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Competitions
Weaver
Competitions: Build it and They Will Play
Mohan Dhawan (Rutgers), Christian Kreibich (ICSI), and Nicholas Weaver (ICSI)
1
My Background
Competitions Weaver
Attempted to build a “Built-it” competition for the NSF
Became a skills-based competition
The winners reverse-engineered the competition!
Participant(ish) in the FCC Open Internet Applications challenge
Deliberately did not participate in the Application portion Co-winner of the academic research portion
2
Two Rough Categories
Competitions Weaver
Skills-based competitions
Demostration of skill and knowledge between multiple parties E.g. Capture the Flag Create a system which requires new technology E.g. The Longitude Challenge, Ansari X-Prize, DARPA car challenges, Genome Sequencing X-Prize
Build-it competitions
3
Competitors are Economically Rational Actors
Competitions Weaver
They must have expected compensation greater than the cost of entry But not all compensation is monetary...
Rather, Coolness is its own reward
Being “The Best” is damn cool Beating the NSA is super cool!
Paul Allen didn’t spend millions on SpaceShip One to simply win the X-Prize
Rather, he expected a combination of sales of the technology and its so frakking cool to be the guy who paid for the first private space ship!!!
But need to evaluate non-monetary compensation
4
Costs of Competitions
Competitions Weaver
Skills competition are comparatively low entry cost
Requires smaller prizes, or even just cool Successful competitions either required huge prizes, massive cool-factor, or a combination of the two
Build-it competitions are hard
The best competitions have combined them both: The DARPA Grand Challenge offered an insane level of coolfactor combined with a huge monetary payout (not just to the winner, but the IP developed by all top competitors)
Without coolness or ancillary benefits, build-it competitions are less valuable
All competitors expect some level of “positive payout”
5
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Competitions Weaver
A wise competitor will recycle an existing work into a build-it competition
“Been There, Done That...” But entry recycling means a build-it competition is a failure at getting something new built
Another problem is recycling effort: If the effort would be expended anyway, why have the competition?
E.g. the Genomics X-Prize: If you can meet those sequencing goals, you have your $1B biotech... Similarly, the NASA tether strength competition: Any winner is worth 10x to 100x the prize...
6
Weaver
Competitions: Build it and They Will Play
Mohan Dhawan (Rutgers), Christian Kreibich (ICSI), and Nicholas Weaver (ICSI)
1
My Background
Competitions Weaver
Attempted to build a “Built-it” competition for the NSF
Became a skills-based competition
The winners reverse-engineered the competition!
Participant(ish) in the FCC Open Internet Applications challenge
Deliberately did not participate in the Application portion Co-winner of the academic research portion
2
Two Rough Categories
Competitions Weaver
Skills-based competitions
Demostration of skill and knowledge between multiple parties E.g. Capture the Flag Create a system which requires new technology E.g. The Longitude Challenge, Ansari X-Prize, DARPA car challenges, Genome Sequencing X-Prize
Build-it competitions
3
Competitors are Economically Rational Actors
Competitions Weaver
They must have expected compensation greater than the cost of entry But not all compensation is monetary...
Rather, Coolness is its own reward
Being “The Best” is damn cool Beating the NSA is super cool!
Paul Allen didn’t spend millions on SpaceShip One to simply win the X-Prize
Rather, he expected a combination of sales of the technology and its so frakking cool to be the guy who paid for the first private space ship!!!
But need to evaluate non-monetary compensation
4
Costs of Competitions
Competitions Weaver
Skills competition are comparatively low entry cost
Requires smaller prizes, or even just cool Successful competitions either required huge prizes, massive cool-factor, or a combination of the two
Build-it competitions are hard
The best competitions have combined them both: The DARPA Grand Challenge offered an insane level of coolfactor combined with a huge monetary payout (not just to the winner, but the IP developed by all top competitors)
Without coolness or ancillary benefits, build-it competitions are less valuable
All competitors expect some level of “positive payout”
5
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Competitions Weaver
A wise competitor will recycle an existing work into a build-it competition
“Been There, Done That...” But entry recycling means a build-it competition is a failure at getting something new built
Another problem is recycling effort: If the effort would be expended anyway, why have the competition?
E.g. the Genomics X-Prize: If you can meet those sequencing goals, you have your $1B biotech... Similarly, the NASA tether strength competition: Any winner is worth 10x to 100x the prize...
6