The paragraph below is taken from The World Community Grid website and explains their work much better than I could

“World Community Grid enables anyone with a computer, smartphone or tablet to donate their unused computing power to advance cutting-edge scientific research on topics related to health, poverty and sustainability. Through the contributions of over 650,000 individuals and 460 organizations, World Community Grid has supported 22 research projects to date, including searches for more effective treatments for cancer, HIV/AIDS and neglected tropical diseases. Other projects are looking for low-cost water filtration systems and new materials for capturing solar energy efficiently.”

I have been contributing to this project since October 2012.  You don’t need to do anything other than download the software and choose the specific piece of research you want your computer to work on.  As your computer contributes its power you get awarded virtual badges in recognition of your contributions. So how does it work? Well it downloads a unit of work automatically, processes it over a couple of hours and then uploads the results, before downloading the next piece of work.

I don’t even notice the software running in the background and it has no impact on me using my computer at all, though you can further tweak the settings to decide when you want to let it run and even specify special applications that when running will prevent the spare CPU power from being used.

I have connected my World Community Grid account to my Twitter account so I can see on a regular basis exactly what my computer has contributed.  Below are a couple of examples from my twitter feed today:

I donated 13 days of cpu time to WCG during the past week 

I earned 2419677 points (#45933) and 4632 results (#23390) by donating over 1 year (#67699) of cpu time to WCG

It’s completely free to sign up to and become a member of and without any extra effort you’re contributing to some vital work.

Note that the World Community Grid is actually a Coporate Citizenship project by IBM that uses the Berkley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) client to manage the work units, and is one of many science projects that you can subscribe to via the BOINC software. Others include the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and the factorisation of large integers , so there’s probably something for everyone!

 

Available BOINC projects are here: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/projects.php

BOINC software is available for download from here: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php

 

Macmillan Cancer Support is a charity close to my heart as it offers so much support to those affected by cancer, both those who have this terrible disease and those caring for them.  I started supporting them when my friend was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and was given a lot of support from Macmillan, as was her husband.  Unfortunately my friend was one of the unlucky ones and lost her fight with cancer.

I try to support Macmillan’s work in the small ways that I am able such as donating the money I would spend on Christmas cards to them and selling raffle tickets occasionally. As 1 in 3 of us  will get cancer it is important that we do what we can to aid organisations that offer invaluable support to sufferers and their families.

Below I have copied some text from their website to illustrate what they can offer.

‘We are a source of support, helping with all the things that people affected by cancer want and need. It’s not only patients who live with cancer, we also help carers, families and communities. We guide people through the system, supporting them every step of the way. We fund nurses and other specialist health care professionals andbuild cancer care centres. But we give so much more than medical help.

People need practical support at home, so we provide anything from some precious time off for a carer, to a lift to hospital. People need emotional support, so we listen, advise and share information through our cancer support specialists, website and trained professionals. People need financial help to cope with the extra costs cancer can bring, so we give benefits advice, and grants for anything from heating bills to travel costs. Together we listen, we learn, we act to help people live with cancer.’