A big hat tip to Danger Room for putting this one out there. Awhile back I posted a Building Snowmobiles concept dealing with RIM or recursive incentive mechanism. This is what MIT came up with in a DARPA contest to find ten red balloons scattered throughout the US, using social media and a bounty system. MIT blew away the competition for this contest, and I suspect they will participate in this game and do well. But you never know?
So why is this important? In the new rules of war that I have talked about in the past, finding the enemy is key if we want to destroy them or capture them. Especially if today’s enemies hide amongst a population.
If we can leverage the power of these people networks that are already established on places like Twitter and Facebook, and incentivize and reward these networks for finding and reporting wanted fugitives or terrorists, then that is a significant capability. With everyone carrying a computer called a smart phone in their pocket, we have nodes walking around all over the place that could potentially help. The key is tapping into these networks, and then those networks use their computers/cellphones/smart phones etc. to communicate/seek/find/report to win the game.
On a side note, notice how all of this stuff really lends itself to a rapid OODA decision making cycle? Games like this get people engaged and incentivize them to really tap into these tools and networks to build their personal OODA machine–to win the game.
I have also argued that our current systems of bounties or incentives suck, and it is smart to really explore the realms of offense industry here if we want to get good at ‘finding’ folks.
On the other hand, organizations with ill intent might also use these methods to find folks. So to me, it is imperative to figure out what works and capitalize on it first so as to stay one step ahead of competitors/criminals/enemies.
So we will see who wins this game, and what the results will be. Also, if you would like to participate, go to the website and check out the rules. This is a world wide game and there is a nice little prize. Check it out. –Matt
State Dept. Sponsors International Game of Tag with Cash Prize
Gamers challenged to locate five “jewel thieves” in U.S. and Europe
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The 2012 Tag Challenge calls on technology enthusiasts from several nations to set their sleuthing skills loose on a mock gang of jewel thieves in an international search contest to take place Saturday, March 31.
The social gaming contest will have participants use technological and social resources to locate and photograph five “suspects” in five different cities—Washington, D.C., New York City, London, Stockholm, and Bratislava—based only on a picture and a short description of each one.
The first person to upload pictures of all five suspects to the Tag Challenge website will earn international bragging rights—and a cash prize of $5,000.