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Announcing the 2009 Project for Awesome!!!

2009-12-08 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:58 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development (also: Nerdfighteria, Internet & YouTube) · mode: Announcements · tags: calendar ritual, civic or action cta, punishment or challenge, community lore, self correction, timely hook

In a four-part video Hank retracts the claim that MIT planted the fake balloon and reflects that DARPA's challenge tested rapid mobilisation of intelligence networks, then announces the Project for Awesome on December 17th with a mailing-list sign-up and discusses the brothers' punishments.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Long days; the four parts (balloons, being weird, P4A, punishments); part one begins: a false accusation

  • ★ Hank says it has been long days, so the video comes in four parts: balloons, him being weird, the Project for Awesome, and punishments. — 00:00:00 · Project for Awesome, Punishment

00:00:29 — Sorry MIT; what DARPA wanted to learn; the balloon team as resistance fighters; governments should know how to disrupt such networks

  • ★★★ Hank says they falsely accused MIT of planting the fake balloon; it was another of the many competing teams, and he apologises to MIT. — 00:00:29
  • ★ Hank says MIT still did certain dirty things, but Nerdfighteria did dirty things too. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ Hank thinks DARPA wanted to learn how easily a group can be rapidly mobilised for a task, whether finding balloons, a missing child or blowing up strategic targets. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ Hank says the balloon hunt resembled being a resistance fighter: taking intelligence from a network and dispatching real people to confirm it, which the Empire in Star Wars would dislike. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Hank wants his government to know how to anticipate and disrupt groups that would mobilise this way to hurt people; disrupting the network is what Nerdfighters, MIT and others were also doing. — 00:01:07 · Nerdfighteria

00:01:36 — All is fair in balloon challenges; MIT did a fantastic job; nine of ten balloons; being weird: the pill container

  • ★★ Hank says all is fair in love, war and balloon challenges: MIT did a fantastic job, MIT students are among Nerdfighteria, and nerds can't turn on other nerds; it was a well-played game. (hedged) — 00:01:36 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank says, as he said on Twitter, the team may have found only nine of the ten balloons in the real world. (playful, hedged) — 00:01:36 · Twitter
  • ★ As his 'weird' part, Hank shows off his pill container, the lamest thing to be excited about, and sings a line wishing he had more time for video games. (playful) — 00:01:36

00:02:05 — Video-game lament; the Project for Awesome on December 17th: what it is, the shared thumbnail, fooling YouTube's algorithms

  • ★★★ Hank announces the Project for Awesome on December 17th, less than 10 days away since it is December 8th. — 00:02:05 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank explains P4A: a day when YouTubers promote charities in videos with the same thumbnail, and thousands promote them, fooling YouTube's algorithms by commenting, watching, favoriting and rating. — 00:02:35 · Project for Awesome, YouTube

00:03:04 — Sign up for the P4A mailing list (no-spam promise); punishments: Hank's 15 hours in Target, ideas for John's; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank asks viewers to pause the video, go to nerdfighters.com and put their name and email into the Project for Awesome mailing-list form. — 00:03:04 · nerdfighters.com, Project for Awesome

  • ★★ Hank promises, as always, never to send mailing-list members anything except Project for Awesome material. — 00:03:04 · Project for Awesome

    “to never send you anything to do with anything except for the Project for Awesome”

  • ★★ Hank acknowledges he will have to spend 15 hours inside a Target as his punishment. — 00:03:04 · Punishment

  • ★★ Hank says John's punishment is still undecided; he floats John watching every Vlogbrothers video in order without sleeping (about 26 hours) and asks for suggestions in comments. (hedged) — 00:03:04 · Vlogbrothers, Nerdfighteria, Punishment
  • ★★ Hank says he is out of time and John will see him tomorrow with some very exciting news. — 00:03:04

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: DARPA Network Challenge · Project for Awesome

Also: Projects: nerdfighters.com

Works: Star Wars

Organizations: DARPA · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · Target Corporation · Twitter · YouTube

Rituals: Punishment

Characters: Galactic Empire · Rebel Alliance

Also centred on DARPA Network Challenge: $40,000 of Red Balloons · LOSERS!!!!

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