Talk:grid.org

Suggested move

This article should be renamed to "grid.org" (which is currently just a redirect here), and then "United Devices Cancer Research Project" can redirect to it. This will allow the new grid.org article to be expanded to discuss all of the projects that grid.org has done, and not just the Cancer project: cancer, rosetta, anthrax, smallbox, hmmer, webload. The rename will also correspond better with the initiative that the Polish wikipedia has started pl:Grid.org -- Bovineone 18:45, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

I've removed the notice of your RM and the template here. This is not a self-evident move as far as I can tell. Please let some time pass to allow people to notice the page and respond to your suggestions before posting a request at WP:RM. You should try to build consensus for your move before requesting a move. I also can't see any actual argumentation as to why the name should be changed either in the article or in your motivation. That you want to expand the article is not a reason to move it. To me it seems as if the current title is the appropriate one.

Peter ^Isotalo 23:40, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

It seems to me that this is an explanation: "This will allow the new grid.org article to be expanded to discuss all of the projects that grid.org has done, and not just the Cancer project: cancer, rosetta, anthrax, smallbox, hmmer, webload. The rename will also correspond better with the initiative that the Polish wikipedia has started". I don't think the WP:RM it should have been removed. Philip Baird Shearer 11:16, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

I've added basic sections to the current page, describing some of the other projects so that it will be more obvious that the page should not be limited to just the Cancer Research Project. Hopefully others can help contribute more details to the article. If you have an opinion on the decision to rename this article to "grid.org" and make "United Devices Cancer Research Project" a redirect, please preceed your comment with Support or Oppose. -- Bovineone 19:48, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Advocacy

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a place for advocacy. Discussions about the current up-to-the-minute state of the United Devices research projects are best held in other places, such as discussion forums or a blog. The Wikipedia content should deal with verifiable facts. The recent modifications by MoonFlute [1] do not appear to be directed toward improving Wikipedia in good faith. I tried to distill the long quotations repeatedly provided by MoonFlute into statements that should be readily verifiable [2], but my changes were once again reverted to the long quotations from the grid.org forum. I will revert yet again and see what happens. --Ghewgill 10:42, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Grid.org's demise

Does anyone know why grid.org has decided to shut down? If so, please add it to the article. With grid.org's demise, much of this article will need to be changed from present tense to past tense. -- JHP 03:56, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I've made the present tense to past tense changes. Wdfarmer 19:04, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Grid is no more, success!

The Grid project is completed as of noon CST on 4/27/07. More information can be found at [3].
Since it sounds like that link won't be working after a week, here's the whole quoted post.

With seven years and five projects under its belt, Grid.org has successfully completed its mission: To evangelize the benefits (and demonstrate the viability and security) of large-scale Internet-based grid computing. Therefore, it is with great pride for all the accomplishments of this pioneering resource, and above all with the utmost gratitude to each of our members around the globe, that we announce Grid.org will be retiring on Friday, April 27, 2007.

We’ll be making a public announcement on the site later this week, but we felt it was important to give you, our loyal member base, an early heads-up out of respect for the years of support you’ve given to Grid.org. This way you’ll have time to gather final statistics, exchange contact info, and prepare for the official shutdown.

What exactly is happening:
At 12:00 noon Central Time on Friday, April 27, Grid.org will retire: Jobs will stop running, forums will be closed, and the website will be updated to reflect the retired status of this resource. We will leave the actual servers up for 1 week, so agent messages about this action can continue to be sent to members around the globe who might not check forums regularly. We will also leave the Stats up for one week so you have plenty of time to gather this data. After that, only the Home and Projects pages will remain, along with the instructions for uninstalling the agent ( http://www.grid.org/help/faq_uninstalling_agent.htm ).

Why?
Grid.org has completed its established mission to prove the benefits and viability of Internet-based grid computing. Grid.org was the largest and most ambitious public interest grid venture ever attempted when it was conceived – and thanks to Grid.org (and more specifically to all of you), today such a grid is no longer a novelty. Many public grids are now available, sponsored by large organizations better positioned to provide support to millions of member volunteers and the scientists who leverage their processing power. So, with the underlying technologies now well established globally in both public and private research programs, Grid.org’s goal of establishing the underlying technology has been achieved.

But what about…
We realize that over the past few months, Grid.org has made several announcements about upgrades coming in anticipation of a couple of new projects that we were working on. While we were fairly optimistic about these projects being launched, they ultimately fell through for a number of reasons. We realize that many of you had looked forward to participating in a beta program ahead of launching these projects, and we’re sorry you won’t have that opportunity.

Moving on: Where to go from here?
It’s clear from your years of loyalty to Grid.org that Internet-based research projects of this kind are important to you… and so we’re sure many of you will take your valuable resources to other projects of this kind that are ready and willing to accept you as new members.

Below are just a few of the projects we encourage you to investigate:
> World Community Grid ( http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ ), operated by IBM
> Distributed.net ( http://www.distributed.net/ ), operated by distributed.net
> Compute Against Cancer ( http://www.computeagainstcancer.org/ ), operated by National Cancer Institute
> Folding@Home ( http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/ ), operated by Stanford University
> fightAIDS@Home ( http://fightaidsathome.scripps.edu/ ), operated by Olson Lab at Scripps Research Institute
> LHC@home ( http://athome.web.cern.ch/athome/ ), operated by CERN
> Distributed Folding ( http://www.distributedfolding.org/ ), operated by a group of partners including Hogue Bioinformatics Research Lab, Mount Sinai Hospital, and University of Toronto
> SETI@home ( http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ ), operated by University of California at Berkeley

Also, here are a few great sites to visit to learn more about these and other projects:

> http://enterthegrid.com/
> http://gridcafe.web.cern.ch/gridcafe/gridprojects/fora.html
> http://www.ogf.org/
> http://www.grid.org.il/

Uninstalling the agent
The agent will no longer be processing work after Friday at noon, so you will want to uninstall it from your home device. Here’s how: http://www.grid.org/help/faq_uninstalling_agent.htm . Some more explicit instructions, including Troubleshooting, will be posted online Friday when Grid.org actually retires.

Last but not least
As we’ve tried to emphasize not only in this announcement but throughout our years of operations, we are fully aware of the debt of gratitude we owe to all of you, our loyal members.

The excellent work Grid.org has done, both in contributing massive research power to critical health research and in establishing this kind of research as viable, would not have been possible without your faith, efforts, and donations of compute power and goodwill. There is no superlative high enough to describe the value we place on your ongoing support for Grid.org, and so we simply say Thank you, and we hope you feel as proud as we do of the work you’ve done.

Sincerely,
The Grid.org Team

--Pilot_51 (☏) 03:18, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

The above comment was moved here from the Grid MP article. -- Bovineone 05:14, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I've extracted the following relevant text from http://grid.org/home.htm, lest it too disappear soon. Someone may wish to use it as source material. Browser requests for Grid forum URLs are currently redirecting to that URL. Wdfarmer 19:38, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

======

GRID.ORG ™ - Grid Computing Projects - Home

BREAKING NEWS: GRID.ORG MISSION COMPLETE

On Friday, April 27, 2007, Grid.org announced it has completed its mission to demonstrate the viability and benefits of large-scale Internet-based grid computing, and will be retiring its famous efforts to support critical health research.

Grid.org was the largest and most ambitious public interest grid venture ever attempted, and thanks to Grid.org and its millions of members, dozens of similar global grid projects have been able to catch on and succeed by following its footsteps.

Thank you to all our members!

The excellent work Grid.org has done, both in contributing massive compute power to critical health research and in establishing this Internet-based model as beneficial, would not have been possible without the faith, efforts, and support of our millions of members worldwide. Thank you so much for your years of ongoing support!

Facts and Figures

As of April 2007, Grid.org managed 3,732,696 global devices, with 1,340,913 registered members who contributed 210 years of CPU time daily

Projects to Date

Grid.org projects include:

(2001) Cancer Research Project, with Intel (2002) Anthrax Project, with Intel and Microsoft (2004) Smallpox Research Grid Project, with IBM (2005) Human Proteome Folding Project, with IBM

United Devices worked with IBM and Accelrys on the Smallpox Research Grid Project, a joint research effort to identify candidates for developing new drugs that, for the first time, would combat the smallpox virus post-infection.

The first counter-bioterrorism project to be powered by United Devices was the Anthrax Research Project. Working with scientists from Oxford University, United Devices provided its Grid MP technology to screen billions of molecules for suitability as potential treatments for advanced-stage Anthrax.

The first grid.org project, the Cancer Research Project sponsored by Intel, was a groundbreaking success. Working with the world's top researchers from Oxford University and the National Foundation for Cancer Research, grid.org was able to screen billions of target molecules against known cancer target proteins.

======

Loss of reference

grid.org has remove forum section very quickly. Should we remove all reference URL to grid.org forum now? JingJun 14:07, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

No. They may still be accessible through the Wayback Machine, or perhaps by other means. The references show that, at the very least, references were once available. —Remember the dot ^(talk) 19:20, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

There is no indication that all of the References but one are broken. I think they should all be marked as broken. Is there a way to do that with a reference? - Dougher (talk) 04:17, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

A total cover-up of bad news

Let's get real here: unknown thousands of contributors were very bitter to find out, thanks only to the detective work of some others, that the project was sending them USELESS, REDUNDANT work and that in fact the project had been abandoned and the scientists had walked away from it! Thank goodness that distributed computing has survived in Folding@Home, World Community Grid and other places. The person above who noted that even the forum was closed is correct; it appears there was too much criticism for their liking.

I believe someone has been "retouching" this page with all nice things to say. Not so. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.85.14.106 (talk) 09:49, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

I also recall that the Anthrax testing was added to the cancer testing system silently... I recall a coworker pointing out that his client was no longer working on cancer (the cause for which he downloaded and promoted the software to others) and promptly removed the client. I recall something about the outcry on The Register but have been unable to find it.--MRNasher (talk) 13:40, 12 February 2013 (UTC)