Zooniverse, theSkyNet and BOINC are three different ways that individuals can do real science on their home computers. By volunteering your computer's idle time, you are contributing to the science of astronomy and you are reducing the need for astronomers to invest in super-computers. Some people call it Distributed Computing. Others call it Volunteer Computing or Grid Computing.
Here are three ways anyone can do real science, at home, on a computer:
Zooniverse allows you to contribute to science by analysing on-screen data and submitting your results. It has a range of thirteen projects to choose from and I use it to search for planets using data from the Kepler space satellite and to analyse hi-res images of the Andromeda Galaxy.
- Pros: simple to use and you can do it as often or as little as you like. It does not use up computer resources. You are contributing to real science. It's all done on your browser.
- Cons: concentrating can be hard work and might get boring.
- Projects: Currently six astronomy projects and seven other scientific projects are available.
- Teams: Zooniverse projects do not permit teams or alliances.
- My experience: I use it intermittently on two projects, 'Planet Hunters' and 'The Andromeda Project.' Good if you have the mind to concentrate and understand what you are being asked to do.
- Rating: 5/10.
- Get it here: https://www.zooniverse.org/ - it's easy, just select a project, watch the example and start working.
- (EDIT: 15th January 2013 - If I was really being honest, I would say that I simply do not have the patience to participate in this research project on a regular basis).
SkyNet is a single project system which uses the spare resources of your computer to run an astronomy project in the background, using your computer's idle processing time. It needs Java on your computer to run. The user dashboard tells you all you need to know, using your web browser.
- Pros: You don't have to do anything, it just runs in the background. It is a global project, run by Australian astronomers. You are contributing to real science.
- Cons: It has no means of controlling the amount of processing time used. It automatically uses one processor, so it is unsuitable on older single processor machines. It can take resources away if you are also running BOINC projects.
- Projects: Only one.
- Teams: Macarthur Astronomical Society has a team for its members and friends and is currently ranked fifteenth in the world. Please join us.
- My experience: I've been using it continuously since it started in September 2011. Not bad but I would like more control over the resources it uses; and it sometimes runs into difficulties with updated versions of Java.
- Rating: 7/10.
- Get it here: http://www.theskynet.org/index
- (EDIT: 15th January 2013 - after 16 months of contributing to this project since its inception, I uninstalled it yesterday to concentrate on BOINC. Whilst I was able to tolerate some of the difficulties in running it, I became aware of grave security flaws in the Java programme and after further research, I decided it was no longer worth the risk. Individuals can make their own evaluation of security risks but quite honestly, I no longer recommend it).
BOINC is a programme manager which looks after the science projects of your choice. It is a very stable and reliable programme, it never crashes, it just ticks away in the background - and it can be used as a screensaver. You can use it to run multiple projects using the control parameters you set.
- Pros: You are contributing to real science. You don't have to do anything, it just runs in the background. You get full details of each project, with graphs, to show how you are doing.
- Cons: I can't think of any. (If it begins to affect your computer performance, you reduce the resource allocation until it is no longer noticed).
- Projects: some of the astronomy projects are:
- 'Einstein@home' (searches for new pulsars and gravity waves).
- 'Cosmology@home' (search for a model that best describes the Universe).
- 'Milkyway@home' (creating an accurate 3D model of our galaxy).
- 'Seti@home' (search for intelligence elsewhere in the Universe).
- 'Pogs' (the BOINC version of 'the SkyNet').
- There are scores of other projects to choose from.
- Teams: Macarthur Astronomical Society has a team for its members and friends, you are very welcome to join us.
- My experience: Excellent. I have been successfully running BOINC for eight years and it manages thirteen science projects for me. Very simple, very reliable, allows you to see what you are working on and what you have already done. Top marks for what it does and how it does it.
- Rating: 10/10.
- Get it here: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/ Download the BOINC Manager, run it, add your first project by selecting "Add Project." All projects have their own separate web sites.
- (EDIT: 15th January 2013 - This project is tried, proven and I recommend it very highly).
My BOINC (updating daily)stats are shown here, with the total credits for each project in the first column:
The disparate credit totals for each project are mainly a reflection of the percentage of computer resource time that that I have allocated them.
'Volunteer Computing' is also known as 'Distributed Computing' or 'Grid Computing' and I have written three previous articles about this topic: