Yeah! That was my point in the thread I made a few weeks ago about the BBC approach with their 1,2,3 install guidelines and accompanying video about it. These things are simple to do but just take a little time. Perhaps the university film students could be recruited to take care of it?

I think many of these ideas have great merit but in some of them I see problems that inhibit the efficiency of implementation.

Trust me; we are all on the same side here....

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Founder of BOINC GROUP - Objectivists - Philosophically minded rational data crunchers.

by robert brooke

I think many of these ideas have great merit but in some of them I see problems that inhibit the efficiency of implementation.

give me specifics please. all 3 ideas i proposed are cheap, doable and use the web for distibution. what are your concerns?

on the page for submission to NPR, a proposal has to be written up and emailed to them. it should be concise, intriguing, and simple enough for all of us to understand. that shouldn't be hard to do, but it might take some time. we need a volunteer to do that. once it's submitted all we have to do is sit and wait and hope that NPR considers it. they then do the interview for us. would you be available?

snake doctor has solved the major problem with putting together a podcast, now all we need is someone to propose it to dr. baker and get a list of questions for an interviewer. could you help with that?

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I've thought quite a bit about how to bring in more users. Plus I've tested some of my ideas, by doing some "pilot" Web promotional actions (text-links, text-ads, tested various wordings, posted -offtopic- "teasers" in various mailing-lists and forums, wrote articles which I allowed to be freely republished at various media etc). This includes mostly english-speaking lists/forums but also some local (greek) ones, a diverse audience of several 10,000s people. My samples are in the order of 100,000 page views, so they should have some statistical significance.

I have to admit that sofar results have been far below my expectations :-( At least "instant adoption" cases, perhaps many people need some time for the idea to "sink in" and they'll "buy it" the 3rd or 4th time they'll be exposed to the "concept".

Once adopting the concept of humanitarian grid computing, I think the next big hurdle is that ordinary people are reluctant to load software that communicates on its own with the Net, worry about viruses, "open ports" and potential exploits, wear out the CPU, slow me down etc. Ofcourse a savvy computer user can install BOINC "in a sandbox" under a "limited" account under 2K/XP/Linux (see trux on BOINC security instructions, OK for Win, for Linux it depends on the paths your distribution used), but it's not the default behaviour and relatively few people do it, so they can forget about security issues altogether. This is even more applicable in corporate environment.

Overall, I've achieved the best results with people on which I have big influence (i.e. trust me 100%). So currently I think the most promising method would be just word of mouth to friends.

There are certain groups of users which would probably give more "bang for the buck" (e.g. faster PCs with 512M RAM and/or PCs running 24/7 or close to it). These groups include

a) PC enthousiasts / overclockers
b) Linux users (mostly up 24/7)
c) aDSL / P2P filesharing people
d) gamers (not sure here)

These types of contributors should also be the least costly to support (should be self-supporting through their own forums) and with relatively low attrition rate (new user dropping out after a few weeks)

for reference one can look at F@h top-100 which is a mature project, having been running for 5+ yr and was supported by Google (offered as option via GoogleToolBar), Intel etc. Yet its active user base is flat for the past 3 months at 205K CPUs (actually a little bit down)

Let's not forget that Rosetta is one of the most demanding DC project, along with CPDN. with RAM requirements 10x or more than SETI, Einstein, LHC or Predictor.

There are other important aspects, e.g. making the joining process as easy and smooth as possible for users who R is their first BOINC project. This could mean e.g. creation of a fool-proof "landing page" (in Web lingo) with the steps outlined as 1-2-3 like BBC/CPDN's http://bbc.cpdn.org/ which would be meant for first-time visitors. And perhaps a one-stop-shop approach, e.g. an installable package for Linux like BOINC RPM for LHC

In conclusion, IMHO Rosetta should definately pursue more exposure in the media (radio, newspapers etc) but unless it'll be to a computer-savvy audience, R should first create the "1-2-3" landing page and preferrably a custom installation package of BOINC, rather than sending the user back-and-forth.

Personally, I don't think that attempts for co-branding with some big player (like F@h did with Intel and Google) would be fruitful, basically because afaik they're not involved with ANY project anymore. Nevertheless maybe the list of WCG partners gives some ideas.

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Best UFO Resources
Wikipedia R@h
How-To: Join Distributed Computing projects that benefit humanity

by robert brooke

I think many of these ideas have great merit but in some of them I see problems that inhibit the efficiency of implementation.

give me specifics please. all 3 ideas i proposed are cheap, doable and use the web for distibution. what are your concerns?

on the page for submission to NPR, a proposal has to be written up and emailed to them. it should be concise, intriguing, and simple enough for all of us to understand. that shouldn't be hard to do, but it might take some time. we need a volunteer to do that. once it's submitted all we have to do is sit and wait and hope that NPR considers it. they then do the interview for us. would you be available?

snake doctor has solved the major problem with putting together a podcast, now all we need is someone to propose it to dr. baker and get a list of questions for an interviewer. could you help with that?

I can answer this . As for the interviews---talk to the administrators. Hopefully they will pursue it.

NPR? Another good notion.....

Would I be available as a salesman? Sure, why not.

---

Founder of BOINC GROUP - Objectivists - Philosophically minded rational data crunchers.

by robert brooke

I think many of these ideas have great merit but in some of them I see problems that inhibit the efficiency of implementation.

give me specifics please. all 3 ideas i proposed are cheap, doable and use the web for distibution. what are your concerns?

on the page for submission to NPR, a proposal has to be written up and emailed to them. it should be concise, intriguing, and simple enough for all of us to understand. that shouldn't be hard to do, but it might take some time. we need a volunteer to do that. once it's submitted all we have to do is sit and wait and hope that NPR considers it. they then do the interview for us. would you be available?

snake doctor has solved the major problem with putting together a podcast, now all we need is someone to propose it to dr. baker and get a list of questions for an interviewer. could you help with that?

I can answer this . As for the interviews---talk to the administrators. Hopefully they will pursue it.

NPR? Another good notion.....

Would I be available as a salesman? Sure, why not.

You are hired!

I like all of these ideas--from getting more media exposure to bringing in friends and relations. The easy install would be great--would anybody be interested in helping set this up?

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I would love to hear you do an interview on that radio show. If you take just a few minutes to establish a time for you to do so I am sure you would gain a ton of interest in our project here! Please pursue it. I am also sure that if enough of us send emails to that show you will certainly be offered at least a 30 minute spot for an interview!

Dr. Baker, Please let us know if you attempt to contact them in order to become a guest. I will let you know if I can do more on my own.

Remember that even a 2k increase in users results ultimately in more crunchers because of word of mouth, etc.

www.coasttocoastam.com

---

Founder of BOINC GROUP - Objectivists - Philosophically minded rational data crunchers.

T-shirt design contest: Today's user of the day suggests a T-shirt design contest User of the day, 3/20/06

Link to tell a friend: Another thread suggests something in-line with one of my thoughts. If you want someone to do something (i.e. an existing participant to spread the word) make it easy for them. And I was going to suggest EMailing existing participants a note expressing project successes and how great the need is for future research TFLOPS and write it up in a way that people can just forward it to their friends with their own note saying "I am part of this project, we're gonna cure cancer! You should join too!"
Credit where due

Help wanted: Hey, one question I had (already asked by vavega) is which ideas the project leaders feel they can run with, and which they cannot. And perhaps they cannot because they don't have personelle or skillset necessary to pursue them. Well... there's 20+ thousand personelle already donating their PC's time, perhaps they'd (we'd) be willing to donate some person-hours too. But I'd hate to spend a week coming up with a great website, or a user's guide, or an easy to install CD... only to find someone else is already doing the same thing.

So, why not start a message board called "Help Wanted"? And this is where the project leaders identify skills, or tasks they would like help with. Then designate someone, or a team of volunteers to take on the task and work with them to get the details (code, text, contacts, whatever is required from the project). The work goes back to the project, or otherwise the project leaders establish guidelines for how to conduct yourself when calling radio stations or whatever. This would help coordinate activities, and make clear where people can help, and give us avenues to help us help you.

(actually, come to think of it "Help Wanted" will be misread by new users... how about "Can you help Rosetta with any of these projects?")

---

Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

Building on your idea here....

In my judgement it would be an OUTSTANDING idea to have a link on the main page to 'tell a friend'. This link would allow users to enter their friends' email addresses so that a simple 2 paragraph preformulated introduction to Rosetta would be emailed to them. A concise, well formed message that is designed to encourage new signups. Many other sites have a 'forward to a friend' feature that should be mimiced by Rosetta.

Now THIS idea is, in my view, highly effective and costs Rosetta nothing to implement.......

Almost everyone here has an email address book of all their friends....

---

Founder of BOINC GROUP - Objectivists - Philosophically minded rational data crunchers.

This is the email address to suggest Dr. Baker to be a guest on the radio show.

CoastProducer@aol.com

---

Founder of BOINC GROUP - Objectivists - Philosophically minded rational data crunchers.

I would love to hear you do an interview on that radio show. If you take just a few minutes to establish a time for you to do so I am sure you would gain a ton of interest in our project here! Please pursue it. I am also sure that if enough of us send emails to that show you will certainly be offered at least a 30 minute spot for an interview!

Dr. Baker, Please let us know if you attempt to contact them in order to become a guest. I will let you know if I can do more on my own.

Remember that even a 2k increase in users results ultimately in more crunchers because of word of mouth, etc.

www.coasttocoastam.com

I'd of course be delighted to do this. What do I need to do? thanks, David

---

T-shirt design contest: Today's user of the day suggests a T-shirt design contest User of the day, 3/20/06

Link to tell a friend: Another thread suggests something in-line with one of my thoughts. If you want someone to do something (i.e. an existing participant to spread the word) make it easy for them. And I was going to suggest EMailing existing participants a note expressing project successes and how great the need is for future research TFLOPS and write it up in a way that people can just forward it to their friends with their own note saying "I am part of this project, we're gonna cure cancer! You should join too!"
Credit where due

Help wanted: Hey, one question I had (already asked by vavega) is which ideas the project leaders feel they can run with, and which they cannot. And perhaps they cannot because they don't have personelle or skillset necessary to pursue them. Well... there's 20+ thousand personelle already donating their PC's time, perhaps they'd (we'd) be willing to donate some person-hours too. But I'd hate to spend a week coming up with a great website, or a user's guide, or an easy to install CD... only to find someone else is already doing the same thing.

So, why not start a message board called "Help Wanted"? And this is where the project leaders identify skills, or tasks they would like help with. Then designate someone, or a team of volunteers to take on the task and work with them to get the details (code, text, contacts, whatever is required from the project). The work goes back to the project, or otherwise the project leaders establish guidelines for how to conduct yourself when calling radio stations or whatever. This would help coordinate activities, and make clear where people can help, and give us avenues to help us help you.

(actually, come to think of it "Help Wanted" will be misread by new users... how about "Can you help Rosetta with any of these projects?")

This is right on target--can you start the "Can you help ..." thread. We really need all of your help with this, from creating HTML pages for "tell a friend" to easy install CD, etc--these are great ideas, which I think would help a lot, but we are swamped with putting out the bug related fires, improving rosetta, interpreting results, and all the other things involved in research. I really like the idea of the thread--maybe people can coordinate to work together on some of these ideas. as far as project leaders--I think they can/should be volunteers as well--like I said we are swamped. maybe we could even throw a rosetta@home volunteers party sometime ...

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I really like the idea of the thread--maybe people can coordinate to work together on some of these ideas. as far as project leaders--I think they can/should be volunteers as well--like I said we are swamped. maybe we could even throw a rosetta@home volunteers party sometime ...

Well, actually the idea was to have a separate message board where you guys would post what you feel you need, or the direction you want to take things. But, yes, that requires time to create too.

I'll start a thread over in the Wish List, but I really don't feel qualified to represent the project to ask for these things. So I guess what I'll do is take the approach of having people post what THEY can do for the project, and start it with some ideas of things you need. From there it can go both ways, you request someone to write a press release or whatever, and (with any luck) someone qualified to do so steps up to the task and you work directly.

---

Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

Dr. Baker,

Email your request to be a guest on that radio show here---- CoastProducer@aol.com


The main page web address is

www.coasttocoastam.com

Hopefully we will all hear you on the radio in about 4 weeks.

---

Founder of BOINC GROUP - Objectivists - Philosophically minded rational data crunchers.

Feet1st,

I believe the 'wish list' section won't garner enough traffic so I will start a thread titled 'Can You Help' in this section according to Dr. Baker's suggestion to you earlier. Hope I'm not stepping on your toes.....

---

Founder of BOINC GROUP - Objectivists - Philosophically minded rational data crunchers.

Dump SETI: Not bashing here, but let's think about it. SETI's purpose is to answer the question "Are we alone?"... and the premise is that if we just dovote enough TFLOPS to listening to static, from a fraction of a % of space, then we'll eventually answer the question... or maybe not!

And if the answer proves "NO! There is life elsewhere"... THEN what? We send a message that takes 100 years to get there? ...and they send a reply? Let's face it, the timeframe for SETI to be meaningful for contacting ET is well beyond my lifetime. I'm dumping SETI and crunching more Rosetta.

Also, wanted to point out you can keep SETI if you like, but give a higher resource share to Rosetta. This is in your Rosetta preferences. Just make the resource share number higher than it is now, and Rosetta will get a higher percentage of your crunch time done in BOINC. The change takes effect when your client updates with the project.

(sorry, this idea isn't "more users to Rosetta" per se, but more TFLOPS anyway :)

---

Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

I'm trying to do my part. I just sent an e-mail to the well known (in Canada) science radio program Quirks and Quarks giving them info about the project and asking if they were interested in doing a story. I also gave them David's e-mail and phone # so don't be surprised if you do get a call from Canada. ;-)

http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/

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I sent a feedback to Nova on PBS suggesting Rosetta for a show topic. I suggest others do the same (strength in numbers).

---

Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

---

Founder of BOINC GROUP - Objectivists - Philosophically minded rational data crunchers.

Perhaps we could get some write ups in these newsletters and get some exposure to a large, captive, and dedicated group of people.

Great minds think alike! I had the same idea. In fact, I starting thinking "How many PCs do you suppose they have within the National Cancer Society?"... just their own PC time would be significant.

I found a list of charities:
http://www.charitywatch.org/azlist.html

And I'm working on a list of just the ones that are clearly related to the diseases mentioned on the Rosetta website:
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/rah_medical_relevance.php

I'll post the whittled down list tomorrow. Question is, how best to contact them, and what to ask them to say about Rosetta? This is where the boilerplate "refer a friend" information can be used and reused in various ways, once developed.

---

Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/