Rechenkraft.net

Rechenkraft.net is a German non-profit association (eingetragener Verein, e.V.) dedicated to promoting volunteer distributed computing — the practice of donating otherwise idle computer processing power to scientific research. It describes itself as the world's first and, to date, only charitable association whose purpose is to advance distributed computing for non-profit causes. The organisation grew out of the community around the website Rechenkraft.net; following a founding meeting in October 2004, it was officially registered in June 2005 and recognised as charitable by the Marburg tax office in July 2005. Its seat is in Marburg, Germany. The association's mission is to make the idea of donating computing time to charitable purposes better known and more popular. Because its members are spread worldwide, it relies on an internet forum as a central communication tool. Beyond community building, Rechenkraft.net operates a substantial public electronic library of publications on distributed computing and maintains an extensive wiki covering distributed-computing projects and platforms. It has also formed partnerships with other projects, including World Community Grid since 2007, and has run a computing cluster that for several years was hosted at Humboldt University of Berlin. Rechenkraft.net is itself an active operator of volunteer-computing projects. Since 2007 it has run the BOINC project yoyo@home, which uses BOINC wrapper technology to integrate existing distributed-computing projects into the BOINC world; its sub-projects have included ECM, Muon, evolution@home, Odd Weird Search and OGR-NG from distributed.net. Since February 2010, in cooperation with the Philipps University of Marburg and the Indian Institute of Science, the association has operated the distributed-computing project RNA World, aimed at advancing ribonucleic acid research. In spring 2009 it began building the Rechenkraft.net Seismic Array, a worldwide distribution of seismic sensors intended to register earthquakes, based on the Quake-Catcher Network project. As a charitable association rather than a commercial company, Rechenkraft.net does not sell products in the conventional sense. Its "offerings" are community infrastructure, scientific computing projects, educational resources and volunteer opportunities. It actively recruits contributors for projects in marketing, design, computer science, media and communication, and invites supporters to design promotional materials, presentation booths, web designs and apps, or to help implement OpenCL and CUDA programming. The organisation remains active and continues to promote distributed computing as a way for ordinary computer users to participate in research areas such as climate science, astronomy and drug discovery.

Rechenkraft.net originated as a website and online community devoted to distributed computing. A founding meeting was held in October 2004, and the organisation was officially registered in June 2005 as Rechenkraft.net e.V., a registered non-profit association. In July 2005 the Marburg tax office recognised it as charitable, a status it has held since. Its seat is in Marburg, Germany. The association describes itself as the world's first and, to date, only charitable association dedicated to promoting volunteer distributed computing for non-profit purposes. Its stated goal is to make the idea of donating computing time to a charitable cause better known and more popular. Because its members are distributed worldwide, the associated internet forum serves as a key communication medium. Over the years Rechenkraft.net has combined community building with practical project operation. It has formed partnerships with other distributed-computing efforts, including World Community Grid since 2007. It maintains a large, publicly accessible electronic library of publications on distributed computing and an extensive wiki about distributed-computing projects and platforms. It has also operated a computing cluster, which for several years was located at Humboldt University of Berlin. In 2007 the association began running the BOINC project yoyo@home, which uses BOINC wrapper technology to bring existing distributed-computing projects into the BOINC ecosystem. Its sub-projects have included ECM, Muon, evolution@home, Odd Weird Search and OGR-NG from distributed.net; ECM itself has been subdivided into ElevenSmooth, Mersenneplustwo Factorizations, near-repdigit-related numbers, Oddperfect, RepUnit and XYYXF. In spring 2009, Rechenkraft.net started building the Rechenkraft.net Seismic Array, a worldwide network of seismic sensors intended to register earthquakes, based on the Quake-Catcher Network project. In February 2010, in cooperation with the Philipps University of Marburg and the Indian Institute of Science, the association launched the distributed-computing project RNA World to advance research on ribonucleic acid. Rechenkraft.net continues to promote distributed computing to the general public, encouraging computer users to contribute idle processing power to research in fields such as climate science, astronomy and drug discovery, and recruiting volunteers for projects spanning marketing, design, computer science, media and communication.

• 2010

  Launched the RNA World distributed-computing project in February 2010 with the Philipps University of Marburg and the Indian Institute of Science.

• 2009

  Began building the Rechenkraft.net Seismic Array in spring 2009.

• 2007

  Began partnership with World Community Grid.

• 2007

  Started operating the BOINC project yoyo@home.

• 2005

  Officially registered as Rechenkraft.net e.V. in June 2005.

• 2005

  Recognised as charitable by the Marburg tax office in July 2005.

• 2004

  Founding meeting held in October 2004.

Non-profit, volunteer-driven promoter and operator of distributed computing for science, education and the public good.

• yoyo@home

  BOINC project run by Rechenkraft.net since 2007 that integrates existing distributed-computing projects into BOINC using wrapper technology. Sub-projects have included ECM, Muon, evolution@home, Odd Weird Search and OGR-NG from distributed.net.

• RNA World

  Distributed-computing project operated since February 2010 in cooperation with the Philipps University of Marburg and the Indian Institute of Science, aimed at advancing ribonucleic acid research.

• Rechenkraft.net Seismic Array

  A worldwide distribution of seismic sensors intended to register earthquakes, based on the Quake-Catcher Network project; construction began in spring 2009.

• Rechenkraft.net Wiki

  An extensive public wiki covering distributed-computing projects and platforms.

• Electronic library

  A large, publicly accessible electronic library of publications on distributed computing.

1. 1Rechenkraft.net official websiterechenkraft.net
2. 2Rechenkraft.net on Wikidatawikidata.org
3. 3Rechenkraft.net on German Wikipediade.wikipedia.org