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Overview
What is World Community Grid?  
Is World Community Grid a non-profit organization? World Community Grid is an IBM sponsored philanthropic initiative, started in November of 2004. Its purpose is to create the world's largest public computing grid for running research projects that benefit humanity. For more information, go to http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/about_us/about_us.html
How does World Community Grid get new projects? First, a non-profit organization has to have a research project which benefits humanity for which they require some serious computer power in order to complete the research. Then someone from the research organization goes to the World Community Grid website and Submits a Proposal. At World Community Grid, we review the proposal to ensure it meets all requirements and is technically feasible to run on the grid. Then subject matter experts from IBM researcher review the proposal to ensure that the research is technically correct. After that, non-IBM subject matter experts review the proposal and also verify that the project is technically correct. After that, it is placed on the schedule for launch.
Are the results produced by World Community Grid part of a commercial venture? No. This is a philanthropic project, not for profit. The direct results of work done by the World Community Grid will be in the public domain.
This sounds too good to be true. Am I missing something? Everything is on the level. Members who volunteer their unused computer cycles benefit by not only making their computers more productive, but also by helping make scientific inroads on humanitarian problems. Research organizations benefit by having Grid computing available to them at no cost, enabling them to make more effective use of critical funds. The people of the world benefit because humanitarian research is advanced, and the results are shared because they are made available in the public domain.
What is different about World Community Grid and other BOINC distributed computing projects? Many of the BOINC projects are oriented toward one single research goal. And for those, the researchers have to set up their own infrastructure and manage the workload themselves. World Community Grid is able to accommodate multiple research projects. We run these projects for researchers from nonprofit organizations so that they do not have to manage the work and thus are able to focus on the science part of the research. For more information about how projects are selected to run on World Community Grid click here To learn how to register and start participating in World Community Grid click here
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