Caitlin.ann
December 4th, 2009, 04:02 PM
(CNN) -- On Saturday, thousands of people nationwide will search the skies in a high-tech scavenger hunt designed to test how far-flung groups can use the Internet and technology to work together.
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.
Johanna Jones, a spokeswoman for the military's DARPA, said the hunt -- set to begin Saturday at 10 a.m. ET -- is designed in part to give the military new ideas on ways to operate in a range of situations, from natural disasters to combat.
"It's an opportunity to reach out to groups that are very comfortable with social networking," she said. "Reaching out to some of these groups, they may actually come up with some great ideas for the future."
Link (http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/04/darpa.balloon.challenge/index.html)
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.
Johanna Jones, a spokeswoman for the military's DARPA, said the hunt -- set to begin Saturday at 10 a.m. ET -- is designed in part to give the military new ideas on ways to operate in a range of situations, from natural disasters to combat.
"It's an opportunity to reach out to groups that are very comfortable with social networking," she said. "Reaching out to some of these groups, they may actually come up with some great ideas for the future."
Link (http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/04/darpa.balloon.challenge/index.html)