I just passed by to see if anything else had been added to the thread. It took a while to figure out how to actually log on and post. I was on the last page of the thread, and I did not see a logon option. Interesting. Finally noted a replay box "at the top" of the last post, that when clicked went to a logon screen. Cute approach. Refreshing in light of every other web site in the universe.

Anyway, there have been two general categories of respondents. Some understand the point/issues and support appropriate changes.

The second group, and I think there were in the majority (I am not going back to count) took the views I expected.

1 - You are simply lazy scum not bright enough to be allowed to have a computer.

2 - You are wrong - mostly because the responder has a very low level of English sentence parsing and interpretation ability. Has something else that does not do what my selected application does and simply does not believe mine is useful because his Grandaddy and him never saw none of them leftovers and anyway they can't hurt nutten cause granny never seen us getting no problems from them thingies we don't really believe in.

2 - Many explanations of how a convoluted (and sometimes a relatively simple) process is all you need to do. And of course you should "read the manual" (since there is no meaningful help or instructions in the install) before you try to install the software. Let me think when I last came across a windows program that took that amusing approach ----Uh, I guess never. Maybe the nix guys are used to it. Which would, to some extent, explain the survival of windows even after major failures like Vista (Win 8 being the latest).

3 - Most of the people in category 2 above are defending something that does not work, is loosing participation, because it is their hobby and can (will) not try to understand how a newcomer is repelled.

And at least one authoritative sounding poster dismisses the only thing tried in the history of the project that actually increased membership because it is "bad" and he does not like it. There were more words; but that's it.

Altruism brings new people to the site. The site and forum drives them away.

The average human wants to gain something for being nice. It could be that a feeling of satisfaction is adequate. Virtual stickers on the side of a web post seem to titillate others. Some are satisfied by trying to help save some of the potential participants by explaining how to use this mess. Some just by arguing against everything new.



Look at the entire project objectively. Participants are trying to help develop drugs or whatever to help humanity. What does that mean. Some researchers (possibly corporate employees) are getting a lot of free computer time. Sometimes they solve something. They try it out; a miracle and it gets produced.

Do you think the little researchers are working in the garage (they could be at first) and when they find something good they will make it in the garage and give it away to save lives. And while I am at it; how do you feel about the Easter Bunny?

They are either working for someone and the employer will file a patent, or they will sell the information to someone who will patent it. That patent holder may have the money for trials and screwing with the FDA et al. And, of course have manufacturing and distribution capabilities. Sounding familiar at all.

Essentially no useful drug or discovery is going to belong to anyone other that a very very rich corporation. The discoverer may get a cheap watch. The patents will be milked to dominate the market. Outrageous prices will be extracted from sick people and governments. When the patent expires and it is approved as a generic, the patent holder will pay off the generic manufacturers to keep the generic off the market so the original patent holder can do a few more years of charging $5000 a dose for a $20 drug. Yes, you have helped save lives; but you have provided literally billions of dollars to the pharmaceutical (or other) corporations.

There are potentials for vast profits from contributed computer resources. It seems completely reasonable to me to give the computer owners a piece of the action. And altruism or not; our civilization knows about "a piece of the action". And it is probably still cheaper than any other source of computing power.

Track results and get some small percent of profit (watch out for corporate accounting here). Take that and distribute it to participants through some simple function of resources provided. There are details to setting that up; and logging of actions. It may not be a lot of money. Maybe pay for some of the electrons that gave their lives for the project. A strategy would be needed to enticing all contributors; not just the ones who pick a winner.

But now, the providers see a return they can hold in their hand, and justify to the wife why he has been screwing around with all that equipment. They can now proudly say, I helped. And I didn't get no Damn sticker, I got actual money to show for it.

From the information in the posted charts, that was really the only action that improved participation. I do not believe that there is a problem with having a non-profit pay for resources to meet their stated goals. I feel sure there would be a way found.

Final notes:

Fix the interface.
Stop arguing in the forum that it is just that you newbies are too stupid or lazy.
Stop telling those newbies it is easy and intuitive.
Seek activities outside the forum that does not involve stickers and points.
Establish a system that returns some of the earnings to the participants. Clearly a method of expanding resources.
Live long and prosper.

"lazy scum" - right...

I had 10 people sign up in the last few days using these steps.

1 - Go to World Community Grid
2 - Select your username, password, etc
3- Select the projects you want to contribute to - I wouldn't select the Clean Energy Project - Phase 2 unless you hibernate your computer or leave it on 24/7.
4 - Download the software
5 - Install the software
6 - Open the software and enter your username and password
7 - Done. The software will download tasks and they will run only when the computer is idle unless you want it to run at all times (go to tools, computing preferences and change the "use no more than xxx of the processor" to 100% and "execute work after idle for xxx" to 0(always)". Click okay and done.

Aside from step 7, all the others are basically what each step of the signing-up process is (which is explicit while signing-up)
Nobody had any issues and not all of them seemed computer savy users.

Yeah, I had to read that a second time also before I got the correct meaning of what you wanted to say. English being only my 4th language and all that.

About the money-making of the participating scientists, I think, and sincerely hope, you are wrong. It is confirmed time and again that the results of the science here goes into the public domain.

Should anyone find prove that it is not so, and is used for direct corporate profit, then I'm out of here in a wink. When profit is made with research based on the public results here, I can live with that.

What he said (debsgr8).

I was not aware everything found had to go to public domain. Not sure how well that can be controlled either. The precedence of the public disclosure content could stop a patent because of prior work. But hard to prove IP is not independently developed.

However, if the result is a consumable, someone has to manufacturer it. They make money. Not as much as if they held the patent; but potentially a lot. And that may be quite acceptable to participants (e.g., rembertw). Think of a teeny contribution from all the aspirin manufacturers as an example of a lot of cheap adds up.

Perhaps a voluntary donation to a trust or non-profit if someone makes a product? That is probably not viable. Just trying to think of some way to get monetary feedback into this. Maybe a gift. I presume that the earlier try was funded by someone (probably IBM). The return on a penny in terms of computing resource would seem to me to be a salable benefit to the world to attract donors.

Whatever. I am not expecting to solve this. I am butting in on your forum and just trying to stimulate some productive discussion among the parties involved. I am very much in favor of the basic concept. Once upon a time (not a fairy tale) I ran an application something like this project; possibly an earlier version. I stopped because it began to interfere with my things. Post ideas even if you think they are silly. You never know. Don't place limits when soliciting ideas. Perhaps a separate forum here for pursuing the ideas. Maintain a simple file or database so everyone can see and comment on suggestions without reading billions of threads. Tools are out there.

Many of the comments posted here are around improving (the usability off) boinc, which is an open-source project in which you can all improve upon. boinc.berkeley.edu
Although I whole-heartily agree that worldcommunitygrid/IBM should employ some people to work on improving Boinc (I am guessing they have not?), the fact is, that you can all improve the non-userfriendly boinc interface.

Note: I am not suggesting you all start coding on boinc, but go provide feedback, alpha test and provide clear ideas around how boinc can be made more user-friendly on the berkely webpage (either forum or mailing list).

In addition, there is a much neglected worldcommunity-grid wiki, which could need the expertise that have accumulated on this forum, go edit!: http://wcg.wikia.com/wiki/World_Community_Grid_Wiki

In terms of paying people to contribute, there is nothing stopping you for setting up a donation button (paypal?) and paying say the users of your team (much like Ripple Labs, just with real money). An economically viable solution might be a lottery, where you pay to participate and your boinc credits give you a higher chance of winning... I am not saying this would kick-off, but if anyone believes it would be a good idea, please do try!

Earning money on basic research which is required to be in the public domain is difficult, impractical and a bad idea. Let the researchers do research, let worldcommunitgrid aid the researchers in getting cheap computing power and let the volunteers crunch, improve the user-interface and helping other volunteers. Crunch on!