Goverment testing Social Networking for weakness/strength

Yet another Balloon Hunt!



The government is testing the American peoples ability to communicate and work together with a time critical task. CNN Article

"The DARPA Network Challenge calls on groups to pinpoint the locations of 10 red weather balloons scattered around the country -- with a $40,000 prize going to the first team to find them all. DARPA, which stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is the U.S. military's research arm.

This year's contest is designed to test the the way social networking, crowdsourcing or lesser-known Web-based techniques can help accomplish a large-scale, time-critical task."--CNN>COM

This is a brilliant idea, using money as a motivator is the best way to get results fast, one really wonders why DARPA would be THIS interested...........

reply to post by hyperion.martin

This is a brilliant idea, using money as a motivator is the best way to get results fast, one really wonders why DARPA would be THIS interested.

One reason would be to uncover people's networks. If just one of the people in the team is on a watch or suspect list, this would reveal all of his/her contacts or friends.
Of course, that is the paranoid answer, but after all, this is ATS.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus



lol hmmm maybe I should have just quietly read the article without sharing
I might have just screwed us all