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Massive Open Collaboration In Math Declared a Success

Posted by timothy on from the you-count-the-feet-we'll-count-the-toes dept.

nanopolitan writes "In late January, Tim Gowers, a Fields Medal winner at Cambridge University, used his blog for an experiment in massive online collaboration for solving a significant problem in math — combinatorial proof of the density Hales-Jewett theorem. Some six weeks (and nearly 1000 comments) later, Gowers has declared the project a success, and some of the ideas have already been written up as a preprint."

5 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Massive open collaboration in math by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder if you could do massive open collaboration for software? You could probably write an OS kernel, maybe even an entire operating system!

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    My blog
  2. Re:Too bad he used a blog by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 2, Funny

    How about Subversion or GIT?

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    My blog
  3. Prior Art by D+Ninja · · Score: 3, Funny

    I totally tried "Massive Open Collaboration" on my homework and tests in high school. I most definitely came up with this idea first.

    And, no, I still don't understand basic algebra? Why do you ask?

  4. Surprise result by Hwatzu · · Score: 2, Funny

    It turns out that 2 + 2 actually = 5.
    I know; I'm surprised, too. Well, I'm off to patch my calculator.

  5. Re:It's about n-dimensional tic-tac-toe. by psnyder · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now they can move onto more important things, like n-dimensional chess.

    I postulate that with enough dimensions, my opponent's king will be in checkmate before I even make a move. If said number of dimensions are found to be within the confines of string theory, I would not owe my friend 20 bucks nor the sexual favors agreed upon in the rematch. Finally! A useful implication of string theory.