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Re: Is this a Non-Profit organization ??

This is a capitalist society... the right assumption is that IBM and the likes will eventually turn this into profit. I am doing it just to test the processing capabilities of my dual-proc laptop.

so far so good. -- by the way, it looks like yahoo allowed for their messenger icons to be used freely too ...


Of course some people will turn this into a profit. United Devices which owns the grid computing technology behind WCG will benefit from the exposure that their technology gets and from the proof that it works. IBM, I am sure, will will reap similar benefits. Once the project results are released, I am sure a multitude of companies will use this info to further their own research which in turn will result in patents for that company.

Is this bad? Of course not. This is a win situation for all sides (except for maybe those people that need a little more to complain about). The whole world benefits. I am not going to worry that some company may be able use some bits of this information for it's own corporate greed (that will happen, it can't be avoided). This project will benefit humanity and that is why I am participating. applause
[Dec 15, 2004 4:32:31 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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Re: Is this a Non-Profit organization ??

. . . I am sure a multitude of companies will use this info to further their own research which in turn will result in patents for that company.

This project will benefit humanity and that is why I am participating. applause


Same here smile
[Dec 15, 2004 10:40:58 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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Re: Is this a Non-Profit organization ??

I have not checked this thread for quite long time.

Do we have a clear, explicit, honest answer displayed
on the home page yet ??????
[Dec 30, 2004 9:09:51 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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Re: Is this a Non-Profit organization ??

From the very first Paragraph on the HOME PAGE. d oh
Click on the Link (and read too.)
World Community Grid's mission is to create the largest public computing grid benefiting humanity. Our work is built on the belief that technological innovation combined with visionary scientific research and large-scale volunteerism can change our world for the better. Our success depends on individuals - like you - collectively contributing their unused computer time to this not-for-profit endeavor.

Robert
[Dec 30, 2004 9:28:42 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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confused Re: Is this a Non-Profit organization ??

If by using our computers a cure for a killer disease is found or found faster, what does it matter if someone makes money from it?

Drew Yallop

[Dec 31, 2004 6:09:42 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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cool Re: Is this a Non-Profit organization ??

Attaboy, Drew!! Actually, if you download the PDF files under 'Request for Proposals' you will notice the phrase 'results must remain public domain' and several requirements for public dissemination. These are the result of the friendly IBM lawyers dashing off a nice contract between the World Community Grid and the non-profit organization whose project we run. So this is a binding legal contract: we promise to run the project for free and in return the non-profit organization promises to keep the results public domain.

Anybody follow the courtroom battles with SCO on GROKLAW? [Big Evil Grin]

Lawrence
[Dec 31, 2004 8:09:03 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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Re: Is this a Non-Profit organization ??

The answer to this question can probaly be found by tracking the results of the last project.

First off the community grid itself seems to be a very open and non-profit project itself. It is easy to find out who is in charge and who is contributing at the application level and the project level.

Now, the smallpox research that was done before the human proteome project, resulted in data that was handed to the us department of defense. This sound pretty scary on it's own, as the US DOD is notorious for subsidizing large scale private enterprise in the US using US taxpayer money; but in the quick research I did, I found very little evidence of such activity for smallpox vaccination.
All I could find was scores of info about the DOD performing small pox vaccinations after everybody down there got worried about being targeted, but only vaccinating military personel.

However, it is unlikely that the US DOD developed and mass-produced the smallpox vaccine on it's own - so it would be interesting to see if one of the large US pharmaceutical companies was given the data free, along with a contract to mass produce the vaccine.
If such a transaction did happen, and say the company hired was given the data, the right to patent the results and then charge the DOD back for the end product, THEN WE'VE BEEN SCAMMED sad

Does anybody have a good research account they can check this up with (lexusnexus or something?)
[Jan 4, 2005 5:10:12 AM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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cool Re: Is this a Non-Profit organization ??

Jaxxed, you need to keep your legal organizations straight. You could try researching this first at http://www.ud.com/home.htm and at http://www.grid.org/about/ to study the organization that, partially supported by IBM, ran projects on Smallpox, Anthrax, etc. The results were so good that IBM decided to found its own non-profit organization, the World Community Grid, to run philanthropic public-benefit programs. The very first project is the current Human Proteome Folding Project. Information about the earlier projects supported by IBM is included on this site to demonstrate that clusters of this sort can be useful. However, to learn about this organization, you do not need to study Seti@home or any other grid project. Just go to 'About Us' to the 'Request for Proposals' page at http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/about_us/request_for_proposals.html and download the documents in PDF there. My previous post just before yours states what you will find there.

Incidentally, I became involved in this cause because IBM was suddenly willing to spend its own money to set up the server organization that such a computer cluster requires. Rather than just making a donation, along with many other donors, to support a public-benefit grid. To me this indicated to an almost startling degree how much IBM believes that very important results can come from this grid. I decided that if, after several years of testing the water IBM had decided to jump, then it was worth some of my time and effort as well.

Lawrence
[Jan 4, 2005 6:08:52 AM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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Re: Is this a Non-Profit organization ??

Dear all,

this whole thread is very disgusting to me. First of all, I apologise for my low level skills in using the english language - maybe I will use wrong expressions sometimes, but I'll try anyway.

Many users seem to have a *very* critical view on this project and I am glad this is so. I have looked for a project similar to folding@home because there were some technical issues the f@h team was unable to solve to make the client easier to administer for the use on a few hundred workstations.

So I found WCG and came up with the same question this thread ist about. I am responsible for what is running on my company's PCs and the board of directors pointed out a very clear demand: results HAVE to be pd and no profit may be generated from it.

As we are not US citizens (so far ;o)) we may have a more critical look on how results may be used or even who may be a NPO running projects on the WCG. The US Department of Defense is definetely NOT a NPO we would like to support.

The conclusion: as long as there is no clear statement about how computing time will be used and which NPOs may run projects on it, we will not join at all. In terms of tenability IBM would do a favour to themselves by publishing clear rules and terms of use all over the world. The fact, that the company doesn't do so so far makes it even harder to me to believe in the project at all.

I'm just wondering that the marketing is that bad as the most popular experts for this matter came or come - from the US!

So long,

Nero.
[Jan 23, 2005 10:18:38 PM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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cool Re: Is this a Non-Profit organization ??

Dear Nero,

The terms are published in PDF format that can be read by Acrobat Reader format. We are a non-profit organization. All that we create is public domain, free to the world. Why not print out a copy of the Request for Proposals? Just go to http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/about_us/request_for_proposals.html and click on the RFP Download Link. Acrobat Reader is available on the same page.

[Grin] This is the thread for people who do not read the section titled 'About Us' but wonder about us. With tens of thousands of people visiting the site, there will always be some.

Lawrence
[Jan 24, 2005 12:39:29 AM]   Link   Report threatening or abusive post: please login first  Go to top 
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