No amount of aggregating, nor any number of aggregation sites to browse, won't help if project admins won't play their part by posting news in a timely and accessible fashion.
I was about to cite Orbit as a valuable project I would like to devote more time to, but which seemed to have fallen off the face of the planet - until I found http://orbit.psi.edu/?q=node/25. That's news, of a sort, but it won't show up on an aggregation page. > All the raised points are interesting for the community. Some of them > were also raised in the last Pangalactic (topics related to improve > the GUI of BOINC and extend its features). Thus, some of them could be > studied and try to improve BOINC. At the end the users are one of the > key factors of volunteer computing, so we should try to improve their > experience. > > One of the issues that has captured my attention is that volunteers > ask for more information about all projects. I don't know if they > visit for example boinc.berkeley.edu news or a central place like the > BOINC planet: http://boinc.unex.es/planet/ where all the projects that > have contacted us, have their project news published in a single > place, making easier to know more about different projects and keep up > updated. Hence, if the users do not know anything about these places > where they could obtain more information, we should try to promote it > further. > > Daniel > > On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 01:36, David Anderson <da...@ssl.berkeley.edu> > wrote: >> Viola Krebs (as part of her Masters research) did an online survey >> of BOINC users a few months back. >> She's in the process of writing a paper on the results. >> She sent me a summary of specific suggestions made by respondents, >> which I include below. >> Some of these suggestions relate to BOINC itself; others are for >> projects. >> >> Many of these are things we're already aware of >> (make the software simpler, projects should provide more news, etc.) >> or have already done (e.g., account managers exist). >> But there are a few new things. >> Comments welcome - which of these do you think are most important? >> >> -- David >> >> ---------------------------- >> 1. Software and Interface Improvements >> User-friendly: Improve software in such a way that it is easier to >> install, >> configure and use, with a more user-friendly interface, usable by >> “ordinary” users. >> Compatible: Make the software platform independent and compatible with >> any >> operating system (OS), as well as different video cards. >> Work units: Provide work units that can adapt depending on the size of >> the >> machine. Smaller packets should be provided as an option in order to >> enable >> faster completion of individual tasks. >> Stability: Improve stability although it is not too bad! >> Adapt to the computer: Make sure that the computer is not slowed down >> because of >> too much RAM usage (automatic leveling of the amount of processing power >> used >> depending on the processor's capacity and temperature (especially >> important for >> notebook computers). >> Automatic updates: Enable BOINC to automatically update; non-proficient >> users >> never check for newer versions. >> One account, multiple projects: Provide one account that gives the user >> the >> option to run as many projects as he would like (selection of projects >> from a >> list), rather than individual accounts for each project. >> Multiprocessing: BOINC should handle multiprocessing. >> >> 2. Hardware Improvements >> Encourage research: Encourage research around hardware to resolve issues >> related >> to it (e.g. graphics card and processing unit compatibility, cooling >> system, etc.). >> Server: Improve the capacity of the servers running BOINC applications. >> Collaborations with hardware manufacturers: Convince manufacturers of >> processors >> (e.g. Intel, AMD) and notebooks to design proper cooling systems that >> actually >> work. >> >> 3. Other Technical Suggestions >> Improved infrastructure: Procure more funding for the infrastructure of >> the >> systems. s...@home, for example, seems to be maxing out its bandwidth, >> causing >> delays in downloading new work units and uploading completed ones. >> Placeholder: Create placeholders for stopped programs, so that users can >> pick up >> where they left off. >> CPU power donation control: Provide more control over how the computer is >> being >> used in order to not run the CPU over a certain temperature. Give the >> option to >> provide 50% rather than 100%. >> Credit policy: Put in place “credit-police” to make sure that no project >> is >> grabbing the power from the others by granting too high credits. >> No small updates: Stop small upgrades that are buggy and do not seem to >> improve >> anything. Inform about the difference between the old and new version. >> Improved user platform: Create an improved end-customer platform >> (graphics, >> options). >> Screen savers: Provide screen savers for each of the projects. >> Better sharing of participants: Better sharing of participant computers >> between >> the projects. If a project can use video cards to speed things up, use >> only >> compatible computers for these projects. >> GPU computation suspension: GPU computation should be suspended when a >> game is >> started, many people would just uninstall BOINC if it impairs their >> computer usage. >> Interaction with client and server: If I am downloading an 18 MB database >> file, >> why not keep that file on the hard-drive and keep accessing it, instead >> of >> re-downloading the whole thing. >> Linking: Link the projects with the users through the manager right away >> instead >> of having them go through all the separate sections and sites. >> Efficiency vs. reliability: When a project such as climate Prediction >> takes >> thousands of hours to complete I get a little nervous that it won't be >> able to >> upload and I will have wasted all that computing. Gambling days or even >> weeks of >> computing is less scary than gambling months of computing. >> >> 4. Overview and Statistics >> Status report: Update a centralized status report website from all >> projects, >> which should include not just statistics but also progress reports for >> individual projects. >> More graphics: Better integration of statistics into the BOINC client. >> >> 5. Training and Education >> Importance of education: Education is also critical, especially with so >> many >> people paranoid of viruses and so many more that have never heard of this >> kind >> of project. >> >> 6. More information about what is going on behind the scenes >> More news: I want more news of what’s going on behind the scenes and what >> the >> results have produced in a format that’s understandable for the layman. >> Info about remaining time: Some of the projects don't estimate time >> remaining >> very well. For a while, I knew to divide the estimated remaining time by >> 3 to >> get a better estimate of actual remaining time. And if I can divide by >> three, so >> can the programmer! >> Updates: Send emails every month to keep me informed on new projects, or >> on >> projects I do not know about. >> Information and feedback: Tell people about the research that comes of >> it. >> Better feedback/knowledge of what was being achieved. Do the individual >> results >> outweigh their impact on climate change (i.e. carbon dioxide from >> electricity >> generation)? >> Translation: Giving some model of “speech”, in different languages, to >> forward >> to contacts/schools. >> The cause: Publicize widely-supported ideals behind the projects (i.e. >> finding a >> cure for cancer) to attract non-technical users. >> >> 7. Raising awareness >> Get new users: Contact universities/schools and ask them to contribute to >> scientific research by running BOINC as a background task when their lab >> computers are idle and unused for any other purpose. That alone would >> give BOINC >> thousands more cores. >> Raise awareness about the system: Show people that volunteer computing >> does not >> compromise security of Local Area Networks in professional/business >> environment. >> Marketing: Better marketing, projects that can have a more immediate >> impact on >> society, especially in third world economies. >> >> 8. Rewards >> Tangible rewards: Provide some sort of tangible reward. Not necessarily >> cash >> (that would be nice), but maybe stuff donated by someone (corporate >> entities or >> a philanthropist) with deep pockets. Or perhaps credit for higher >> education tuition. >> Bring more fun for volunteers: Create game running in the background. >> Tax reduction: Tax credit for the energy we donate! >> Some prize incentives: Provide incentives for volunteers (e.g. prizes, >> awards, >> money or lottery tickets). >> Variable scoring: Some projects may need to offer more credit to attract >> more >> volunteers. >> Importance of credits: Remember volunteers are not being paid or >> compensated for >> any of their work – so what is the harm in letting them have a credit >> race? >> >> 9. Make it a community >> Community spirit: Make it more of a community by bringing developers >> closer to >> end-users in an effort to gain a deeper understanding of the issues that >> arise >> during implementation. A faster release cycle and simpler access to >> optimized >> binaries on a variety of platforms would also be highly welcome among >> those who >> donate CPU-cycles. >> >> 10. Better user manuals and documentation >> Offer written documentation: Show some messages (news) as part of the >> Bionic >> work screen to show how this is contributing to life on earth. Have there >> been >> tangible benefits from the use of CPU time versus electrical costs of >> running >> each of the projects. >> Funding for projects and documentation: Better funding and project >> documentation/science from project leaders. >> >> 11. Promotion >> Publicity: Advertise much more about. Provide more information to a >> broader public. >> Word to Mouth: Get governments, schools, universities, NGOs and other >> organizations etc. to promote volunteer computing. Even private >> businesses could >> run it on their office computers and maybe advertise their involvement on >> their >> products. >> Untapped computer power lies in universities and schools: A vast amount >> of >> untapped computer power lies in universities and high schools. ‘My high >> school >> alone has over 300 computers, and I believe it is a fair assumption that >> universities have even more. However, when browsing through profiles and >> groups, >> you rarely see schools.’ >> Link to UC Berkeley: Advertise that the project is based at UC Berkeley. >> _______________________________________________ >> boinc_projects mailing list >> boinc_proje...@ssl.berkeley.edu >> http://lists.ssl.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/boinc_projects >> To unsubscribe, visit the above URL and >> (near bottom of page) enter your email address. >> > > > > -- > ·························································································································································· > PhD Candidate > http://jarifa.unex.es/ > http://www.flickr.com/photos/teleyinex > ·························································································································································· > Por favor, NO utilice formatos de archivo propietarios para el > intercambio de documentos, como DOC y XLS, sino HTML, RTF, TXT, CSV > o cualquier otro que no obligue a utilizar un programa de un > fabricante concreto para tratar la información contenida en él. > ·························································································································································· > _______________________________________________ > boinc_projects mailing list > boinc_proje...@ssl.berkeley.edu > http://lists.ssl.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/boinc_projects > To unsubscribe, visit the above URL and > (near bottom of page) enter your email address. _______________________________________________ boinc_dev mailing list boinc_dev@ssl.berkeley.edu http://lists.ssl.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/boinc_dev To unsubscribe, visit the above URL and (near bottom of page) enter your email address.
