strange and that takes a lot. What do you think about this? Part of me wants to think it has something to do with artificial intelligence due to it showing how humans network through the Internet.

It almost sounds like it's too much fun to have been hatched by the military: Find 10 giant, red balloons hidden somewhere in the U.S. and you could win $40k?
But it's true. Today the Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, "launched" 10 eight-foot-wide red balloons in a nationwide high tech treasure hunt.
Open to anyone in the country, the DARPA Network challenge is designed to explore social networks and Internet communication. Finding balloons will require players to build and motivate nationwide networks of people to join the hunt.
The balloons, which will be visible only during daylight hours, are "moored, 8-foot, red, weather balloons at 10 fixed locations in the continental United States," DARPA explains on its Web site. The agency added that the balloons will visible and accessible from nearby roads.
The first person or team to send in the correct geographic coordinates for all ten balloons will pocket the $40,000 prize. Only those who have registered can submit locations and receive the prize, but they are free to divide the money however they'd like.
As of Friday, at least 2,000 people had registered for the contest and DARPA said the number continues to grow.

What's With the Red Balloons? Military Offers $40k in Contest - ABC News

The DARPA Network Challenge is designed to explore social networks and Internet communication. Visible only today during daylight hours, 10 giant red balloons will be moored in 10 different locations across the country, requiring players to build and motivate nationwide networks of people to join the hunt.

(https://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/Gallery.aspx)

Edited Dec 5, '09 · 3:03 PM

Replies

SoWal Expert

Dec 5, '09 · 3:09 PM#2

And people wonder why we have a budget deficit. :bang:

40K+ to "study how people use social networks".

Beach Fanatic

Dec 5, '09 · 4:27 PM#3

Or alternately, you're modeling how a cell or group of terrorist cells exchanges information about multiple targets in the information age.

SoWal InsiderAuthor

Dec 5, '09 · 4:40 PM#4

Or alternately, you're modeling how a cell or group of terrorist cells exchanges information about multiple targets in the information age.

I agree. I'm somewhere in that area about this. I'm thinking this is a training exercise and the data will be used on many different levels.:shock:

Edited Dec 5, '09 · 6:47 PM

Beach Fanatic

Dec 5, '09 · 6:16 PM#5

VP Biden will say that this counts as thousands of jobs created. There should be a least 100,000 people looking for these ballons. :floor:

Skunky

Dec 5, '09 · 10:00 PM#6

I thought this thread was about that 1980s luftballoons song :floor:

SoWal InsiderAuthor

Dec 5, '09 · 10:13 PM#7

I thought this thread was about that 1980s luftballoons song

That was the first thing I thought when I saw the original article. You can never forget that song if you grew up in that era. :blink:

but there were 99 of them.

SoWal Insider

Dec 5, '09 · 10:16 PM#8

That was the first thing I thought when I saw the original article. You can never forget that song if you grew up in that era. but there were 99 of them.

... floating in the summer sky. The DOD just has it all bass-ackwards, to use a Palinism. :wave: