This is a rather unorthodox (but welcome) way for the military to do business. Basically, you pay Danny Hillis lots of money to bring dazzlingly brilliant minds to bear on your problems.

Applied Minds, Glendale, Calif., and Raytheon Co., Tucson, Ariz., was awarded on 1 December 2005, a $30,000,000 indefinite delivery/ indefinite quantity contract to establish Innovation-Nodes (iNodes), which will be small, flexible organizations that execute Rapid Reaction Innovation solution efforts or tasks. iNodes assemble teams from a network of experts, supply teams with the infrastructure and enablers that allow them to accomplish their jobs quickly and effectively, and quickly innovate, demonstrate, and deliver prototypical hardware, software, integrated systems solutions, or services to solve urgent operator or other user problems. The Air Force can issue delivery orders totaling up to the maximum indicated above, although actual requirements may necessitate less than this amount. At this time, $100,000 has been obligated. This work will be complete by November 2008. Solicitation began September 2005 and negotiations were complete November 2005. The Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, NM, is the contracting activity.

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DoD Buys iNodes from Danny Hillis' Applied Minds