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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."

2 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. I Didnt RTFA by jellomizer · · Score: -1, Troll

    So did the train A make it to Kingston at 11:35 am and intersected Train B from Albany at 4:30pm

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    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  2. Re:Massive? by retchdog · · Score: 1, Troll

    So a guy had a problem to solve, and batted some ideas back-and-forth amongst a few of his mates. Why is this newsworthy?

    Well, a group of mathematicians from different institutions formed and managed, within a few weeks, to stop grandstanding for long enough to accomplish and exceed a pre-determined goal. This is somewhat remarkable.

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    "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky