Article in the NewScientist on the bad use of crowdsourcing, more on DARPA's Network Challenge test

This article, 'Innovation: The sinister powers of crowdsourcing' , talks about how the power of a crowd of people via communications on the internet or mobile network can be used for bad things. The article does a good job of highlighting some of the reasons government agencies find the power of people interesting and in a way that could work against peoples basic rights.

The points made in this article about leveraging a service like 'Amazon's Mechanical Turks' or a simple online game, show that it is easy to lure people into contributing to a crowdsource effort without properly evaluating the implication of their actions. Might be a good iPhone app, something that would help people quickly get a 'crowdsourced' opinion on whether to participate in a crowdsource effort....


This is a follow up to some of my earlier interest in the Network Challenge.

Jim Lehrer of PBS on journalism

Jim Lehrer is stepping back at PBS's News Hour. MacNeil and Lehrer and Walter Cronkite are key people for defining journalism for me. Chronkite's passing and Lehrer stepping back are important to me to remember what journalism means. Here are couple points from Jim Lehrer on what it means to be a journalist:

Do nothing I cannot defend.

Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.

Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.

Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am.

Assume the same about all people on whom I report.

Assume personal lives are a private matter, until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.

Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything.

Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes, except on rare and monumental occasions.

No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.

And, finally, I am not in the entertainment business.

Some of the lessons learned in the DARPA Network Challenge

Balloons did turn out to be a real interesting research project for DARPA, better that the government feeding LSD or Biological Weapons on unsuspecting citizens [netizens?] but this did feel like some type of lab experiment. Probably no worse than a Nielsen Rating.

Here are three blogs that did a post balloon analysis:

Lessons Learned From DARPA Balloon Challenge

The Day Google Didn't Matter

After the Challenge, What Have We Learned?

Here are some of the top points I read in these reviews:

• Geocachers are a group of folks that do this type search as a hobby and they jumped on the challenge
• Social Engineering to confirm information
• Microsoft Excel for keeping track of data
• Google didn't matter because Google is a file cabinet of the past.
• Make it easy for more people to participate
• Give people multiple reasons to participate
• Give people a reason to get others involved
• Align incentives properly
• Look beyond your immediate "group"

And in a nutshell, it looks like MIT's use of the basic Multi-Level-Marketing incentives was the key thing that got them the win....

Team MIT wins DARPA Network Challenge and one of the balloons was right under my nose

My rat like nose seemed to tell me that I could be a lab rat in the DARPA Network Challenge and sure enough one of the ten balloons was right here in Santa Barbara. But darn it I missed it! For some reason I think there is some 'Who Move My Cheese' related lesson in this for me.....

It will be interesting to read about how the winner, MIT, and the other teams approached their solutions. And what DARPA learns about social networking and how it might be part of their future plans.

Dan Bricklin's new iPhone app, Note Taker

Dan Bricklin is one of the original authors of VisiCalc and created a number of other very useful applications at his follow on company Software Garden. I am glad to see him back in the code slinging mode and out with what looks like a very interesting application for the iPhone/iPod Touch [and hopefully soon for my Android phone] called Note Taker. I use email on my G1 phone as my note taking app and have defaulted to this on my prior Nokia, WinCE, Blackberry, and iPhone phones after trying many note taking applications. None of the quick note taking apps hit the mark for ease of use and usefulness. Note Taker looks like a good shot at getting it right. Have a look at Dan's video of the application here, and give it a try and let me know your thoughts. Here, at his blog, is his write up on creating the application.

DARPA Network Challenge, we are all lab rats and smoke signals have come a long way

It is going to be interesting to watch the progress of DARPA's Network Challenge, celebrating the 40th year of the internet. It does look like it will be an interest study for DARPA to see how the population of the country can be used as a human sensor network. We are all lab rats after all..