Science United

[Gilthanis]

OK...so about 3 years ago BOINC lost its funding and went 99% into the public's hands for continued support. The original dev (David Anderson) went out and found a way to continue receiving a grant funded pay check and started a project called Science United where he was going to utilize BOINC to help simplify things for less techie donors and scientists alike. AKA - grant funding cash flow. So, what is Science United? It is basically an account manager like we already had but is dumbed down a ton. It basically lets you choose BOINC projects in a different way because instead of choosing the projects you are just choosing an area of science to support. For example, Bio/Med or Astronomy. Then it creates an "anonymous" account (doesn't matter if you already had one) and then just starts crunching away like you would if you just set up things yourself. However, it gives you less control, no team, limited ways to communicate with the scientists, and no acknowledgement of your efforts.

I basically see this as Charity Engine 2.0 but without the potential of monetary gain. David was also affiliated with them at least at one time as well. Charity Engine would act as an account manager and you did not get your credits associated to your account nor could you join teams either.

But anyways, the positive light is for those that have no desire to research new projects or sub projects and don't really care about their accomplishments. It is for those that do not care about the papers and posters. Basically, it is being sold as a gateway path to get more users and more projects to sign up. However, it is being heavily advertised to those already ingrained in the BOINC community which is not receiving it very welcoming.

Feel free to read up more on it and post thoughts and concerns.
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=12623#87946

https://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/

 

[ChristianVirtual]

Thanks for the reminder, lost that out of my memory. But even after a time reading first about it I don’t think it’s a good idea; or at least it need more transparency with respect to how user accounts / credits are managed. Posted there.

Once people want to move from SU to a team they start at zero points.