Urban Challenge

September 7, 2004 1:31 PM

Has anyone participated in the Urban Challenge? I'm participating this weekend and would like to hear about strategies or experiences. [MI]

I'm doing the Atlanta event. Should I get a friend to stay by the computer to do Google searches for me or are these puzzles I should be able to solve?

posted by Frank Grimes to Society & Culture (1 answer total)

I was the Google-fu for 2 Urban Challenges (Portland and Las Vegas) a couple of years ago and here is what I would recommend.

You're going to need more than 1 helper. 1 or 2 people with excellent Googling skills are very important, but you also need people who are good at word puzzles (anagrams, etc.)

If you aren't really familiar with Atlanta, find someone who is. I first helped a team in Portland where I live and there were at least 2 or 3 questions that only a resident would ever figure out. Las Vegas, OTOH, was more Google-friendly.

Figure out how you can quickly and accurately relay the hints to your helpers. I think some try to immediately fax the page to their helpers, but maybe a digital camera, a laptop and WiFi would be faster.

Also, make sure you and your team all have each other's phone #s.
posted by turbodog at 3:48 PM on September 7, 2004