The DARPA Red Balloon Network Challenge

I admit at the outset of this blog entry that I am a geek and find the sociology of technology fascinating. I'm not a 'gamer' in the traditional sense of computer video games but activities/challenges that involve technology and the outdoors are periodically on my To Do list. From my family's many geocaching adventures to the GLOBE at Night Campaign to the mapping research project we did last year with Audubon and UMaine Vernal pool project, I'm interested in technology-based citizen science projects of all sorts.

So now that you know my quirky-ness (which is hardly news if you regularly read this blog), you'll understand why I'm really interested in following the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - they're the think tank who started the internet as a military communication project for the DoD) Red Balloon Network Challenge.

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.

All balloons are scheduled to go on display at all locations at 10:00 AM (ET) until approximately 4:00 PM (local time) on Saturday, December 5, 2009. The launches will occur simultaneously across the country. Balloons will come down at approximately 4:00 PM.

A $40,000 cash prize will be awarded to the first entrant to submit the latitude and longitude of all ten balloons.

Should weather or technical difficulties arise with the balloons during the day, the display at an individual location may be delayed until Sunday, December 6, 2009, or later, depending on conditions.

The balloons will fly for approximately 6 hours on the East Coast and 9 hours on the West Coast.

Here's a link to a radio interview with a team leader about the DARPA Challenge

What really strikes me about this project is not only the various approaches people are taking to complete the challenge - connecting on social networking sites like Facebook and TWitter to techies writing scripts to detect chatter on the web of sightings and collect locations - but also what this information will actually reveal about the American public. I guess it would be helpful for the government to better understand how quickly, and effectively, the American population can mobilize and communicate something found in public view, with accurate GPS coordinates, to the masses (it's not like 1947 in Roswell for the government these days).

By the end of the weekend, the challenge should be over and the implications of how it came together for that team should be very educational. Since I work and blog in the social networking sphere, I'm well-aware of its influence over my own personal collection of news and information on a daily basis. I guess by tracking this DARPA challenge, I'm also getting a nice justification for my job as a blogger and content producer for a social networking website.

I decided to join a team for the challenge on the off-chance there is a balloon placed in Maine. I'm not holding out much hope of that but figured that the I Spy A Red Balloon team was working toward a good cause (on the chance they win, the cash prize will be donated to the American Red Cross) and it was an easy way for me to participate and track the progress of balloon sightings on Saturday.

And a final thought about this weekend's challenge... Anyone want to bet how many TV news stations will play, or reference, this little diddy from the 80s once the challenge begins?



Actually nix that, it's a sucker bet.