As the search continues for Malaysia's flight 370, everyone is asking, “Why it is taking so long to find something as big as a jumbo jet?” The simple answer is that without specific coordinates, the ocean is a very big place. Of course, even the biggest space is only a collection of smaller, more easily searchable spaces. That's exactly what one cloud service is doing to help find the missing airliner...
Digital Globe is offering anyone who wants to help a look at small sections of hi-res satellite images. With enough eyes checking enough images, anything floating on the surface of the ocean could be found.
This isn't the first use of the public as a resource to solve a problem. Long before we even used the term “Cloud," there was SETI@home. SETI stands for the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, a collaboration of scientists who are looking for evidence of other civilizations in the universe. Pretty cool. However, they have a problem. They can collect this data far faster than they can process it. In earlier days, they tried to beg, borrow or steal enough super computer time to process all of their data, but over time their analysis fell further than further behind. Then one day, they had a great idea… ask for help. They developed an application that runs in the background, and can run on any Internet connected computer. The application downloads a small data package from SETI, analyzes it and then uploads the result.
The millions of SETI supporters provide more processing power than the most powerful supercomputer on earth.
Of course, today we also have the option of cloud/crowd services like Indiegogo and Kickstarter, the two biggest crowd funding services. You don’t donate your time you donate money. Firms are not outsourcing their labor to the cloud, instead they are outsourcing their financing. You could be a manufacturer, a farmer, an artist or a writer (or anyone else) who needs funding. By going to crowds instead of banks, you move away from the idea of preparing complex financial projection to telling people (perhaps your fans) that you need their help for a fantastic project. It’s all about the power of asking. In fact, the most compelling story about the power of asking can be found at TED talks, where Amanda Palmer tells us about how she used the “Power of Asking” to raise money a music album.
There are many, many more examples of how cloud services are supporting crowd initiatives, be it raising money or helping to find that needle in a haystack that can solve a great mystery. If you want to volunteer some time, take a good look, there may be a crowd initiative that you can join. Perhaps you have a mystery of your own! You can work with existing cloud services, or create your own. If you outsource your problems to the cloud, you just might get the answers to questions you just didn't have enough people power to solve!
Digital Globe is offering anyone who wants to help a look at small sections of hi-res satellite images. With enough eyes checking enough images, anything floating on the surface of the ocean could be found.
This isn't the first use of the public as a resource to solve a problem. Long before we even used the term “Cloud," there was SETI@home. SETI stands for the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, a collaboration of scientists who are looking for evidence of other civilizations in the universe. Pretty cool. However, they have a problem. They can collect this data far faster than they can process it. In earlier days, they tried to beg, borrow or steal enough super computer time to process all of their data, but over time their analysis fell further than further behind. Then one day, they had a great idea… ask for help. They developed an application that runs in the background, and can run on any Internet connected computer. The application downloads a small data package from SETI, analyzes it and then uploads the result.
The millions of SETI supporters provide more processing power than the most powerful supercomputer on earth.
Of course, today we also have the option of cloud/crowd services like Indiegogo and Kickstarter, the two biggest crowd funding services. You don’t donate your time you donate money. Firms are not outsourcing their labor to the cloud, instead they are outsourcing their financing. You could be a manufacturer, a farmer, an artist or a writer (or anyone else) who needs funding. By going to crowds instead of banks, you move away from the idea of preparing complex financial projection to telling people (perhaps your fans) that you need their help for a fantastic project. It’s all about the power of asking. In fact, the most compelling story about the power of asking can be found at TED talks, where Amanda Palmer tells us about how she used the “Power of Asking” to raise money a music album.
There are many, many more examples of how cloud services are supporting crowd initiatives, be it raising money or helping to find that needle in a haystack that can solve a great mystery. If you want to volunteer some time, take a good look, there may be a crowd initiative that you can join. Perhaps you have a mystery of your own! You can work with existing cloud services, or create your own. If you outsource your problems to the cloud, you just might get the answers to questions you just didn't have enough people power to solve!
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