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On December 3rd, Groundspeak enlisted the help of geocachers nationwide to participate in a social networking/GPS technology challenge commissioned by the, Defense Advanced Research Project Agency of the United States, or DARPA. The challenge was designed to “…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.” according to the DARPA Challenge website. The Challenge was to be the first group to correctly submit the locations of 10 moored, 8 foot, red, weather balloons stationed at 10 locations in the continental US. A $40,000 dollar first prize amount was set for the first person/group to correctly report all 10 locations. If Groundspeak won they offered to put up and additional $10,000, to bring the total to $50,000 and to donate the entire amount through DonorsChoose.org to help fund school programs in need of GPS equipment. A fantastic gesture and a wonderful investment in our children’s education and future.

The date of the Challenge was set for December 5th, 2009. It wasn’t a lot of notice from Groundspeak to its troops in the field, but geocachers from all over the US responded to the call. A blog “10 Balloonies – Groundspeak’s DARPA War Room” was set up to help keep geocachers informed of the challenge as it unfolded and a temporay Twitter account was set to keep the information flowing.

The action was hot and heavy that Saturday. MIT proved to be the victors being the first to correctly locate all 10 balloons. Groundspeak and it team of Geocahers found a total of 8 balloons for a respectable showing. It was a successful social networking experiment for both DARPA and Groundspeak. Here’s hoping that this trend for Groundspeak continues.

Groundspeak and the Groundspeak Lackey’s, decided to honor the contributions of all the participating geocachers by donating the $10,000 dollars they offered to put up if they won.  They will be choosing the programs to donate to over the next couple of weeks. It was a Win-Win Saturday for geocachers and Groundspeak, geocaching for a good cause.

UPDATE:

• Here is a related article that details MIT’s strategy: Random Connections: DARPA Challenge Update
• And and update from Groundspeak: After the Challenge, What have We Learned