Volunteer Computing
Enable non-expert users to join a metacomputer by themselves
Minimal setup requirements ? Maximum participation ? form very large NOWs very easily!
Example: distributed.net (Bovine RC5)
- cracked RC5-56 on October 19, 1997
- average aggregate power of 26,000 Pentium-class PCs
- 4,000 volunteer teams
- involved 500,000 unique IP addresses over 250 days
- easy-to-use: just download program from Web and install
- Problems: still not easy enough, risk of Trojan horses
Java can make volunteer computing even easier!