Inflatable satellite dish in Afghanistan

Synergy Strike Force was the self-chosen informal name of a group of individuals who applied

crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...

techniques towards aid work in Afghanistan. Dave Warner, an MD, neuroscientist and Army veteran, is credited with leading the group and finding funding for it, primarily sourced from DARPA. In a profile by Brian Calvert for ''

Pacific Standard ''Pacific Standard'' was an American online magazine that reported on issues of social and environmental justice. Founded in 2008, the magazine was published in print and online for its first ten years until production of the print edition cease ...

'' magazine, Warner described why the group's headquarters was outside the military security perimeter and field trips were made with a light security presence. Warner leased the Taj Mahal guesthouse in Jalalabad and supplied it with a rare high-speed internet connection. Western visitors were encouraged to share data they acquired, which would be freely shared with whoever wanted it. Warner said this free data sharing was inspired by the annual

Burning Man Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred ...

festival which embraces the concept of " radical inclusion."

Sharon Weinberger Sharon Weinberger is an American journalist and writer on defense and security issues. She is a Carnegie/Newhouse School Legal Reporting Fellow where her "project will examine a legally murky intersection between ethics and fraud in military contr ...

, author of a book about DARPA entitled ''The Imagineers of War'', also described the activities of the Synergy Strike Force in detail.

Spencer Ackerman Spencer Ackerman is an American journalist and writer. Focusing primarily on national security, he began his career at ''The New Republic'' in 2002 before writing for ''Wired'', ''The Guardian'' and ''The Daily Beast''. He won a 2012 National ...

, reporting in '' Wired'' magazine, described how the group's funding ran out in 2012 as the war ran down. Ackerman also noted the contribution made by

Todd Huffman Todd Huffman is an American technology entrepreneur and prolific photographer. He was a co-founder of the biomedical imaging company, 3Scan, co-founder of the un-conference BIL_Conference, BIL Conference, and a member of the disaster aid group Syn ...

, a volunteer who would go on to found hi-tech

biomedical imaging Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to revea ...

firm

3Scan 3Scan, Inc. was an American biotechnology company based in San Francisco, California. It offered automated microscopy services using a coordinated combination of both hardware and software for the 3D analysis of cells, tissues, and organs. The c ...

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite news , url = https://www.wired.com/2012/05/jlink/ , title = Cash, and Time, Runs Out for Afghanistan's Wi-Fi City , publisher = Wired magazine , author = Spencer Ackerman , author-link = Spencer Ackerman , date = May 2012 , accessdate = 2017-03-18 , quote = The milieu around the guest house called itself the Synergy Strike Force, or SSF — an informal network for development and tech projects, but mostly a cool name for a crew of about a dozen friends. {{cite book , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mJssDgAAQBAJ&q=%22Todd+Huffman%22+&pg=PA356 , title = The Imagineers of War: The Untold History of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency That Changed the World , publisher = Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group , author = Sharon Weinberger , author-link = Sharon Weinberger , date = 2017 , pages = 342–343, 355–356, 358, 425–426 , location = , isbn = 9780385351799 , accessdate = 2017-03-18 , quote = {{cite news , url = https://psmag.com/the-merry-pranksters-who-hacked-the-afghan-war-6ec92d712e11#.b1mgid9pb , title = The Merry Pranksters Who Hacked the Afghan War , publisher =

, author = Brian Calvert , date = 2013-07-01 , accessdate = 2017-03-18 , quote = WARNER’S ENTIRE TEAM - WHICH he called, in all seriousness, the Synergy Strike Force - had just attended Burning Man that summer. He himself had been attending annually since 2002. And the bar, it turned out, was his bar. Foreign aid to Afghanistan