Small Fish, Big Pond

Sorry to be so vulgar but I can’t think of anything else to say.

DARPA put up 10 red balloons moored across the US, the challenge was for an organization to use social networking to accurately find the 10 locations. The point was to see if social networking could be used as a credible source of information.

10 balloons across the entire US. Locate and provide their exact coordinates. Game started this weekend.

I was thinking that in maybe a couple weeks we’d hear that some organization found them all. MIT already found them all…
9 hours after the competition began.

It was over before it even started. If you put this article in the newspaper, the papers would still be printing when news came that the game was already over.

I guess the DARPA has their answer, with some good data mining social networking and crowd sourcing can provide accurate information. And in less than half a day.

Too bad we can’t find a way to use this technology to find Bin Laden (remember him?).

Every time I see this story I remember this short film from when I was a kid: