For the betterment of BOINC (primegrid discussion) and a new model for volunteer computing

[kowalabearhugs]

The BOINC Work Group committee is researching "how BOINC can be made more user friendly, easier for anyone to set up their own short- or long term project, and for the community to join in on those endeavours. The goal is to get more people to run BOINC, to join in coding all parts that make BOINC (client, manager, web site, forums, projects, etc.), to test everything, to get them to set up their own projects, to make BOINC a future-proof and reliable brand that isn't dependent on any one person in particular."

Being one of the larger projects, Primegrid is hosting a discussion: https://www.primegrid.com/forum_thread.php?id=7538&sort=6

This is inline with the NFS funding a new model for BOINC : http://boinc.berkeley.edu/tbd.php
Relevant discussion: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=11647#78714

Apologies if this discussion is already underway elsewhere. I didn't see a relevant thread.

 

[crashtech]

Interesting info, thank you! I think you may be missing one of the links though, it looks like two are the same right now.

 

[kowalabearhugs]

I think you may be missing one of the links

Thank you. I have updated the post.

 

[TennesseeTony]

If they want to get more people into DC they only need to get front page tech-site articles here and there, like in the old days, when Anand reported on computer stuff instead of the latest cell phone. Last December's race did wonders for our TeAm, due to a bit of front page coverage.

 

[petrusbroder]

Interesting reads. I have to think about this ...

 

[crashtech]

I wondered if any improvements could make it to the existing BOINC client, or if all the effort will go to the new client.

 

[Markfw]

I think that if the projects were explained as to how they could better mankind, like curing cancer, then more would join. Personally, I could care less about the biggest prime number ever. How does that benefit mankind ?

 

[Thebobo]

I only do Seti now, because it interest me. For me maybe the different projects could better be explained with how Bionic and its projects have contributed to research and list any breakthroughs directly contributed to Bionic.

 

[Kiska]

I mean if you look closely, there are research papers that mention how BOINC has helped their research

 

[ao_ika_red]

As a fairly new member of DC, one of the reason why I willingly do BOINC is because Tom's and Anandtech's article about Folding "war" last December. It seemed fun, and then when I enter TeAm's DC subforum, my eyes opened. I discovered that there are lots of projects that I can volunteer in. And because I love extraterrestrial things, I joined seti and several other projects later.

Something that I didn't use to was how long single CPU /GPU task to be completed. And then I learned that we could costumize how the project should behave by simply adding several lines of instruction into app_info or app_config file.

All in all, in my opinion, for the betterment of BOINC:
1. Like Tony said, big tech publishers should do coverage about DC for once in a while so casual users (like me) can be dragged into DC world.
2. Each project should explain how it would work in certain hardware so average users will know where they can provide their effort better.
3. Project developers should know how to communicate with their volunteers properly to avoid any mishap. (like certain optical galaxy survey project that didn't taste well for some of us)

 

[petrusbroder]

Just to remind you all: here is a list of published scientific papers from BOINC-projects:
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Publications_by_BOINC_projects, between 2001 and 2016: 166 papers.

Rosetta has published 155 papers, towards a total of 321 papers in peer reviewed journals.

Then you have to add all the non-BOINC-papers, such as folding@home: 189 papers in peer reviewed journals.

Then you have to add all those publications about volunteer computing ...

At least 510 scientific publications and that is a low count ...

 

[Thebobo]

Just wondering are there some projects that just don't need data to be processed/crunched anymore? I'll Admit I really don't know what seti is doing in regards to what I processes other than it's suppose to help them. Is it possible that there is no more backlogs of data on certain projects? Guess I need to do some searching.

 

[Ken g6]

POGS seems to be one that doesn't really need more crunchers, as discussed in another thread. They could deploy a GPU client but then they'd quickly have no more work and no more funding.

I used to hear SETI didn't have enough work, but I'm not sure if that's still true.

Then you can get into arguing about whether a project's work is worthwhile. For instance the infinite monkeys project is pretty dumb. And Peter Wanless' Mersenne project was debunked by a professional mathematician. But beyond that it's mostly a matter of what you think is important.

 

[ao_ika_red]

In my opinion, seti's lack of papers is because we're looking for something that nearly impossible to find and there's no reason to publish something each year that basically keep telling people that we don't find what we're looking for just yet. Some of my "conservative" friends even laughed at me because they still don't believe there's any living things beyond Earth. But I believe that as long as Arecibo and other radio telescopes keep churning out raw data to digest, we still have hope that we're not alone.

I even remember that at some point the government want to cut Arecibo's funding for some reasons. I hope it would never happen and if somehow we find something significant from Arecibo, it should boost Arecibo's funding.

 

[Thebobo]

And then there is the Breakthrough Listen project. Is it part of Seti or competing projects? I'm kinda confused about the relationship if any. They have been in the news about their discovery of a distant galaxy sending out 15 high-energy radio bursts.

 

[[H]Coleslaw]

Breakthrough Listen is not exactly "part" of SETI but rather SETI is working WITH them.
https://seti.berkeley.edu/listen/

And for those looking for answers, very few projects have ever done much outside of writing research papers that get published in peer review journals for anything more than to get continued funding. That funding goes to continue their careers. Very few can actually tie real world results to the work we do. However, WCG has reported results from some of the sub projects they have hosted that directly spawns from our contributions. Yes PrimeGrid and other math projects could claim results but seriously...what good are those results? Some say they "could" be used in encryption. But, who would admit what prime is being used? Want a map of the Universe? Sure, it can be done but what is the real benefit? It's not like we are going to colonize any of it. That would break international treaties...

 

[Markfw]

Breakthrough Listen is not exactly "part" of SETI but rather SETI is working WITH them.
https://seti.berkeley.edu/listen/

And for those looking for answers, very few projects have ever done much outside of writing research papers that get published in peer review journals for anything more than to get continued funding. That funding goes to continue their careers. Very few can actually tie real world results to the work we do. However, WCG has reported results from some of the sub projects they have hosted that directly spawns from our contributions. Yes PrimeGrid and other math projects could claim results but seriously...what good are those results? Some say they "could" be used in encryption. But, who would admit what prime is being used? Want a map of the Universe? Sure, it can be done but what is the real benefit? It's not like we are going to colonize any of it. That would break international treaties...

F@H has some real findings. They actually can cure at least one kind of cancer. The problem is that its one million a treatment, and takes MANY treatments to cure it, but it can be done. At least thats what I got from reading it.

 

[[H]Coleslaw]

F@H has some real findings. They actually can cure at least one kind of cancer. The problem is that its one million a treatment, and takes MANY treatments to cure it, but it can be done. At least thats what I got from reading it.

Got a link? It would be good reading.

 

[Markfw]

Got a link? It would be good reading.

I looked, but I can't find a good source right now, I just remember reading it somewhere months ago.

But this is the good old standby.... http://folding.stanford.edu/papers-results/

 

[StefanR5R]

I visited https://boinc.berkeley.edu/ today to check how current my BOINC version is. And instead of just a big "Download BOINC" button, this site now features a prominent "Join Science United" button too.

Since I wasn't there for a long time, I don't know when it was added. But the https://scienceunited.org/ site seems to be up for more than a year now already.

"Join Science United" -> "Already using BOINC? Read this first" says:

Science United attaches your computer to projects based on your science preferences. For example, if you select cancer research, your computer will compute for BOINC projects doing cancer research. If a new cancer project starts up, it will compute for that one too.

Read why this helps volunteer computing.

Science United automatically creates project accounts for you. These accounts are 'anonymous' - they have random name, email address, and password. Your Science United account information is not shared with projects.

More bits of info:

https://scienceunited.org/
https://scienceunited.org/su_about.php​

The whole site is still in alpha test. At first glance, I think it could be used eventually to reach out to new circles of volunteers, whereas it doesn't strike me as particularly attractive to most existing BOINC users.

Edit,
according to the forum link in post #1, the initial funding of Science United is for three years. So, apparently less than 2 years remain for it to get going and have a chance to get traction, I guess.

 

[lane42]

Never saw that before. I always download boinc here, http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php
ill have to check that out.

 

[Tejas_2]

Seems to me if "they" are directing your resources it would kill the competition aspect of boinc.

 

[biodoc]

Yeah, IMO this dog won't hunt.

 

[[H]Coleslaw]

Yeah, I notice the page layout and forums all changed last week some time. I'm thinking they just replaced the old with the new. I see that all the old forum posts are now showing. When I last looked it had not been merged yet.

 

[[H]Coleslaw]

I personally see this as Charity Engine 2.0 but only kept the bad parts and left out the lottery....