Together with the X PRIZE foundation, Google has launched a new, ground-breaking competition: the Lunar X PRIZE Competition. Unlike Google’s fun video contest, the new crowdsourced competition is a little more serious. It concerns…

A global private race to the Moon. Grand Prize: $20.000.000.

The Google Lunar X PRIZE will be awarded to the team that can soft land a craft on the Moon that roams for at least 500 meters and transmits a Mooncast back to Earth. The Grand Prize is $20.000.000 until December 31, 2012; thereafter it will drop to $15.000.000 until December 31, 2014, at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation.

In order to keep competitors interested, there will be a second prize of $5 million, awarded to the next team to land on the moon by the end of 2014. There will also be bonuses awarded for lunar landers that complete certain tasks, such as roving, finding water, or surviving the fortnight-long lunar night. The aim of the competition is to challenge engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. As such, the competition is an unprecedented crowdsourcing initiative.

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As explained before in Google crowdsources Gmail M-velope Video, Google organized a fun and successful viral video competition. This week, the complete collaborative video was presented to the public. A simple concept, great publicity, and a fun video as final result. Who’s next?

Hello, my name is Emile Petrone. I responded to Philippe’s previous post, and here I am! I started Knowble.net, a community for researchers, scientists, and scholars to connect, communicate, and collaborate, around common research areas and methodologies. I recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, majoring in Political Science. My interests are basically anything that has to do with shaking up traditional processes & industries through online technologies. Think Wikipedia, Open Access, Creative Commons. I am also a fan of connecting people online for great, hilarious, innovative ideas.

But to get this first post off with a bang, the title of this post may have caught a few of you as a double entendre. I was referencing the first Apple ad for the iPhone. Why the iPhone? Isn’t it closed? Well yes, but just recently it was cracked by George Hotz meaning it may now be used on any network. So technically it is half open. Now no matter what your stance is towards Apple or cellular providers, you have to admit that the iPhone is one of the largest leaps in technology in a long time. You can drive down the street and literally surf the web (minus a few Flash applications and other black areas)(and it is a giant leap over the Blackberry’s internet). When I was a kid, surfing the web was like exploring the unknown. Now I can do it wherever, whenever. You can access the world’s information in your pocket. Utterly amazing.

So why am I mentioning a semi-open phone in this blog for my first post? For two reasons: it is the first phone to unite a global community and it will become the first computer in your pocket.

Just as exciting as the technology, is the community which has self-organized around the iPhone as a crowdsourcing platform. BarCamps are being organized around a phone. It is a phone and you have people meeting each other, sharing information, and creating new websites and software. Ten years ago my mom had a phone in her car, and I promise you there were no communities organizing around its black, plastic box. So the crowdsourcing around the iPhone cannot be ignored or underestimated.

Now out of those communities will come the first computer for your pocket. I say “will” because right now it is closed, but you and I both know that, that which is closed, is always meant to be opened. And when that day comes, when apps start being thrown around like they are on Facebook, is the day the world will change. Everyone already went into a tizzy after Facebook opened their community for user generated applications, just think of the hysteria that will erupt when you can do anything and everything in the palm of your hand! I will consider that an innovation.

Already I do not bring a laptop with me on trips because I can do my basic work through my iPhone. But to be able to download applications or widgets, would mean I could work from the park or while on a bus. Think of a widget for Google Analytics; I could keep track of Knowble’s traffic in real time no matter my location. Every person could literally work while walking.

I hope this first post raised a few iBrows. The iPhone will become the open innovation of our lifetime and I can’t wait for that day! But thanks again to Philippe for welcoming to the blog. I hope to write many, many more posts!

Keeping it knowble,

Emile