I think part of the reason WCG isn't advertised is

1. it is based on open source software which by definition has no organized, properly funded tech support. If you marketed WCG to every computer user - bearing in mind that most people use their machines primarily for internet access and little else - WCG would be overwhelmed with support requests that it couldn't possibly handle. I sent in a support request over a month ago and although I received a polite response - eventually - I was given no indication that the problem had been investigated or resolved.

2. Unlike most not-for-profit enterprises, all administrative costs are born by IBM. This is a bit redundant of the first response but from a different angle. If WCG made an effort to raise funds to support its operations, it could allocate a portion of those funds to providing full fledged support. IBM has chosen not to go that route.

However if WCG did raise money to advertise and improve support, I have no doubt they would be quite successful.

As it stands, it is better to market WCG to "partners" who have the technical expertise to implement and maintain the software with minimal impact on the WCG support staff. A quick perusal of the BOINC support thread will give you some idea of the types of questions that normally come up. To IT professionals and power users, many will seem pretty basic, but to the average user they are anything but.

twilyth, that's not correct.

World Community Grid have advertised in the past - on TV, the web and in print magazines. The response was disappointing, so they are unlikely to advertise in these traditional ways again.

What was your support request about?

I don't think I've ever seen an ad for WCG and having been involved with Grid.org for several years, I think there's a good chance I would have noticed had I stumbled upon one - especially considering the fact that I subscribe to about 30, mostly geeky/scientific/academic/IT type publications (down from over 100 about 6 or 7 years ago). Of course I may have been living under a rock at the time so the fact that I missed the ads doesn't prove anything. However if advertising can work for Save the Children and Jerry's kids - and dare I even mention "Head On - Apply directly to the forehead" - I have to assume that the problem was with the budget and execution rather than the message.

Approximately 100 million Americans are Evangelical Christians (sounds high, but I read it the Dec 17th Newsweek-page 33). A good chunk of these people give 10% of their income to their churches each year so I think they would, by and large, be happy to donate some CPU cycles - if they were properly informed. And the other 200 million aren't any pikers either when it comes to charitable giving. I'm sure other citizens of the world would be equally generous - if properly informed.

Advertising does work - maybe not all advertising, but as a general principle, it's hard to argue against. It's just that WCG is not set up like a normal charity where you take donations and apply some modest percentage of that to administrative costs. As to why that is, I assume IBM has it's reasons, but if WCG continues to grow, I think it will become too much of a burden for IBM to shoulder alone. That may not happen for several years, but I'd bet that at some point it does.

As for my issue, I mention that only to highlight the fact that as WCG volunteers, we don't get what most people would consider tech support. I have my own issues about posting problems here because of the "less than helpful or charitable" responses I've gotten in the past. In fact for my part, if my only options where to post my problem here or stop running WCG, I'd pick the latter - barring any significant changes between now such a time. Fortunately, most people are able to look beyond the small stuff to the larger purpose. I guess I'm just a lesser man.
Edit - fix citation

There are oodles of ways to spread the word. As a beginning visit the About Us link on WCG front page. There is where you can find a News and Media connection and a Marketing Toolkit (new) and a Widget (new) to insert e.g. in web pages. Some of it very suitable for putting on reading tables or University bulletin boards in hallways.

ttyl