Sponsor's Message

Instead of doing the work yourself, just challenge the private sector to achieve a particular goal and offer a token prize.

That's exactly what DARPA did with their Grand Challenge this month.

By tossing out the carrot of a paltry US$1 million in prize-money, DARPA attracted an overwhelming number of entries and, although it appears that even the best of them didn't come remotely close to claiming that prize, I'm sure a lot of valuable information was gained.

And, while NASA continues to pour billions of dollars into trying to come up with another low-cost re-usable space vehicle to replace the shuttle or provide affordable access to sub-orbital space -- the entrants in the XPrize challenge are already well down the track.

Readers Say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums

Once again, the prospect of a measly (by comparison with NASA's budgets) US$10 million has attracted a good number of competitors.

While the vast majority of those engaged in this race to space are just dreamers, there are also some very impressive entries that look as if they might just earn that $10 million.

Personally, I love this approach to advancing technology in specific areas.

Instead of trying to pick winners like our government does, this approach effectively gives the private sector the incentive they need to duke it out amongst themselves so that the winner is chosen solely on the quality and merits of their results.

Even though the amount of money offered is small, it appears to be enough to allow competitors to go out and rake up the much-needed funding through private-sector sponsors.

Perhaps NZ ought to look at this strategy and see whether we can put it to good use.

A good example of this might have been the government's recent call for authentication systems that might work in conjunction with the roll-out of its e-Government services.

Imagine how much they might have saved if they'd turned this into a challenge with a $500K first prize. There'd have been truckloads of programmers toiling long hours to try and win -- and who knows what really creative solutions might have been devised, leading the way to commercial products that could generate significant overseas earnings.

Perhaps it's time we reminded those who pick our pockets and then spend our money for us that they have an obligation to choose strategies that return the maximum bang for each buck involved. In some specific cases, this "challenge" concept has a lot going for it.

This is News?
Wow, here's a bit of amazing news and some cool investigative journalism.

It's also nice to see the original source of such stories getting the attribution they so richly deserve eh? :-)

New Forums!
Yes folks, good news. The grotty ezboard forums have been replaced with a new phpBBS-based system that won't assault you with a myriad of pop-ups and other flotsam.

A big thanks to Managed Internet Solutions for offering to provide this service.

You can access the new forums over at aardvarkforums.co.nz

If you feel that this is a good thing and/or you hold a "geniune affection" for yours truly -- then you are welcome to gift me some money using the buttons provided. In gifting this money you accept that no goods, service or other consideration is offered, provided, accepted or anticipated in return. Just click on the button to gift whatever you can afford. NOTE: PayPal bills in US dollars so don't accidentally gift more than what you were intending :-)

Contacting Aardvark
I'm always happy to hear from readers, whether they're delivering brickbats, bouquets or news tip-offs. If you'd like to contact me directly, please this form. If you're happy for me to republish your comments then please be sure and select For Publication.

Other media organisations seeking more information or republication rights are also invited to contact me.

Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

Linking Policy
Want to link to this site? Check out Aardvark's Linking Policy.

Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!