I'm continuing to get caught up on the Linkathon email. "Happy Crow" writes us:

You inspired me to write something while listening to the latest Fast-Forward radio. I don't know what all the limits are on push-prizes, but what about one that created courses designed to let "the rest of us" benefit from the same kind of linguistic logic that allows philologists to comprehend a dozen-some languages?

Anyway, whether for link, or just for your reaction, here's the url, and thanks in advance."

My thought is that push prizes can be effective for most any type of development that people would like to see happen. The keys, I think, are:

1. Have a realistic goal that is within the grasp of foreseeable science,
2. Offer a sum that's sufficient to inspire action, AND
3. Be someone (or a foundation or whatever) that potential competitors will trust to actually pay the prize when its won.

The amount of money that's offered for these prizes varies according to what needs to be accomplished. We've had fun recently talking on FastForward Radio about the success of both the DARPA Urban challenge, and Stephen Wolfram's universal Turing machine question. DARPA paid out $3.5 million, Stephen Wolfram paid out $25,000. They both got their money's worth I think.

-Linkathon.

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