The Request for proposal (http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/files/rfp.pdf) makes no statement about whether or not the Grid itself is a non-profit organization.

However, on page 1 is says "World Community Grid, with technology and funding provided by the IBM Corporation, is making grid technology available to public and not-for-profit organizations to use in humanitarian research that might otherwise not be completed due to the high cost of the computer infrastructure required in the absence of a public grid."

From that I would assume, perhaps wrongly, that the Grid is a sort of common carrier and, as such, it might be better for us to query the intentions of the "Proteom_Folding" Organization (for example).

The website http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ibmgives/ says :

"Good Philanthropy is Good Business......"

It does NOT specified the research result will be made freely available to the world.

I assume it is not available freely to the developing world. I quit.

Maybe i'm still just a bit slow on this but i want to make sure that the systems on my network that i setup to do this will be contributing to something that everyone gets to use freely, not something that will be held privatly by some company. I want this info available to all researcers around the world so the world can use it for progress independant (should they desire) of the organization that started the project.

Bascially i'm hoping that all the work donated by all the people that sign up basically becomes public domain data. I'm still unclear if this is the case however.

Read their FAQ.


"ISB's knowledge sharing environment stands in sharp contrast to conventional research institutions where individual researchers work in isolation in pursuit of narrowly defined goals. The Institute's approach is to focus its study on systems as a whole rather than on individual cells, genes or proteins. The comprehensive nature of this work demands integration in every aspect of the Institute's research. At ISB a multidisciplinary group of scholars and scientists, from biologists and mathematicians to computer scientists and physicists work collaboratively to help unravel the mysteries of human immunity and disease. Together they are working to identify strategies for predicting and preventing diseases such as cancer, arthritis, AIDS and diabetes."

Very good question.