Help us find the red balloons and we'll make a giant flying cupcake!

On Saturday December 5, 2009 we need your help to spot 10 red weather balloons and report their locations to us here. (form will be live on that page the during the contest)

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Internet, DARPA has announced the DARPA Network Challenge, a competition that will explore the role the Internet and social networking plays 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 ten moored, 8 foot, red weather balloons located at ten fixed locations in the continental United States. Balloons will be in readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roadways.  (from http://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/)

The prize can only be awarded to an individual- and there is no way that one person would be able to gather all of the information in time on their own. To win the challenge people will need to work together to locate the balloons. The $40,000 cash prize sounds like alot of money at first, but the winner will have to pay taxes on the award before they can share it with those individuals who helped them succeed.

What are the chances of being the first to report a balloon to the group that actually succeeds in winning? The low probability of receiving a smallish cash award isn’t worth the effort and will not create a strong network. The cash award offered by DARPA is a hindrance to the team building needed to succeed- so we’re taking it off the table. Instead we’re offering a better prize.  We feel the best way to get people involved is to share the wealth by investing the money into something we can all share, like building a giant flying cupcake entirely out of balloons.