Well, we (the Rosetta volunteers group) have been working on the wording and delivery of a new function for the Rosetta website that we refer to as "Tell-a-friend". The idea is to have an option off the website which makes it easy for current Rosetta participants to tell a friend more about Rosetta, and hopefully attract more crunchers to Rosetta.

At this point the work is in BETA. This means you should not attempt to use it to EMail your friends just yet. This is because the project team has not reviewed the work, nor incorporated it yet into the R@H website.

There are two parts to this effort. The first is the website programming, which Jonathan has been working on. He's set up anti-SPAM measures, and writting the scripting needed to easily incorporate into the R@H webserver.

The second part is the content of the letter to be sent to your friend. We tried to incorporate numerous ideas into a compact and readable space that we hope appeals to a wide audience.

We have just finalized our work on this content, and wanted to get it out here in hopes that it might be helpful in attracting the BBC audience.

Jonathan will be working to replace the current placeholder of an EMail with the graphics and content of the finalized letter.

Until then, please have a look at the letter and see if this is the type of message you feel should be sent to your friend when you click such a proposed future link on the Rosetta website.

You can review the EMail message, which links into a new proposed landing page on the Rosetta website (at this point it's viewable from the geocities site I've setup to illustrait, please forgive the pop-ups and advertisments, these are from geocities and will not be present in a completed version from Rosetta).

In the near future Jonathan will place an update here with the URL to test the website mechanics of how this message will be EMailed.

Please place your constructive comments in this thread, so the project team can get a feel for what further changes may be advised before they (hopefully) take steps to actually incorporate the function into the Rosetta website.

Also, please hack this up as you feel appropriate to be better suited to target the BBC audience, and place your BBC-focused draft in Dr. Baker's thread.

Thanks for your review and comments! Thanks to all the volunteers for stepping up and helping out.

For those that are curious, I believe the next project of the volunteers will be a letter to inactive Rosetta crunchers. It will likely contain substantially similar info. to what you see in this draft. If you'd like to help draft this next letter, or with other volunteer projects, please join us as described here.

---

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 like the idea.

However, I would maybe use less color and a different font. I concede, I'm far from being a graphic guy (I run linux in command line most of the time), but I'm afraid having too many text colors would look too much like spam...

Might sound strange, but even if it's much easier on the eyes and helps separating paragraphs, it kind of removes the formality of it. We're advertising for a medical research project, so people whould somehow expect something formal, and being too colorful might scare people away.

But I feel bad critisizing, since I probably could't do any better. The text itself is great, though.

Just my 2 centimes

- trib'

---

Thanks to everyone who spent time putting it together. . I'm sure it will help bring people to the project.

My only thing to note would be in the first paragraph:

"There's no cost to you, and your computer's spare time will advance medical science."

This is true for the software, but the computer does end up using more power (= cost).

My home machine uses 40 more watts with the cpu at 100% compared to idle. 24x365x40 = 350 kilowatt hours a year = ~$25 a year. My laptop is closer to $10 a year.

Sure, your heating bill is offset in the winter. . but you lose it cooling your place in the summer :)

---

Minor spelling correction: use "truly" instead of "truely".

And we're not working on finding vaccines here (yet) - we're working on the algorithm that will be used to find those vaccines.

---

Minor spelling correction: use "truly" instead of "truely".

Whoops, thanks, speiling's not my strong suit :) --Done.

I don't mean to sound defensive, but wanted to try and explain how we got where we are with the letter.

And we're not working on finding vaccines here (yet) - we're working on the algorithm that will be used to find those vaccines.

If I'm mistaken, or overstating it, then it will be reworded before use by the Bakerlab. I'm trying to be accurate, yet not too wordy and scientific. I based the statement in part on the following from Dr. Baker:

You might wonder what the relationship is between protein structure prediction and designing new proteins. It turns out they are very closely related, and the improvments in methods you are helping us make can be directly translated into making new enzymes, vaccines, etc.
When we learn about protein structure modeling we're learning both what a given virus or other disease looks like, and what potential treatments or vaccines that might knock it out look like.

I'll also refer you to the recent article in LiveScience

"The key to unlocking a cure for cancer might be sitting in your den or home office."

and the BOINC hompage

"help researchers develop cures for human diseases."

to see the claims they state. I think that the statement in the letter is fairly conservatively worded.

Let me know if you still feel it overstates what the project is doing. ...also, (if possible) let me know how you'd suggest saying it more correctly, in roughly as many words, and without getting too scientific.

Tribaal...removes the formality of it

I know what you mean. I was hoping the images would help to appeal to the younger crowd. That was one of their suggestions. I was trying to strike a balance between too snazzy, and too dry. I was hoping the layout with the logos at the top and Dr. Baker's mug shot would help retain some of that "formal" / "laboratory" look and feel, and that the images would make the content more interesting. We want to get people interested. I'm hoping the image of the complex HIV molecule helps do that. At least it's not flashing or rotating! :)

With that in mind, would you suggest changing the text to all black, or a single color would address your concern? Or do you feel the images should be pulled out or changed too?

Housing:

40 watts.

I figure if they can't figure that out, I'm not the one to tell them :) And in fairness, your figures assume 24hr runtime, not strictly existing "spare time".

---

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/

As I understand it, the work we're putting into improving the Rosetta client will have a direct effect on creating new enzymes and vaccines when it gets put to that use on other DC projects.

We're helping with the critical first step in improving the Rosetta client so that it can be used to accurately depict the structures of various proteins. We're testing it against known proteins such as 1fna which is described on the home page as a homolog from a chicken, yet the linked pdb page refers to it as Finc_Human.

The next stage is applied research, where the client gets used for finding cures/vaccines/treatments for various ailments. I ran across mention of the Rosetta client (not even the much improved-in-accuracy version we are currently testing) is being used at World Community Grid. The better the client gets, the more likely we'll see a project pop up for our particular ailment of interest that uses the Rosetta client to seek new treatments/cures.

And while the BakerLabs are looking for a vaccine for HIV - they're not using us to find that vaccine. In the future, they may put the fruits of our labor to use in creating that vaccine; but it's not what we're doing here and now.

"With your help we can make a critical step in finding vaccines and treatments for cancer and other deadly diseases" - is a lot more appropriate (to my understanding of this project); although it's not as concise as you (plural) had it.

And I apologize if I come across as not very diplomatic.

---

Hi all

The proposed text is great (the part of it that I could read ;-) but my Mozilla browser (on Linux) does not seem to like your html: this browser displays your "+2/24 pt" fonts much larger than you probably intended them which has the effect that the protein pic gets placed on top of the green text and the green, blue and black text and the red url are all partly printed on top of each other. Perhaps there is a way to avoid the absolute positioning of the text boxes - which is risky since you don't have complete control over the font sizes used on the target browser ? It would at any rate be a good idea to test the layout on various browser/OS combinations.

-H.

Edit: just had a closer look at the text. One more spelling correction: deseases -> diseases (at the end of the blue part). Also, at the beginning of the black part, who is the "I" of "I encourage...", obviously not Dr. Baker who is referred to in the third person ?

---

Team betterhumans.com - discuss and celebrate the future - hoelder1in.org

With that in mind, would you suggest changing the text to all black, or a single color would address your concern? Or do you feel the images should be pulled out or changed too?

Well actually the pictures are great, and as you point out, they aren't animated. As for the text color, I'll try out different blends of fonts, and come back to you with a few links to illustrate my point, since I lack the words in English =)

Good job anyway =)

- trib'

---

Personally I would reword it something like this (though you will want to consider some of the content advice above)

YOU can help find vaccines and treatments for cancer, HIV and other deadly diseases. All from the comfort of your home, using your computers spare time to aid in the advance of medical science.

Dr. David Baker and his team at the University of Washington are researching the proteins that are at the heart of most illnesses. Once these protein structures are fully understood, treatments will be within reach.

With the help of thousands of computers like yours, Rosetta@home will outpace even the fastest super-computers. Developing protein models and treatments that someday will protect us all from these deadly diseases.

I encourage everyone to help Dr. Baker and his team tackle this monumental task of science that will extend our healthy lives. It is informative, fun and will truly help the science of good health.

Here is the link for more information at the Rosetta@home website. Please consider joining the team today:


Also have a read here, http://www.washington.edu/uwnews/homepage/20060412-rosetta/rosetta.html for idea toward the landing page.


Also avoid, if possible thoose joined words like you've, I've and we've since not everyone that'll be reading this will have English as their first language.

---

Team mauisun.org

...who is the "I" of "I encourage...", obviously not Dr. Baker who is referred to in the third person ?

I was WONDERING when someone would comment on that :) I thought it was a little vague my self. But, it's a reference to the sender, i.e. the Rosetta friend that sent you the note.

One more spelling correction: deseases -> diseases

Done, thanks. The website builder doesn't have spell check :)

Hoelder1in, yes fonts are generally redured at the browser (that way if you have trouble reading small characters you can crank them all to bigger at your browser).

Good points. I just took what Geocities gave me so far as how the page is constructed. Let's wait and see how the HTML version of the message looks once Jonathan gets it incorporated into the test EMail message. In the meantime, you may be able to read the text through the image if you select it, or copy it into a Linux equivelant to Notepad.

...avoid, if possible thoose joined words like "you've", "I've" and "we've"...

Thanks for the input. I believe I've (whoops there I go again!) now eliminated all of them. Most of them were on the second page.

---

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/

There have been 200 views of this thread, but only about 6 views of the work we're discussing (according my my geocities stats). Is there some reason people are reading the message board post but hesitate to click the link to view the letter?

I was thinking too fast for a Monday. I believe our next project will be the words we hope to get Einstein to include in an EMail to their project members as they wind down their current work. With any luck we can just use the paragraph devised for the BBCers :)

If we can get some help we could work on the Einstein letter, and the inactive crunchers letter at the same time.

---

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/

Feet1st, I honestly think the next step should be for Dr. Baker or associates to go out and do interviews. Maybe he doesn't have a good radio voice or speaking ability. Maybe he's fantastic. Regardless, I want to reiterate these ideas I originally suggested focusing upon direct PR. Right to the people. People don't know what Rosetta is or that it even exists. Several of us have suggested different media outlets that would probably be amenable to a small telephone interview. To me, this is an immediate idea that fosters not only current crunch power but also the future growth as you pointed out in another post about how every user grows hosts. It's a bit like having a mutual fund or a savings account. Every bit earned NOW means there's alot more being earned tomorrow. I feel like we are overlooking the obvious and I admit, I have no knowledge of what the internal circumstances are within the project. Think, radio shows that have millions of listeners....CNN Saturday program. Canadian outlets, etc....

---

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

Ok, I've loaded the message in. It might not work properly - that is some really really really awful HTML code. I'll clean it up when I get the chance, but I'm a really busy atm.

Here is the url: www.blue-world.co.uk/personal/email_friend/email_friend.php

EDIT:
In fact, its not working and I'm fast running out of time. I'm trying to get the script to run, but introducing that horrible html has caused me quite a lot of problems. You can try, it might work, or might not, depending on whether I've managed to fix it/clean up the code.

EDIT AGAIN:
Found the problem... Feet1st, could you please try your hardest to avoid any apostrophies (' 's). You can use "'s but not ' 's - due to the way the code works. I know its a pain... I can get round it but it will take me some time (again time I dont have right now).

EDIT YET AGAIN:
Still more problems. Sorry guys, my times up. I'll try to sort it out asap.

---

I feel like we are overlooking the obvious... Think, radio shows that have millions of listeners....CNN Saturday program. Canadian outlets, etc....

I'm simply trying to focus on things that I as a volunteer can do. I can't do a radio interview for Dr. Baker. I can prepare a model letter.

I believe in your original posts about the Coast-to-coast radio program Dr. Baker basically said "what do I have to do?", and in response you gave him an EMail address where he could suggest they interview him on a program sometime. But I think he was trying to say was something more like "Tell where to be and I'll be there". As in, "get me the interview, and I'll make myself available." I think it would come across better if some third party suggests to them to interview him.

I don't know Dr. Baker, and so can't put words in his mouth. His posts are often a bit cryptically and ambiguously brief. But I think I know that landing such an interview will require more than a simple EMail to get all of the arrangements made. And so, I believe he wants us, the R@H community, to create outlets such as those you describe and from there he and the producers of the program can place dates on calendars.

I feel Einstein is a priority right now, because these folks already have BOINC installed and operational. It SHOULD be an "easy sell". We could see conversion rates over 30%, and you won't get that from other media which are not focused on PC and internet users.

I feel like the project has to reach some critical mass, and then the producers of these programs and authors of these columns will be calling Dr. Baker requesting interviews, rather than the other way around. These letters are very simple avenues I see to build up to that critical mass.

I'm all for others pursuing other directions for exposure. The volunteers group is very very small and time is limited. So, until we have more help, we have to concentrate and prioritize our efforts. If we had someone with publicity contacts and experience, we'd probably put 'em right on to contacting many such syndicated programs, radio, TV, magazines, online columns, cranking out press releases the works. At this point, we don't have such a person on the crew. And I don't believe Dr. Baker has such a person either. And so we're left to some extent not being certain how to proceed on such an endeavor. So, we're simply starting with what we know.

---

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/

---

you can search the message boards, and post any questions there before you install anything.

Feet1st is this true? Is it possible to post anything on a BOINC board before you have joined?

PS I'm not very comfortable on the yahoo site, I don't really know what I'm doing, never having been a member before.

I've looked into Java script and have found that you can't access some of the information that would be required to see if a computer is suitable for Rosetta@Home java.sun.com without losing the abstration layer (very messy, time comsuming and errors would abound).

---

The script is offline again. I will try and fix it as soon as I can, but I've just ran out of time.

---

Is it possible to post anything on a BOINC board before you have joined?

Yes, people do it all the time. They have trouble attaching, project doesn't even know their PC exists yet. They DO have to register their EMail address to post, but they do not have to install any software.

PS I'm not very comfortable on the yahoo site, I don't really know what I'm doing, never having been a member before.

Hugo is referring to the volunteers group on Yahoo!. Just click around, especially in the "links" and "files" areas (see menu in leftmost column). You can't easily do any harm. Try it out, add a link to this thread there.

...can't access some of the information that would be required to see if a computer is suitable

I'm hoping that a "Java applet" can do the task, not "java script".

---

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/

Ok, I'm uploading now.
url is www.blue-world.co.uk/personal/email_friend/email_friend.php
Now, if you want to change the email message, please do it dirrectly in the code. Do not use any simple html editor, as the html that they generate may look to work, but will cause me no end of problems. If you've got it, the best one (but not brilliant) is Dreamweaver. (Preferably at least MX.)

If you you need to use an apostrophe, what I want you to do it put

 ' . " 

at the begining of the segment its needed in, and then

 " . ' 

At the end.

If you're thinking (php programmer) why not just slash it? because the slashes will interfere with the html. If there is anyone knowledgeable enough with php out there.. would it be possible to put the slashes in, and then just use stripslashes($message_variable);???

Anyway, heres the code if you want to change anything. Re-post it here, and I'll intergrate it into the script. (Its got no </html>'s etc - theres some stuff added to the bottom of all emails - security).

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link="#0000FF" vlink="#FF0000" text="#000000">
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<img height="26" width="156" src="https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/rah_images/hhmi_logo.gif" border=0 >
</td>

<td>
<img height="37" width="37" src="https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/rah_images/nih_sm.gif" border=0 >
</td>

<td>
<img height="28" width="150" src="https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/rah_images/UWlogo150p.gif" border=0 >
</td>


<td>
<img height="37" width="37" src="https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/rah_images/nsf_logo.gif" border=0 >
</td>
</tr>

</table>
<table>

<tr>
<td width="100%">
<img height="53" width="650" src="http://www.geocities.com/feet1st/Strand.JPG" border=0 >
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table>

<tr>
<td width="331">
<font size="24" color="#009900"><b>YOU</b></font>
<font size="+2" color="#009900">
 can help find vaccines and treatments for cancer and other deadly diseases, right on your home computer. There is no cost to you, and your computers spare time will advance medical science.    Dr. David Baker and his University of Washington team are researching the proteins that are the heart of most illnesses. Once these protein structures are fully understood, treatments are within reach. </font></td>

<td width="408">
  <p><img src="http://www.geocities.com/feet1st/Baker.gif" border="0" >
   </p>
  <p><font size="3">Dr. David Baker</font>
      <font size="10"><br>
        <font size="2">Professor of Biochemistry, University of Washington 
        <br>
    Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator</font></font></p></td>
</tr>


<tr>
<td>
  <div align="center"><img height="221" width="295" src="http://www.geocities.com/feet1st/HIV-1_RT_PDB.gif" border="0" >
  </div></td>

<td><font size="+2">I encourage everyone to help Dr. Baker and his team take on the monumental task of improving the science that will extend our healthy lives. Its informative, fun, and truly helps to advance the science of good health. Heres the link for more information at the Rosetta@home website. Please consider joining the team today:<br></font>
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/feet1st/TellAFriendMore.html"><font size="+2">https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/MoreInfo</font></a>

<br /><font size="-1">&lt;the above link will go to a proposed new landing page on the Rosetta site.<br>For now, it clicks through to the next page of info. that will be presented.&gt;</font></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><font color="#0000CC" size="+2">With the help of thousands of computers like yours, Rosetta@home will outpace even the fastest super-computers to develop protein models and treatments that someday will protect us all from these deadly diseases.</font></td>
<td><div align="center"><img height="26" width="156" src=" https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/rah_images/hhmi_logo.gif" border=0 >
</div></td>
</tr>

</table>

---

Jonathan, any word on when this will be linked to the Rosetta main page? Thanks. I look forward to sending it out to all 48 or so members of my BOINC team. Most are in Seti and I wish to get some migration going. Not to mention the fact that over half have grown inactive over time.

---

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