In the fast-paced environment we live in, it is often difficult to find the time to volunteer for the causes we believe in.  We all have some cause, or project, that we deem important and would like to contribute to in some way.  But time is so important; many people don't have enough time for themselves, let alone enough to share.  Well I've just stumbled on a great way to volunteer for a project I believe in, all without having to lift a finger! 

Volunteer Computing

It's called volunteer computing. All you need to do is contribute your idle computing time to an academic or public-interest project of your choosing.  The computing power generated by volunteer computing allows for scientific research that could not be completed without it.  There are over 1 billion PCs in the world.  If everyone donated their idle computing time, research projects could create a virtual campus supercomputing center, generating the computing power that they can not afford to buy.  Finding a cure for AIDS or solving the global climate change crisis are attainable goals with such computing power! 

Are you ready to get started?

All you need to do is go to the Boinc Web site, download their software, and choose the project or projects you would like to support. Then go to sleep tonight and change the world.

So what exactly is this Boinc?

Boinc is a Web site that provides a software platform that can be utilized by scientists, universities, and companies to gather idle computer time.  The software joins many single computers to give a project a massive amount of computational power, allowing them to divert resources to the actual research by cutting the cost of buying and maintaining supercomputers to crunch the numbers.  The Web site also provides a listing of over 50 projects from which you can choose to donate your idle computer time. These projects are in the areas of biology and medicine, mathematics and strategy, earth sciences, astronomy, physics and chemistry.  Once you have downloaded and installed the Boinc software, you just choose the project(s) that interest you most.   Whether it's Rosetta at home, which utilizes computing resources to determine the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins, ultimately leading to disease-curing research, or the World Community Grid, which researches ways to provide better nutrition and beneficial drugs to those in need, you can feel good about the projects you get involved with.  If you're an educator, check out the great interactive tutorial by Tryscience.org that shows kids how volunteer computing works and even lets them choose activities they get involved with today.

Don't be concerned about Boinc taking away from your valuable computer time.  When you begin to use your computer, the Boinc software idles so as not to slow your computer performance.  Boinc is also safe, secure, and anonymous.   The users manual provides all the information you need to set up the platform according to your preferences.

So now we have no more excuses.  Getting involved is easier than ever......let's Boinc!