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
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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!
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