Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to an undefined large group of people or community (crowd) through an open call.(FZS)

Crowdsourcing : using the online puzzle gameFoldit to design new antiretroviral drugs Introduction to crowdsourcingFOLDITImpact and implicationsOther examples of crowdsourcingDiscussionBy Bronagh Carey, 11279621

What is CROWDSOURCING ?Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to an undefined large group of people or community (crowd) through an open call.

Using Group intelligence to produce a viable solution is nothing new, what is new and current is that the internet is controlling and exploiting its great potential. 2

Foldit is an online experimental puzzle video game about protein folding developed as a collaboration between the University of Washington departments of Computer Science and Engineering and Biochemistry.The designers were: Seth Cooper, Adrien Treuille, Janos Barbero, Zoran Popvic, David Baker, David Salesin

The software presents an image of the protein and the player manipulates the image according to set of toolsThe tools are based on physics: e.g opposite charges attract etcThe human brain is better attuned to analysing 3D structuresPlayers dont have to a have a scientific background any age can playThe better the fold the more points they get

Gamers share and join groups and share best resultsWinning protein designs are analysed in Baker's lab and tested in petri dishesProteins are part of the disease, they are also part of the cureKnowing the structure of proteins is the key to creating drugs to combat them

Foldit uses the human brain to predict folds within protein structures.

In 2011 Scientist Mariusz Jaskolski of A. Mickiewicz University in Poland approached David Baker to ask FOLDIT players to map the crystal structure of M-PMV retroviral protease - basically the protein involved in the HIV virus600 players from 41 teams submitted more than 1.25 million solutions5,000 of the best answers were analysed The group the Contenders were able to produce an accurate model of the protein structureCracking this enzyme provides new insights for the design of antiretroviral drugs

Scientists were trying to solve this for over 10 years, Gamers were able to do it within 10 days by playing the foldit game. 1

Its kind of an unprecedented case of using computing non-specialists to solve a longstanding scientific problem2

1.Veverka, V. et al. J. Mol. Biol. 333, 771780 (2003).2. Alexander Wlodawer, chief of the Macromolecular Crystallography Laboratory at the National Cancer Institute.

8ordinary people play the game and eventually be candidates for winning the Nobel Prize

gaming, science and computation can be combined to make advances that were not possible before

People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at

Michael Nielsen author of Reinventing Discovery believes there is a major paradigm shift on how Scientific discoveries are being made, publically funded science should be open science

distinct paradigm shift in the way Science is being conductedMichael Nielsen, author of Discovering Science believes the way scientists do research will change more in the next 20 years than in the last 300 years9

Boinc - Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing

The intent of BOINC is to make it possible for researchers to tap into the enormous processing power of personal computers around the world.FightAids@homeRosetta@HomeFold@HomeGalaxy Zoo -http://www.galaxyzoo.org/

http://www.openstreetmap.org/ProsConsThousands of non scientific people can help further discoveries in ScienceInvasion of privacySatisfaction in joining crowd scouring projectsWiki leaks - ethicsVideo games may help lives

Added costCreates a culture of sharingNo written contractsProjects may failThere are ethical, social, and economic implications of crowdsourcing.