In this Section
- The new environmental imperative
- The new marketplace
- The new arena of community
The new arena of community: forging bonds of societal purpose
In an integrated world, developing innovative solutions can mean forming wholly new kinds of communities—based on shared interests and incentives, and enabled by technology that brings the benefits of collective action to individuals, organizations and society at large.
Linking people’s idle computers together in a grid can create supercomputer-level strength. We’re using it to tackle some of the world’s most urgent threats.
IBM’s World Community Grid, created through the donation of IBM hardware, software, technical services and expertise, is helping ad hoc global communities of volunteers to accelerate research on challenges from climate modeling in Africa to killer viruses. Since the launch of the World Community Grid in 2004, more than 850,000 computer devices have been registered to volunteer computing time when not in use by their owners. Dengue fever, West Nile encephalitis, hepatitis C and a host of other diseases pose significant risk to more than 40 percent of the world's population. Researchers at The University of Texas Medical Branch and The University of Chicago estimate that about 50,000 years of computational time would be needed to complete the structure-based drug discovery calculations to help combat these viruses. Thanks to IBM’s grid approach, these calculations may be completed in less than one year.
"Infectious diseases create not only illness, but also poverty. For example, continued research is needed to understand the four dengue fever viruses and to develop drugs that could help reduce the burden of disease and potentially save millions of lives." - Dr. Ayo Oduola, Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, World Health Organization.
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2007 IBM Corporate Responsibility Report
A new model of global citizenship among individuals, organizations and society at large.