Prev
DARPA, The US defense research agency, used 10 red balloons in a contest to assess the accuracy with which information spreads on the internet.
The giant moored weather balloons were launched Dec 5, 2009 in the morning at 10 undisclosed locations across the United States.
More than 4,000 groups competed to be the first to pinpoint all 10.
A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won the challenge and a prize of $40,000.
MIT team had an interesting incentive structure
We're giving $2000 per balloon to the first person to send us the correct coordinates, but that's not all -- we're also giving $1000 to the person who invited them. Then we're giving $500 whoever invited the inviter, and $250 to whoever invited them, and so on...
Johanna Jones, a spokeswoman for the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), said that beyond the actual contest, the aim was to see whether social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter should be seen as credible sources of information.
For more information about Darpa Challenge, visit https://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/