How to increase productivity and interest in my folding team

[kelliegang]

I can't really find another current thread with this kind of discussion so I'll post my question here...

I've mentioned before that I'm studying Environmental Health [within a school of Public Health] at Uni here in Australia and I've been contemplating recently creating a banner or poster for Folding@Home to encourage both students and lecturers alike to check out the project and possibly give it a crack.

Theres a few things I want to ask:

1. Pande Group's thoughts on this kind of unpaid advertising, are there limits to what you would want contained in the poster? [Graphics, Information, Names]

2. Any other like minded individuals got ideas on what this poster should look like? What graphics are most eye catching, what figures are most appropriate etc.
I'm thinking along the lines of a couple different posters for different areas of the University, [the IT school, school of health/medicine and then general population areas like eateries and thoroughfares]

3. Are there any installers supported by the Pande Group? [I've had a lot of my family and friends interested in the project but they get blindsided by the technical side of installing it, keep in mind the majority of people touched by the very illnesses the research is most appropriate to, are going to be >30 and generally understanding IT is a hurdle]

[bruce]

I'll leave 1 for the Pande Group.

2) Several discussions of similar topics are on this site, though they've focused less on eye catching posters and more on how to attract / retain people who fold.

3) For newbies who are put off by the technical aspects, I always recommend the released clients -- specifically the Uniprocessor systray client which comes with a standard Windows installer. (In most cases, we probably can assume Windows but be prepared for MacOS. The Linux folks can take care of themselves.) Even with a Duo/Quad, let them run one trouble-free client for a while. If they try too hard to get maximum performance, many will give up. The GPU client will be next to emerge from the complexities of beta testing and bug fixing and may approach newbie status, but it's not there yet for the true technophobe.

[kelliegang]

Hey bruce,

With regards to 3... I was thinking more along the lines of the "set and forget" console installed as a service. Its tremendously easy to deal with once it's installed, no forgetting to turn it on, no need to think you cant run it because it will take up your resources [as a service a uniprocessor client set to idle priority is pretty much un-noticeable].
Such an installer would require an uninstaller and I'm thinking a "help" html file with an FAQ a troubleshooter like most support websites use now, and failing that, a link to these forums [yes, I heard your groan from here, more newbs like me to deal with! , you and the rest of the helpful souls here are not unappreciated].

[bruce]

No you didn't hear me groan.

We get as many refreshingly good ideas from newbies as from the old-timers. Sure we answer a lot of the same questions again and again but that just encourages us to update the WIKI or Stanford's FAQ. That's what we're here for anyway -- to increase productivity and interest in FAH by answering questions.

[7im]

At least one installer and several service installers already exist. Check the 3rd Party Tools list.

[kelliegang]

Unfortunately, having them buried in the forum doesn't make it exactly easy for the average user and with the internet as shady and untrustworthy as we all know it to be, very few people with general knowledge of the internet are going to trust an email or other form of correspondance which links them directly to an installer.
I understand what kind of a position it would put the PG in if they were to offer 3rd party installers through their website... but perhaps some of those 3rd parties would be happy to donate their code to the cause, which the PG could examine, adjust and then call their own [with valid references/thanks to the applicable parties].


Any time someone online tells you "hey there's this great project, all you have to do is..... " flags go up... if the words "install" and "third party" are mixed in there somewhere most people begin panic-room procedure, the doors slam shut and the walls go up and reinforce. [quite rightly so]

If on the other hand someone says to you... "Hey, Stanford University has a great project they are running ...." "Just google folding@home and follow the instructions on the Stanford website...." the doors remain open. It is important to get the installation process wholly contained within the "security" of the Stanford University Folding@home website I think.


I'm pretty much just relaying issues I've come up against in my efforts to recruit people I know or associate or game with. Even my own mother, it's taken me a year to convince her that it's ok... and when I did, she ran into the interwebz for dummies roadblock of being unable to understand the install process.




Edit: Pulled from the "Tools list" post on 3rd party contributed software

Installation
- Folding At Work:
A tool to help system administrators installing FaH in an office environment (easy install, can run only during non working hours, ...)

- finstall:
FAH installer for Linux, Free/OpenBSD, MacOSX, Wine.

Is that what was being referred to 7im or is there somewhere else I can find a list of installers?

[CBT]

Building an installer that follows Windows-standards ('.MSI'-package in tech-terms) for the "set and forget" client would be very easy. I once made a 5-10 lines '.BAT'-file that does all that's necesarry to install it (and another one to de-install it). However, you're quite right, such an installer should be available from the Stanford website for people to trust it.

I also agree that once the console client is installed as a service, it's the most easy client to run (and keep running) by far.

Corné

[whynot]

Fundamentally I know of two approaches.

3) Why not? FAH is a way you can contribute to a worthy cause with almost no investment or bother on your part. Install a single CPU client as a service and then forget about it. You don't have to do anything except use your computer as you normally would.

And that's definitely the 3rd way. (all the education in such case is -- "you shouldn't care, one day CS will be back".)