We're loving the Red Balloons

When Expert Labs initially launched, we mentioned that the tradition of collaboration and what's now called crowdsourcing were tenets that date back to the original foundation of the Internet forty years ago, and specifically mentioned the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)'s work on creating the Internet as an influence.

So, we're extremely excited to see DARPA embrace that heritage, as well as a modern web-based crowdsourcing model of the sort that Expert Labs seeks to encourage, with today's Network Challenge. What's the Network Challenge? Well, in their own words:

The DARPA Network Challenge is a competition that will explore the roles the Internet and social networking play in the timely communication, wide-area team building, and urgent mobilization required to solve broad-scope, time-critical problems. The Network Challenge winner will be the first individual to submit the locations of 10 8-foot balloons moored at 10 fixed locations in the continental United States. The balloons will be in readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roads.

But it isn't just the $40,000 prize that's exciting; This also demonstrates how so many ordinary folks are willing to help collaborate on solving challenges together. And there are even more exciting examples of how the Department of Defense is showing the success of the model we're trying to encourage here at the Labs: This discussion of the DoD's use of cloud computing shows that the Department is on track to save hundreds of millions of dollars by using a cloud computing model, which will be our preferred method of deployment for applications as well.

So, thanks to DARPA, as always, for being an inspiration, and good luck to all the teams competing today for the Network Challenge prize.

Comments

[Jeff Korhan]

Anil

You say it is surprising that many ordinary folks are willing to collaborate to solve challenges. It is, and more than that, it is encouraging.

This may well be the future of business - not just business on the Web. Anyone who has sat on a board or a committee knows that you can invest a lot of time and get very little done without true cooperative collaboration.

Jeff