03/07: Enlist Millions in Your Cause
Greetings again from Germany! I was looking out over the thousands of fans here in Frankfurt when France scored the only goal against Brazil. The place erupted with a common voice as the shot slipped by the goalie. The resulting voice was decibels louder than any one person or even tens of people could have created. In a seemingly unrelated incident, in my daily pack of papers from around the globe, I read a story about a mother and daughter who were reunited after 15 years through a plea that the mother made on a MySpace account. Apparently it took less than a day for the MySpace community located her and connected the two. Again, the voice of thousands came together in a way that produced results much greater than any individual could.
There are other examples of thousands or even millions of Internet users coming together to achieve something great. Dubbed 'Distributed Computing', people are turning over their unused computer time to a greater good, such as finding a cure for cancer, decoding the Human Proteome or even searching for aliens. By installing some software on your own computer, your computer's processing power is put to work when you aren't using it (i.e. when your screen saver is running) taking a small packets of decoding work, analyzing the data and returning the results.
Previously this was left to the Super Computers, with big machines and expensive bills for processing time. Now, with the Internet connecting millions of computers, unused processing cycles can now be put to a greater good. An as SETI@Home and others have found out, millions will donate their unused computer time for a healthy dose of good Karma.
A recent example of distributed computing is the proposed border cam project, where digital 'minuteman' can watch cameras on the border to guide officials when people attempt illegal border crossings.
To be successful, these programs follow a few simple guidelines:
1- The purpose is easy to understand and desired by many – i.e. Finding the Cure for Cancer or E.T.
2- The product is minimally invasive on the computer. While the person is using the computer, the computer must immediately put aside the community service.
3- The person receives some indication of the work being done. The SETI@Home screen saver offers a real time glimpse of the data being analyzed.
Keep an eye out for me at the games!
There are other examples of thousands or even millions of Internet users coming together to achieve something great. Dubbed 'Distributed Computing', people are turning over their unused computer time to a greater good, such as finding a cure for cancer, decoding the Human Proteome or even searching for aliens. By installing some software on your own computer, your computer's processing power is put to work when you aren't using it (i.e. when your screen saver is running) taking a small packets of decoding work, analyzing the data and returning the results.
Previously this was left to the Super Computers, with big machines and expensive bills for processing time. Now, with the Internet connecting millions of computers, unused processing cycles can now be put to a greater good. An as SETI@Home and others have found out, millions will donate their unused computer time for a healthy dose of good Karma.
A recent example of distributed computing is the proposed border cam project, where digital 'minuteman' can watch cameras on the border to guide officials when people attempt illegal border crossings.
To be successful, these programs follow a few simple guidelines:
1- The purpose is easy to understand and desired by many – i.e. Finding the Cure for Cancer or E.T.
2- The product is minimally invasive on the computer. While the person is using the computer, the computer must immediately put aside the community service.
3- The person receives some indication of the work being done. The SETI@Home screen saver offers a real time glimpse of the data being analyzed.
Keep an eye out for me at the games!
