DARPA Red Balloon Challenge information

DARPA Red Balloon Challenge information page. More information coming soon.

So far very little is known about the DARPA Red Balloon challenge. Are the ten balloons all the same? Can they be seen from satellites? Can they be a on private property? Are they necessarily even inflated? How high can they be? No one knows. The DARPA webpage for the event is very vague -

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Internet, DARPA has announced the DARPA Network Challenge, 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 challenge is to be the first to submit the locations of 10 moored, 8-foot, red, weather balloons at 10 fixed locations in the continental United States. The balloons will be in readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roads.

It is assumed that teams attempting to win the challenge will have to coordinate both physical sightings on the ground and data mined from social networks such as Twitter. Since competing teams can be assumed to be seeing the same information, clever ways to filter sighting data will likely play a part. Teams will also have to deal with the possibility of false sightings, poisoned data, and even fake balloons.

Many teams are already planning on donating the money to charity. But it is not known whether the balloon challenge is set up to favor a large distributed team, or a small group with superior data mining skills. Since no one knows where the balloons will be, and thus who will see them, a focused strategy seems like it would be risky.

Other challengers are trying to use the greed motive. Posts are already appearing on the Internet offering up to $3000 for a confirmed balloon sighting. Note that since taxes must be paid on the total $40,000 prize, that level of reward is a big gamble.

The event announcement happened on October 29, 2009 and the schedule is as follows -

Registration Opens - December 1, 2009
Balloons Launched - December 5, 2009
Submission Deadline - December 14, 2009

Note that the balloons will only be in the air during the day on the fifth.

DARPA's official page for the event is here - http://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/

The press release for the event follows -

News Release

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

3701 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203-1714

IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 29, 2009

DARPA ANNOUNCES NEW CHALLENGE COMPETITION

The DARPA Network Challenge Will Explore How Broad-Scope Problems Can Be Solved Using Internet-based Technologies
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) today announced the DARPA Network Challenge to mark the 40th anniversary of the Internet. The competition requires participants to discover the exact position of 10 large, red weather balloons that DARPA will place in undisclosed locations across the continental United States. The first person to identify the location of all the balloons will win a $40,000 cash prize. The balloons will be positioned on December 5, 2009.

“It is fitting for DARPA to announce this competition on the anniversary of the day that the first message was sent over the ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet,” said Dr. Regina E. Dugan, who made the announcement at a conference celebrating the anniversary. “In the 40 years since this breakthrough, the Internet has become an integral part of society and the global economy. The DARPA Network Challenge explores the unprecedented ability of the Internet to bring people together to solve tough problems.”

The DARPA Network Challenge is open to individuals of all ages, reflecting DARPA’s interest in attracting students to pursue careers in the areas of science and technology, including emerging specialties in the social sciences. Open to participants worldwide, the Challenge enables collaboration across borders, mobilizing individuals and groups to address difficult problems aided by the Internet.

This is the latest example of DARPA’s interest in reaching nontraditional sources of ideas and talent. The Grand Challenge competitions were started in 2004 to foster the development of autonomous robotic vehicle technology for use on the battlefield. The competition model for stimulating technological development enabled significant strides that will someday keep our men and women in uniform out of harm’s way.

“The DARPA Network Challenge taps into the same fresh thinking that made the earlier competitions a success,” said Dr. Norman Whitaker, who led DARPA’s most recent Challenge. “Future innovation depends on the upcoming generation of technologists who are discovering new, collaborative ways to approach problems that were not dreamt of 40 years ago.”

The 10 balloons will be placed in publicly accessible locations in the continental United States and will be on display for one day (December 5th) during daylight hours. The first participant to identify the latitude and longitude of all 10 balloons will receive the cash prize.
Event details can be found at www.darpa.mil/networkchallenge and updates on Twitter.com/DARPA_News.

-END-

Media with questions, please contact Johanna Jones, (571) 218-4512 or johanna.jones@darpa.mil.