To mark the 40th anniversary of the Internet, DARPA has announced the DARPA Network Challenge, a competition that will explore the roles the Internet and social networking play 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 10 moored, 8-foot, red, weather balloons at 10 fixed locations in the continental United States. The balloons will be in readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roads. The winner will receive a reward of $40,000.
http://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/
A Moral Choice
This competition starts Saturday December 5th at 10AM. Several online mobs will be mobilized vying to find the balloons and claim the prize offering to split the earnings among the scouts.
We want to give 100% of the prize money away to the Aga Khan Foundation to support people affected by the war in afghanistan. We ask you to submit the balloon locations to us.
The choice is yours: claim the prize for yourself or give the money away to help repair for damages of war.
How to participate
You can participate in two ways:
EMAIL: send an email to ballooncharity@gmail.com with description of a balloon that allows us to locate it within the required accuracy of one mile. Please include the balloon number as well. Ideally you attach an image of it. Phone emails are most welcome.
TWITTER: follow us on twitter and send a direct message with the description of a balloon that allows us to locate it within the required accuracy of one mile. Please include the balloon number as well.
We will update the progress of the challenge on our twitter page.
Why are we doing this?
DARPA is part of the US Department of Defense. They invented the modern Internet among other things. We believe taking military funds for personal gain is wrong and we'd rather see it being used to help out people in Afghanistan that are hurting the most from the current war.
We also think that DARPA is betting on people's self-interest to motivate them during this giant crowdsourced guinea pig test. We want to bet on crowdsourced altruism. One of these motivations will emerge as the driving force behind the winning team.
About Us
Stan Wiechers and Carlos J. Gomez de Llarena work creatively with technology.
