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Citizen Science and Grid Computing

Posted by kdawson on from the greyware-network dept.

japonicus writes "The Economist has an article summarizing the current state of distributed computing (think SETI@home and its ilk), which suggests that distributed-human projects are going to be the next big thing. (We discussed one such project, the Galaxy Zoo, a few months back.) The distributed-computing platform BOINC is about to expand to human processing. Distributed proofreaders have been a longstanding success (yet inexplicably failed to get even a mention in the article); but there are a lot of other projects waiting in the wings."

7 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Wiki? by ttapper04 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder if they could borrow ideas from the wiki community.

  2. Wow by moogied · · Score: 4, Funny
    The economist, a magazine respected all around the world, has just published an article that concludes: "Two heads are better then one."

    Hmph..

    --
    So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
  3. games by enjahova · · Score: 4, Informative

    ESP Game:
    http://www.espgame.org/

    More info:
    http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/09/more_on_google_image_labeler.html

    Very interesting video:
    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8246463980976635143

    --
    "how can they call it a MINE if everything here is THEIRS?!?!" -Straight Jacket
  4. Micropayments for human labor to prevent boredom? by compumike · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sure, there are tasks that computers can't do so well at the moment, where giving the work parcels to humans would make the most sense. But can you imagine what micropayments might allow? It would enable a consistent set of trained, motivated workers to be stable over time, and dependable enough to use this kind of network for important activities.

    Ultimately, humans get bored and computers don't. But humans can be delayed from boredom quite a bit by financial compensation.

    --
    Educational microcontroller kits for the digital generation.

  5. Re:My problem with grid computing by Charcharodon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's funny your comment about power usage, because that's exactly how one of the IT guys got found out by management. He was running seti@home during the night on all the work stations and servers. Finance noticed a jump in the power bill about the same time this guy was brought in to work in their IT section. He was racking up quite a few points for the 3 months or so he was getting away with it.

  6. Re:My problem with grid computing by EMeta · · Score: 3, Funny

    But now it is winter, so my computer is at worst a badly directed space heater.

  7. Grid computing != Distributed computing by edsousa · · Score: 5, Informative
    Grid computing is when you request resources to run your app. Projects like SETI@home use a different approach: you pull a task, instead of arbitrarily offering your computing resources.

    IBM defines grid computing as "the ability, using a set of open standards and protocols, to gain access to applications and data, processing power, storage capacity and a vast array of other computing resources over the Internet. in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_Computing