San Fransisco - California 12/13/2010
 Social Media Marketing Machines News - Misinformed media outlets don't know the difference between hacking and cracking, it will be interesting to see how they handle this.  "Hacking is a central part of Facebook's culture.  Whether we're building the next big product at one of our Hackathons or creating a smarter search algorithm, we're always hacking to find a better way of doing things," says the opening statement of Facebook Hacker Cup Note.
Facebook is starting this contest to bring together engineering talent from the world together to compete in a multi-round programming competition.  Do you see any similarity with a similar contest? It's called Google Summer of code.  Google organists this event to bring together develops/hackers from around the globe to create new projects, solve old problems.

Facebook Hacker Cup may look a bit different from Google's Summer of Code, the agenda is same – to excite developers/hackers and bring them closer to the company.
To win the Hacker Cup a contestants will have to solve algorithmic-based problem statements to advance and are ranked by accuracy and speed.  The registration opens December 20th with the three online rounds occurring throughout January 2011.  World finals to follow.  Facebook will pay for the flights and accommodation of the top 25 hackers from the 3rd online round out to its campus.
If you win the cup you will get $5,000 USD and title of world champion.  Second winner will get $2,000, $1,000 will be given to the 3rd winner.

Source: Social Media Marketing Machines.