WCG News

[AMDave]

Help researchers find an Ebola cure
The Ebola virus is a significant global health threat and is responsible for a growing humanitarian crisis in West Africa. Currently, there are no proven treatments or vaccines. We’re launching Outsmart Ebola Together to help researchers find a cure. Dr. Erica Ollmann Saphire of The Scripps Research Institute tells us more about the project and what she hopes to achieve together.

More... (http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/about_us/viewNewsArticle.do?articleId=401)

[Jason1478963]

I'm change my profile now to try and get some badges on this one :P

[vaughan]

I an unable to get any tasks. Stupid project, why make a huge announcement prematurely.

[Jason1478963]

i wouldn't be so quick to jump on them as the importance of this project may have had some pressure on people to get this up and running. If you read the post uplinger (https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewpostinthread?post=477432) posted directly above the one you posted or that whole thread, you can get an idea of what is going on. I feel for the IT guys that had to get this up and running under the pressure a project like this would get. They did not opt everyone in like they usually do. They also have members with pharms that eat through large numbers of tasks to get the next set of new badges. This is not a typical WCG launch in my opinion. I don't recall many projects moving from beta to production this fast. This was quite the surprise for me to see this one up and running already. We all have to keep in mind these are non profit organizations doing the best they can with the resources they have. They plan on getting much more work to us in the near future and will as soon as they work out the issues with the other type of work units. I personally feel this slow start is better then sitting on the back burner for a few more weeks or months.

[vaughan]

Jason I don't agree with you. WCG is sponsored by IBM; well at least the page says (C) IBM and it contains the IBM logo in several places. So they are not a little outfit struggling to keep a tiny server running. They sent an e-mail out to their crunchers announcing a new sub-project focussing on outsmarting ebola. Naturally this attracted crunchers like myself (and I guess you) as wanting another badge or some other personal target. I'm willing to give them a bit more time and it gives me a chance to reach another badge in UGM - Uncovering Genome Mysteries as I'm only at Ruby in that.

However, IMHO they need to lift their game.

[Dirk Broer]

Looks like Jason has achieved a gold -make that a ruby- on Outsmart Ebola Together. I've yet to catch my first WU on it.

[Jason1478963]

WCG is pretty much the only project that I run. I wasn't saying they don't have a big company behind them, but I don't know what level of funding they get from IBM. It appears they have 10 employees on the WCG team. I am hoping they will get the check pointing and issues figured out in the other type of work units. This should create a large amount of work as these are the longer running work units. I like to see them get it right rather then rush and release work that wastes cpu time and effort.

"Who are we?
Started in 2004, World Community Grid is a philanthropic initiative of IBM Corporate Citizenship, the corporate social responsibility and philanthropy division of IBM. Through Corporate Citizenship, IBM donates its technology and talent to address some of the world's most pressing social and environmental issues."

[Jason1478963]

I know a few guys with big pharms are pulling off so others can get some work. I was running cep2 with 16 work units for cue to keep most cores busy hoping to get a few oet work units to fill up the remaining cores. A few machines started hording work units while others starved. I think its just hitting the timing just right on a work request. There is a great idea going around by fellow crunchers on having it limited to number of cores times 2. I think this would be a nice idea as they do apply this to most of the beta work units to spread them out over more machines. I do wish you guys luck on getting work and hope it runs as well for you as it has been for me. It is nice to see projects for a good cause with good running work units. I look forward to when the supply is up to normal and the work starts flowing to everyone.