Doneske,

We don't disagree with you that more details about work units (how many batches are available? Built? Sent out? etc) would be useful to volunteers who are eager to track a project on a more detailed level. But we would only provide such a feature if we were confident that we can keep the information accurate and up to date. In many cases, that is hard to do because either we're operating with high level estimates or the variables that determine these numbers change on a project-by-project basis and on a frequent enough basis that it makes it difficult to keep that information up-to-date.

As for new projects in the pipeline, while we often talk vaguely about what we're working on, we can't go into specifics as information about the project is typically under media embargo until we officially announce it. And we don't communicate launch dates because again, it would be hard to keep such information up to date and accurate as there are many factors that determine when we launch a project. Also, the status of a project as it's being 'onboarded' into World Community Grid isn't always linear. i.e. while there are certain activities that must happen in sequence (vetting the project before setting up an agreement with the research organization), other activities often happen in parallel (e.g. we may compile project information at the same time as Grid-enabling the research application).

Rest assured, I don't remember the last time we did NOT have a new project to work so our pipeline is never empty. And I can say this: for 2017, we're expecting to launch at least 2 new projects, the first of which is planned for early in the year.

Finally, as always, we appreciate all the feedback we get from volunteers and genuinely wish we could address more of it. But we're constantly having to prioritize our work and since our mission is to advance scientific discovery, that often means putting the researchers' needs first.

Thanks for all that you do and happy holidays!

I'm pretty sure the WCG model has the researchers as their customers.

I am the person who started this thread, and after these months I have a new perspective on the question "How to get more people involved".

First, let me argue that I now have a basic level of street cred on the above question, having made a fair amount of effort:

I have started a team (Michigan Avenue Chicago) which currently has 7 members, 5 of whom are active. I have done the obvious; I have posted on Facebook and Twitter. I have posted on Twitter using the angle of a company sponsored #MADD Make a Difference Day hashtag. I have emailed my entire company under the #MADD excuse. I know that you, too, have done this sort of stuff.

But I have also done some things that I think would be interesting to share, because this gets into human psychology and what we are up against when it comes to motivating people to get involved with something like WCG.

I live in Chicago, and, I'm telling you, few people out here have ever heard of WCG. I hadn't, until I googled the subject of doing something positive. I certainly have never met anyone who has, and I bring it up with a lot of people. My thought was, I bet if people hear about this they'll want to get involved. I was largely wrong, as you will see.

I emailed WCG and asked them for digital assets to print flyers. They were good enough to send me some ready to print digital files for a poster, and two large postcards.

Although I would be willing to shell out a few bucks to print out these things at Kinko's, I thought (and still think) I had a better idea.

There is a good deal of paper in my employer's office that - unbeknownst to most - was unusable in our new copy machines because it was 11x17 (the new printers only take letter/legal). So... I cut this paper in half using the table top paper cutter, and made it letter size. I therefore used paper that would've eventually been thrown in the garbage or recycled (which I don't believe would happen, but that's another story).

I'm a web developer/designer, so I utilized the WCG assets and used Inkscape, a free vector graphics app, to create a 4-to-a-letter-sized-page flyer to cut and hand out. The flyer has my team name, and my team recruitment link into one of those square links for your phone (you can create a link like that online for free). Here is a picture of the flyer:

https://michiganavenuechicago.wordpress.com/2017/02/26/flyer/

(And yes, I also created this wordpress team site: https://michiganavenuechicago.wordpress.com/)

On two occasions after work, for about half an hour each, I stood and passed out this flyer to people in the pedway in downtown Chicago (thousands of commuters passed by me). Not unexpectedly, it was hard to get people to take them, but I can't blame them - I'm hesitant to take a flyer myself. There is competition from the church people who are there every day, and the beggars. Interestingly, if there is a gaggle of people, and the first one takes one, the five people following the first will often follow suit.

I initially wanted to pass these out in my office building. I called my building to see if they would allow me and a couple of others to pass out this flyer to people as they left the office. I felt it was not an outrageous request, as they do all sorts of stuff in that lobby - a yearly Greater Chicago Food Depository drive, and tables set up on a regular basis for this, that and the other thing. I called them and asked for a one-time chance to pass out the flyers at the end of the day, and emailed them the flyer to see what it was. I followed up with emails. They went to radio silence. Nothing in it for them, apparently.

The flyers I have so far passed out (roughly a hundred I would bet) have resulted in exactly zero additions to my team. It is entirely possible, however, that some of the people I handed a flyer to signed up for WCG without using my recruitment link (which is on the flyer).

We live in an unbelievably shallow culture. People do not want to do anything unless their favorite celebrity tells them it's cool to do it, or unless they get some sort of social credit for doing it. Asking people to contribute computer time to WCG is an appeal to the rational side of their brain. To do it, they must understand the concept in the first place (which is actually a HUGE "ask" for many), and then to do the necessary mental work to sign up for an account, download and install software, and then actually run the software. (I have two team members who can't be bothered to do the last two things in that list.)

(Aside: I know, I know - tell everyone to do Gridcoin, which appeals to the "what's in it for me" part of us. Well, hats off to gridcoin, and I'm glad gridcoin is making a significant contribution, but that's not my thing, and frankly, it's not the thing of people who have a hard time getting their mind around BOINC/WCG by itself. I'm not interested in accumulating and spending gridcoins, and neither are my colleagues in the marketing department.)

Which brings me to the worldcommunitygrid.org website. Upon first visiting the site, the visitor is redirected to https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/discover.action, where they are shown what we would call, in the web design field, an "onboarding experience". It's pretty weirdly done, because it is made to look like an "overlay", with the big X at the top right, when it is in fact, just a page. Clicking the X is meant to look like you're closing an overlay, but it's just a link to the real homepage. The intention is obviously to drive "conversion", as we say in the digital biz. (Get these people signed up and crunching!) "Join Now", the user is told.

I believe this UX is a bad idea. When people are asked to do something like run BOINC - and that's what is being asked by WCG - to run BOINC on their devices - the new user needs to get their mind around what it is, and what it's all about. (WCG, by branding BOINC as "World Community Grid Software", you are obscuring what the user is being asked to do. This is another confusing thing you're doing. The new user then goes to Android looking for "World Community Grid Software", and can only find this thing called "BOINC". I'm sorry, but it's stupid. You should be saying "To participate, download this generic software called BOINC, open BOINC, then add the World Community Grid project to BOINC." You need to help them get their mind around what is actually happening. You should not be branding BOINC like it's your thing. It isn't your thing, and you are confusing the new user.)

The very fact that this page - https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/discover.action - is cookied away (hidden after viewing once), so that the second time the potential user comes back to try to again get their mind around this new thing in their life called BOINC/WCG - that fact - that the WCG website now looks different the second time - IS CONFUSING TO THE NEW USER. WCG, get rid of this onboarding fake-overlay page. Make your home page consistent. Make it the same thing every time. The potential new participant needs to visit your site a couple of times or more to get their mind around what they are being asked to do, and you are making the site change on them when they come back and visit. The user can actually get to this onboarding page by hitting their browser back button, but you are sort of hiding this by pretending it's an overlay. Then it's gone (because of the cookie) the next time they come and visit. This is a bad idea. You need a consistent experience for the new user.

The most important page you have your website is this one: https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/research/viewAllProjects.do

Your homepage should be a modified form of that page!

Another thing: It is easy to understand (read above) why there are so many "teams" on WCG that consist of one - and only one - member. I would like to see WCG encourage people to consolidate teams! The reason is human psychology. If people feel like they are a member of a team, they are more committed and involved. Encourage people to join teams that are defined by geographic location. Create a gamified tool on the website to get people to switch and join teams (drag and drop your name) that are about location, or perhaps something else. Why? Because one team of 10 people is better than ten teams of 1 person. WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER, even if we may not know each other. There might actually be a reason to email each other, and stay engaged in the project mentally.

Another thing - you have these "Team Challenges". How about an "Add One Person" challenge? Have a "WCG Add One Person Day" - one day of the year, where we all challenge each other to add just one person. If only 10% of us are successful, that will be an additional 5,700 new people. Teams that are active and communicating with each other by email can encourage each other for this challenge. This gets to the heart of the matter - getting people to understand what WCG is, and getting them involved, one person at a time.

As for me, I still pass out the flyer when in line at Starbucks. I may do another pedway flyer-distribution, this time with the WCG poster they sent me digitally (I found a portable poster tripod at work), and a big sign saying, "Pay It Forward". If nothing else, there are now definitely hundreds of people who have heard of WCG in Chicago who hadn't previously. Passing out flyers creates awareness of the existence of WCG - so I don't think that it is wasted effort.

I'm also working on getting more people at work to join - and doing my best not to be like Ben Kingsley in the movie "Sexy Beast" while I do it.

to WCG team:
Just got this message from you


I've asked you some times to give us a tool to contact our recruits - NOTHING has been done!

So let me be frank with you:
1. I don't know who is who, among those people? In other words, I don't know under which username is a true identity of someone recruited!
2. Most my recruits came from "promoting WCG in giveaway of games", so I don't know their contact (email, mobile, identity).
& now you message me (like above) to contact them?

OK, I would take some time & contact them.
BUT HOW?

You still owe us a tool to contact people we invited here!
To remind you, I've asked you to put "e-mail icon" between username & their participation, with their mail to contact them. So far, you have done - NOT A THING!

So, please spamming BOINC, unless you want to give us a tool to promote science!

That's TRUE!

But maybe changed soon...1 more missing! ;)