One leader who goes to bat for repurposing is Jack Hughes, founder and chairman of TopCoder.

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To find out-of-the-way programming wizards, the NSA worked with TopCoder of Glastonbury, Conn.

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Connecticut, TopCoder has pioneered the model of crowdsourcing in that industry, spawning a global community of 450, 000 freelance software developers from 200 countries.

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An avid basketball fan, Hughes examined the tournament structure of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and applied that structure to the software competitions held by TopCoder.

FORBES: When 450,000 People Can't be Wrong

On a different note, a crowdsourcing service provider such as TopCoder can avoid spammer requestors more readily because of the focus of their service on software development.

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The lab has run contests for software to automatically identify craters on the moon or monitor the health of astronauts via tablets, using TopCoder to run the competitions.

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TopCoder pays out top positions in the pool each month.

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In a video interview with TopCoder, NASA astronaut Donald Petit, who lived on the space station for 13 months, explains some of the obstacles posed by life in space for such a tool.

FORBES: NASA Asks The 'Crowd' To Help Track What Astronauts Eat

Competitors can also earn TopCoder digital points.

FORBES: NASA Asks The 'Crowd' To Help Track What Astronauts Eat

"We at TopCoder are thrilled to be again working with Harvard and NASA to provide creative and inventive support of NTL's mission to deliver critical solutions while recognizing the need to return high taxpayer value, " said Rob Hughes, President and COO of TopCoder, Inc.

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