looking for help on "proposal"

Well, the time has come. I have decided to try asking certain businesses to allow me to install the FAH service onto their machines, and I know a good deal about it, but I would like some help writting a formal request, like things to include and take note of, or be sure to address. I remember seeing a template for this a while back but its no-where to be found. Please help as this could over 250 computers to team 32 and the folding cause if its accepted!

I'm thinking you just want it to win vonkaar's little contest j/k

Well the writing of one of the letters I participated in with the help of some other folders too

http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=171043&highlight=folding+AND+letter

This one, has an example that Arkaine23 used when he sent a letter to his colleges cs department...

http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=188253&highlight=folding+AND+letter

You would obviously be able to change them as needed to fit your letter the best.

Good luck on the borq my friend.

And maybe tell them that you would be willing to test it on a couple systems to double check to see it doesn't affect something? Yes, I know how the program works, but some computers are unstable, and barely ever recieve any load and F@H may send em in a downward spiral...it has happened to a few "living" machines at an office I borged a few at...

Once again, good luck .

Fold and Frag on
Brian

well, I have only approached 1 company other then my own...were I'm the man, so I didn't have to ask anyone.

First off you promise to run a test that shows them that there is no harm.
2nd remember some of the "" here, ie 'Folding for the cure', trying to cure cancer and other diseases.
Make sure that you let them know if for any reason you'll be right back to un-install it at their request.
Make sure that they truly understand that it will NOT effect any part of their use on the computers and it will not open them up to any type of virus or fisher in their security.
Make sure they understand that this is being run by Stanford U.

The 3's that I tend to stress - Curing disease, no harm to your computers, won't interfere with work/production.

ps. they can also advertise that they are "folding for the cure'.

Hope this helps, but the best way in is knowing someone to help ya out

thanks both, ya bubba those are what I was looking for, well Ive been meaning to do this for a little while but the contest kicked me into full motivation for it... but as I say,, I fold FIRST for the cure THEN for the points may my remaining family (and extended family) members benefit from this research.

Good motto my friend, good motto...I've been trying to encourage that among some people in some cases where it is eminent they are for the points...

Good luck again

Fold and Frag on
Brian

Update: I spoke with my account rep at the place and her response was " :ekk: wow! that is really cool, I will definately forward that on to the facilities group, just email it all to me and Ill let them know." So looks good! cross your fingers and hope we get this.. This place has like 14 classrooms that average 20-25 computers each minus certain ones I could get atleast 100-150 24/7 folders added to the project! Go for the Cure!!

Whoa...really nice man

Will they be folding for team32? Or will they be folding for their own team (either way, it is totally awesome!)

Congrats, and good luck on the borq

Fold and Frag on
Brian

blah what a bunch of lamers .. they declined request to "participate in your proposal" *grrrrrr*

I will push again for this... if not, moving onto the schools, which were even less likely.

Oh well I guess

Here is the final copy of the letter I sent them if anyone was curious (pieces taken from Arkaine's write and others)

Dear Facilities at ____,

I am writing on behalf of the members of the Folding@Home community to
bring the Folding@Home Distributed Computing project to your attention.

The Folding@Home project uses spare processor cycles to synthesize and
calculate how proteins fold, misfold, and aggregate. The process of protein
folding, while critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, remains
a mystery. Moreover, perhaps not surprisingly, when proteins do not fold
correctly (i.e. "misfold"), there can be serious repercussions, including
many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, and
Parkinson's disease.

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project, which in essence is a
technique that uses the internet to create a tremendous super-computer. By
splitting the workload and sending small portions out to volunteers who
donate their CPU time, the project is able to harness tens of thousands of
CPU's and move forward far more quickly than it would running on a Cray
super-computer. The folding client runs on an idle priority and never takes
CPU cycles that are needed for other processes. Think of a CPU's cycles as a
glass of water. When you browse the internet or process documents, you only
drink 1/20 of the glass, and the rest is unused.... The folding client
"drinks" the other bits of water. The client lets the other programs take as
much as they need. This in no way spies on your activities. Studies have
shown that Folding@Home does not impact the performance of computers, and it
only needs internet access to receive work packets and to send results,
which occurs anywhere from three times per day to twice per week depending
on the particular work unit and CPU involved. Bandwidth use is minimal and
it operates using 2048 bit encryption on standard www and https ports 80 or
8080. Many schools and corporations are starting to help the scientific
community by joining this or similar projects.

If security is an issue with your decision on allowing the client to be
installed, I can assure you that the F@H client is quite safe. It uses a
digital signature that is verified with each download of a new work unit.
The signature is a very secure way to verify that no bogus files have been
downloaded that may attack/affect your system. The Folding@Home project does
not cost anything to you. Clients are available for Windows, Mac OS X,
Linux, and FreeBSD.

You do not gain anything from folding, but science does and perhaps
someday this research will cure protein disorders or find new treatments for
some types of cancer, in which case the whole human race benefits. All in
all, the client is free and uses very little hard drive space. You may find
other uses for the client as well. In monitoring a few dozens of
folding@home clients, I've found that they can help pinpoint hardware
problems. The folding@home community and I hope that you will think about
allowing this client to be installed on some of the classroom computers,
even if only on a trial basis. Whatever you decide, I thank you for your
time and consideration.

As for implementation of the client, I would be willing to oversee the
installation and upkeep of the clients themselves. I also am willing to
install the client on a few test machines in order to verify stability and
simplicity of the Folding@Home client. Any configuration needed I am also
willing to assist in or handle personally. And should you decide at any time
you no longer wish to participate in the Folding@Home project I will
immediately remove the client from all machines at your request. Currently
being created is a streamlined installation of this client, which allows it
to be invisible to the user of the computer so as to not bother the user or
be an annoyance in any way. This also makes the setup and configuration of
the client itself much cleaner in the implementation and deployment of it.

I urge you to seek more information about this exciting DC project at the
official Folding@Home site: http://folding.stanford.edu

Sincerely,

Greg Jenkins
[email protected]

I've run into the same problem with potetial borgs. They just don't think it's that big of deal and they consider the client nothing more than a resouce drain on their machines.

I explained it accuratly but they just say "No thanks".