Reflecting on the DARPA Red Balloon Challenge

摘要

the 2009 darpa Red Balloon Challenge (also known as the DARPA Network Challenge) explored how the Internet and social networking can be used to solve a distributed, time-critical, geo-location problem. Teams had to find 10 red weather balloons deployed at undisclosed locations across the continental U.S. The first team to correctly identify the locations of all 10 would win a $40,000 prize. A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won in less than nine hours (http:/etworkchallenge.darpa. mil/). Here, we reflect on lessons learned from the strategies used by the various teams.