Volunteering couldn’t get any easier!

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Signing up for the World Community Grid – a 5 Step Process

Personal computers only use a fraction of their computing power- the rest of the time (when computers are switched on), our computers sit idly and that computing capacity essentially goes to waste.  IBM, along with its partners, has found a way to benevolently use this extra capacity through the World Community Grid (WCG) project.  The WCG puts the untapped resource to good use by linking together the unused power of millions of volunteers´computers and making it available for conducting research.  This helps researchers across the globe pool together resources and information. For example, researchers can rapidly screen millions of compounds to determine which might have the most effective cancer drug.

To help with this megaproject, you simply download a software on your machine, which works on these tasks and sends the calculation results back to researchers.

Here is quick, five-step process on how you can get involved:

1.  Visit the site, www.worldcommunitygrid.org, and have a good look around (about us, forums, research, statistics, etc).
2.  Click join today–register, create your member name and agree to the license agreement.
3.  Go on to select the specific projects you would like your computer to work on (whether it be: Say no to Schistosoma, Drug Research for Leishmaniasis, Computing for Clean Water, THe Clean Energy Project, Help Fight Childhood Cancer, or Fight Aids).
4.  Download and install the software agent
5.  Explore–and Bob´s your uncle!

In this world of criss-cross cause and effect, be part of the movement to sort out some clarity in research… Volunteering couldn’t get any easier!

Eliza R Shaw and Warner Dijkhuizen
IBM Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs