The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency invented the Internet. Their recent Network Challenge tested how social networks can solve problems. DARPA placed ten 8-foot balloons around the United States. It was up to self-generated teams to find them. Facebook helped expand teams and Twitter proved to be a fast and dynamic data source. Noise in Tweet data streams, however, made it difficult to extract information. It showed that distrust of one’s purpose makes individuals less likely to join and recruit their friends. Watch for more cool experiments and beware of bad guys using this type of crowd-sourcing. The 17-page project report is readable and interesting.
Click here for the report.
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