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How about just plain-old monetary donations?

Do you have some ideas on how to turn money into users?

Well, the obvious idea, would be to allow for people who don't have the time or computer knowledge or inclination (e.g. security concerns) to run DC on their own computers, to contribute *funds* to a suitable legal entity (association) to buy hardware and cover the expenses, so that suitable "hosts" (people *with* time and knowledge to run stable DC platforms) can do that on behalf of the whole group / association.

Doing a little searching, I came up with "Project Hope" for life sciences
http://www.tdprojecthope.com/?q=node

or "Crunchenstein" for SETI folks
http://www.crunchenstein.org/articles.html

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

Do you have some ideas on how to turn money into users?

One could launch a high-profile ad like Firefox did in the NYT for example. One that may trigger some news coverage. They effect lies not in the ad (which will attract probably only a few dozen new user) but in the media coverage of the ad.

Alternatively one could advertise online on specific sites but I doubt it will bring many users.

Prize funds is a nice idea however it might spark tensions since we all contribute our money (energy costs) to the project and it might spoil the volunteering aspect.

In any case money is only useful spend if it generates additional media coverage beyond the actual activity it is spend on.

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I wonder if spending a bit of money in mainstream widely read (by laymen) science magazines would be cost effective..? Also, more professionally oriented publications like Scientific American. Not only would this bring into the fold new crunchers but would dually serve to make aware other members of the scientific community aware of Rosetta's existence. Having members throught the sciences commenting on the project 'at the watercooler' can't hurt in the long run.

I just don't know if it's cost effective. 1/4 page ads?

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

At Xtremesystems an argument that has been used with success with the members of our OC community is that Rosetta is one of the best ways to test an overclocked systems stability. A large number of OC people have turned into Rosetta as a way to test their system's stability. David's post in our MB showed why Rosetta is such a great benchmark.

Also: Intra and Inter Team challenges do work. Form teams, sub-teams challenge members , friends , lovers, spouses.... and have fun while crunching. I owe a friend a case of beer but what the heck!!!!

Finally: I would like to thanks "Doctor Rosetta" for visiting us and posting in our team's MB. He was a great motivator. Ty Dave!!!

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This and no other is the root from which a Tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.”
Plato

May I suggest one change on Rosetta website? There is System requirements link on main Rosetta page. And it has headline "Recommended System Requirements". However later in text it is referred as "minimum system requirements". And all requirements asks for 512MB RAM. I'm running Rosetta successfully on computer with 160MB RAM. So I think there should be clearly written what are RECOMMENDED requirements and what are MINIMAL requirements.

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May I suggest one change on Rosetta website? There is System requirements link on main Rosetta page. And it has headline "Recommended System Requirements". However later in text it is referred as "minimum system requirements". And all requirements asks for 512MB RAM. I'm running Rosetta successfully on computer with 160MB RAM. So I think there should be clearly written what are RECOMMENDED requirements and what are MINIMAL requirements.

It also should include minimum capabilities. Is any CPU ok? What about a Pentium 90? Or does it require MMX? Does it need to have SSE? If not does it use 3DNow! (or 3DNow! Enhanced such as K6-2+/III+ have?)?
Assuming they have enough free memory (as Aglarond mentioned), perhaps these older systems can help.

You can help Rosetta bring on more users by calling your local newspaper and asking them to run the Associated Press article about Rosetta.

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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 would think the Humanitarian reason alone would be sufficient cause for those inclined to run these distributed computing types of applications. OK, altrusim aside, how about having some of the pharma companies who will profit from the results of protien analysis front some money for people to cash in their earned credits. Frequent Flyer Miles? Gifts, Perscription Drugs? It wouldn't have to be much.

As an aside, awhile back I ran the SETI program, but stopped after really thinking about it. In the past 100 years that we have been using the EM spectrum for communications, technology has evolved. To the point, modern communication techniques attempt to make transmissions and encoding process' as random looking as possible and spread over a spectrum of frequencies. This makes these type of transmissions very difficult to detect - sort of the point. Also, with the advent of more localized or cellular types of broadcast, much less power is being radiated. Based upon these assumptions, finding, by chance, a sufficiently advanced entity becomes even more remote, unless that entity is trying to be found.

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Why can't you go through universities and facebook. I have started a team under our pre-med society at Tufts. Hopefully, I will get a lot of users.

-Prak

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What do we have in regards to the CD?

At this point, it's an idea. But there are several things in progress that will help with it. If you review this thread, it describes some of the technical details that may be used to make the CD. As well as some of my thoughts on how to make a single prompt screen do everything for you, and yet load the bulk of the code from the CD.

Laurelin is working on videos which I hope can be incorporated.

I've been working on a "Landing page". I think the one we produced for the tell-a-friend function is probably a good landing page. What I'm now working on is more of a Rosetta tutorial. Sorry, haven't had the time to post the draft to the web yet.

The Rosetta volunteers have the "easy to install CD" on the "to do" list, but it is a big item. And we're a small group, so we're taking incremental steps, which will later culminate in a CD. There is a description of how to join the volunteers group here. Please join us and contribute your ideas, and perhaps the use of that software you've got.

Can anyone out there offer to write a small Windows sockets program that will handle the user registration portion of the CD? I've outlined what I have in mind here.

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This thread needs a BUMP..

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

Going back to the cd idea, here's another option to consider. There are several "run from cd" Linux distributions, out there. There's one, in particular ("Overclockix") that comes with Folding@home set to automatically run in the background.

So, what if we made something like that that used BOINC? We could grab a really lightweight distribution (The smallest I know of is at damnsmalllinux.org, and it's also known to be one of the easiest to remaster.) and modify it to include BOINC pre-configured to run Rosetta. Or, failing that, we could include a script that automates the process of attaching to Rosetta. This distribution also has the option of running entirely in RAM, if the user prefers. With 512 Mb, you could easily boot the computer, pop the disc out, and run diskless. For those concerned with minimizing electrical costs, this would be the way to go.

This wouldn't necessarily help the download problems for people on dialup, but it has the benefits of being easy to use and energy-efficient (if run from RAM). Any thoughts?

EDIT: For those unfamiliar with the legal aspects of Linux and open-source software, this kind of modification is perfectly legal.

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"There are obviously many things which we do not understand, and may never be able to."
Leela (From the Mac game "Marathon", released 1995)

Sounds reasonable. "Preconfigured" isn't really possible, unless people don't want a user ID for themselves, and you create some sort of ID for everyone to use. It would mean they couldn't post on the message boards. So, I think the "small scipt" will be required, just as for Windows.

The main idea of the CD being to increase user base for Rosetta, and to get those users on board which will not install anything they have to download from the web. ...in my estimation, virtually anyone that's going to run Linux does not have that hesitation. And so I wouldn't think a Linux CD would add much to participating hosts count. Do you agree?

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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: Yeah, I can see your point. I know a fair number of people like that. Also, I'm going to second your suggestion for the preference advisor. It seems to be a major source of confusion, for a lot of people.

Finally, a well-written FAQ on the cd would be nice, explaining things like security (When I first explained this to someone, they thought it sounded like a virus.), what the results will be used for, the concept of distributed computing (on a general level), and the fact that the results will be available to everyone, not just Big Pharma.

Would people find a similar cd for the Macintosh to be useful? I've got a fair amount of experience scripting on the Mac, and I could try to put something together, this next week. (Basically, I'd like to help out with bringing some of these ideas to life, but I'm not very good with Windows.)

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"There are obviously many things which we do not understand, and may never be able to."
Leela (From the Mac game "Marathon", released 1995)

Maybe the CD could contain a flash movie or powerpoint presentation with voice-over explaining how to use BOINC and the Rosetta screensaver and what it does.

Maybe it'd also be possible to get the content of such a CD (Boinc + FAQ/movie) put on the CD/DVDs you get in gamer's magazines? They always include a large number of neat applications and BOINC doesn't use up much space. Might be worth a try to e-mail a few large magazines and see if they'd be interested? Maybe Dr. Baker would agree to put their logo on the bottom of the main page in return or something - preferably something that doesn't cost anything ;)

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Here an example of what I meant with the Powerpoint thing - although no voice overs. PowerPoint really needs to support mp3s, a 30sec looping wav is 5mb and it's 16bit :(

Two versions, one with and one without the sound - for those on dial-up ;)

http://homepage.hispeed.ch/soriak/rosetta.pps (5.8mb)
http://homepage.hispeed.ch/soriak/rosetta_nosnd.pps (800kb)

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Me again ;)

Made some changes and removed the no sound version - in return you can choose between 4:3 and widescreen.

Also the links above don't work anymore, you can now grab it from:

http://homepage.hispeed.ch/soriak/rosetta/rosetta.pps
http://homepage.hispeed.ch/soriak/rosetta/rosetta_wide.pps

Would appreciate your feedback ;)

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You seriously need to change the music in the powerpoint. It is annoying when the little high pitched things start going. Just find something better to put in there for music.

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Soriak I like your work on the PowerPoint presentation. I think after viewing what you've got so far, most people would be asking questions like "why do you need my help?", and "how does this help find treatments for diseases?". So, perhaps more slides can be added over time.

Just one critique for you. Dr. Baker, from what I've seen, does not refer to his CASP experience as "winning". Instead he would say something more like his team "produced the most accurate models" for the protein targets. Perhaps you can reword the bullet early on which refers to a CASP "win". Of course, most people don't know what CASP is, so that's another story.

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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/