Geocaching.com zeroes in on DARPA Challenge

When I was a kid I always thought the whole thing about God knowing when every sparrow falls was absurd. Then as I got older I figured out it was a metaphor. Now I’m not so sure. In another ten years we may be able to know when every sparrow falls. We are evolving into a hive society where when an event happens anywhere, everybody everywhere knows about it.

The DARPA Network Challenge is quite interesting in that the location of the red balloons is undisclosed. Ten needles in ten-thousand haystacks. Intelligence must be gathered from points spread wide and far and Geocaching.com believes they have the tools and the community to get the job done. Their viral intelligence gathering strategy is outlined in this email I received from Geocaching.com.

Fellow Geocachers, As part of the nationwide DARPA event to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Internet, we’re enlisting geocachers to be part of a fun social networking/GPS technology challenge. 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 that will only be visible during tomorrow’s (12/5) daylight hours. The winner will receive $40,000.

If Groundspeak wins the challenge with your help, we will throw in another $10,000 of our own money. The full $50,000 prize will go to schools that need GPS equipment through DonorsChoose.org.

Tomorrow, December 5th, a group of Groundspeak Lackeys will meet up in the DARPA War Room at Groundspeak’s Headquarters to gather information online of the possible locations of the 10 weather balloons. We hope you will follow our attempts to win the challenge and help us along the way by gathering information both online and on the ground.

Do you want to help? Visit http://www.10balloonies.com – our official web site for Groundspeak’s team. We’ll provide up to the minute updates there and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/10balloonies. Also, if you are out geocaching, running errands or taking a morning stroll and spot one of the balloons, send us an email at darpa@groundspeak.com. The balloons will be numbered, so we need to know what number is on the balloon along with the coordinates for the location and any additional information (such as “saw from afar.” Coordinates need not be exact, (within 1 mile of actual coordinates will do) so an address will work.

Even if you aren’t in the continental US you can still help! Information will be spreading through social networks, blogs and news outlets. If you hear something helpful for us to find any of the 10 balloons, let us know! With a global community of millions of GPS enthusiasts, we believe that geocachers are ideally suited to this challenge. With our collective efforts, we can accomplish something really positive! Jeremy Irish President & Co-Founder, Geocaching.com Also one of the balloonies

According to the DARPA site the competition 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.

This is so cool. A mere ten years ago several military divisions with advanced communications networks would be required to pinpoint the location of 10 objects dispersed in unknown locations across the US.

I wonder how long it will take to find all the balloons? If this can be done in a single day, the implications are significant. If it only takes a few hours… wow!

UPDATE: MIT Red Balloon Challenge Team Wins!

Geocaching to evolve into more diverse social forums

I’ve concluded that the Geocahing fad is no longer a fad but is and will continue to become ingrained into the fabric of society  in ways that we can not yet imagine.  Geocaching will be one of the things that change significantly over time but are still called the same thing, like “Rock-n-Roll” or “cell phone, ” neither of which resembles anything of itself from 20 or 5 years ago respectively. The old-timers will say, “I remember back when Geocaching was blah blah blah.” Or, ” Geocaching is nothing now like it used to be.” You watch.

I don’t know what kind of social change will ultimately be brought about from too much geocaching, but for now it seems to be very family friendly and nature friendly and those are good things and it’s hard to get too much of a good thing. But mark my words, someone will always come along and scew it up.

For about a month or so I’ve been bookmarking items about the Geocaching craze whenever I come across them because I am going to be making a presentation about it in early May and I like to get a head start on stuff like that. Here is the latest find from a tweeter on twitter that I think is worth mentioning:

NatureCache is coming to selected state nature preserves around the state.

The new series combines naturalist-led interpretive hikes with global positioning system (GPS) technology. The first event is scheduled for Tinker’s Creek State Nature Preserve in Portage County on April 18 at 10 a.m.

Tinker’s Creek, a 486-acre site, features extensive wetlands and excellent wildlife viewing. Armed with demonstration GPS units, visitors will learn to find some of the best wetland views. The easy hike is suitable for the entire family and is a perfect complement for Earthcache, a virtual geocaching activity encouraged at some state nature preserves.

Quite interesting. Sponsored by Gander Mountain Company, of course. The NatureCache  program implies a sophisticated management system is in use to manage a geocache-type course along with all the related content and the geo-tools that would go along with such a management system. If they don’t have that they will soon realize they need it. Anyone who wants to manage private geocache courses of any magnitude will need some kind of content management system to effectively run the operation.

I don’t think Geocache.com is going to own the game for much longer. Way too much opportunity for marketers to reach the consumer. It’d be like shooing vultures off a rotting carcass to keep the thing non-commercial.

If you haven’t ever heard of Geocaching, here are a few of the other articles I have bookmarked:

• Geocaching Becomes Popular Adventure
• Geocaching in New Yorks Finger Lakes (Sojourn Geoache Trail)
  
• Geocaching: The new outdoor craze
• Educators find value in geocaching craze
• The geocaching craze comes to Charlotte