The Internet, the Zodiac Cipher, and the Power of the Crowd

The famed Netflix Prize contest recently came to an end with the members of the top scoring team gaining a million dollars to divide amongst themselves for their efforts, and Netflix gaining better algorithms for predicting what movies its customers will like. Without the internet it could not have happened in the time it did, if at all.

I wonder if the internet might eventually help bring about the solution to an even longer running intellectual challenge, the solution of the last three ciphers of the infamous Zodiac Killer from the late '60s/early seventies.

Oranchak.com has an interesting tool here to help anyone interested in taking a stab at breaking the cipher. Be warned, many of the best people in the field have tried and failed to, crack the last three ciphers. It's like crossword puzzles/Wheel of Fortune for experts.

So what's in it for you if you succeed? Well, there's no million dollar prize that I am aware of, but in addition to possibly helping crack a long unsolved case, you would almost certainly get a lot of fame if you succeeded, and I would expect you might be highly sought after as a code-breaker as well.