Distributed computing on the net is accelerating research into marsenne prime numbers, cancer research, and the search for extra terrestrials. Users run software on their home machines that contact the host organization for data to process. So far, this work has all primarily been volunteer work (read: unpaid).

How's this for a preliminary stab at a distributed computing organization business model.:

Each computing unit (whatever size) is allocated a price based on demand. You can use the units at the given price, or you can generate the computing units (have other peoples jobs run on your machine) at $0.50 on the dollar. Your account is tracked/stored with the organization.

The benefits are as follows:

-Your spare computing units are automatically contracted out at a competitive price. You can (arguably) make money doing it with all those spare computers laying about.

-You can stockpile computing units to be used later in your research. (Make your computer work for you even while in the reading phase).

-If you have a project where you need units, but don't have time to contribute, you can simply buy the distributed processing time.

-You could enhance your effective computing time by contributing at peak times (when the price is highest) and processing at off peak times (when the price is lowest). You will effectively have improved your computer.
-- cameron, Nov 01 2002

Metered CPU access http://slashdot.org...13240.shtml?tid=136
IBM heading back into the Big Brother world [jugglerBoy, Oct 04 2004]

see [link] from slashdot.org today about computing as a metered utility.
-- jugglerBoy, Nov 01 2002


Oh, at first I thought you were going to write something about lovely temps.
-- jackoutofthebox, Nov 01 2002


waugsqueke - some corporations have paid for computing cycles. Some researchers have paid for computing cycles. The former is from what i have read, the latter is from what i have experienced.
-- cameron, Nov 01 2002


people are often happy to donate their spare computing time to well-known tasks. (like seti@home) I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about a distributed framework where the end user *does not know nor care* what is being computed on his computer. My idea is not limited to well-known projects that need to get publicity before they can get serious distributed computing done. The distributed computing org gets the publicity, and contracts out the computing time to the highest bidder.
-- cameron, Nov 01 2002


Haven't there been umpteen articles and even a few startups attempting to do this? Isn't this part of what "grid computing" is supposedly all about?
-- egnor, Nov 17 2002


I second fogfreak's defense of the entire point.
-- LoriZ, Nov 19 2002


It could be cheap instead of free, and if users made money from it they'd be less likely to uninstall it.
-- egnor, Nov 19 2002


I believe that the previous DC business models have failed because they did not meet the needs of the resource providers (PC owners) and the clients (researchers). Tools are being refined and work is being performed (http://www.gridcomputing.com). Perhaps a model that creates a true market using these tools can succeed.
-- topcat, Jul 03 2003



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