Technology in Communities

World Community Grid

Since 2004, IBM’s World Community Grid has pooled processing power from idle computers around the world to help solve humanitarian problems that require intensive computer analysis. We do this by using grid computing to join together many individual computers, creating a large, virtual system with massive computational power that far surpasses the power of all but a handful of supercomputers. Because the nature of the work is split into small pieces that can be processed simultaneously, research time is reduced from years to months and even to weeks.

World Community Grid is another example of how IBM tightly integrates its expertise as a technology and services company with its community service efforts. Since its launch, more than 540,000 users and 1.7 million devices have contributed more than 400,000 years of computing to help researchers understand childhood cancer, HIV/AIDS, muscular dystrophy, clean energy and more.

Watch up close and personal stories about World Community Grid from IBM supporters.

In 2010, World Community Grid helped a team of researchers at the renowned Scripps Research Institute discover two new compounds that prove the existence of new binding sites on HIV protease. Associate Professor C. David Stout, senior author of the study, explained, “These results open the door to a whole new approach to drug design against HIV protease,” which is an enzyme used by HIV to create new, infectious viral particles.

Also in 2010, World Community Grid added a new ambition to its portfolio: clean water. In September, IBM announced a project with Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, in coordination with a consortium of institutions from all over the world, which will endeavor to understand the molecular scale properties of a new class of efficient and inexpensive water filter materials. The goal is to help satisfy demand for inexpensive, clean drinking water in developing countries.

The program is part of a broader effort called Computing for Clean Water, which is the seventeenth research project to be launched on World Community Grid and one of eight projects currently active, or intermittent.

results returned to researchers
by computers on World Community
Grid in 2010.

Trailblazer Grants

IBM strives to make its donations to the not-for-profit community sustainable, impactful and scalable. IBM closely ties many of its contribution offerings to its business expertise and product offerings. In this way, IBM eschews checkbook philanthropy, and instead engages not-for-profit organizations on a deeper, more collaborative level. This approach helps IBM understand the true needs of these organizations and deliver greater value, and it helps the organizations better understand IBM.

First piloted in 2009, IBM Trailblazer Grants are designed to offer not-for-profit organizations a chance to enhance their performance and assist them in delivering better services to the community. The offerings help these organizations improve IT infrastructure and build leadership and technology skills through consultations with IBM experts and access to IBM technology. These tailored solutions were developed in collaboration with organizations in the not-for-profit community, and are specifically designed to support them in their efforts to serve our communities. They often involve in-depth workshops on subjects as varied as project management, leadership, operational risk and the strategic use of social media. And they offer specific technology services such as security vulnerability testing, data backup and collaboration software.

In 2010, IBM greatly expanded the Trailblazer Grant program, both within the United States and abroad. The company made 135 worldwide grants during the year, with a market value of $1.9 million. That’s up from 21 grants in 2009. As the program continues to scale and meet with positive results, the company plans on expanding to more than 200 grants in 2011.

Thus far the feedback on the Trailblazer Grant program has been overwhelmingly positive. In a recent survey, 95 percent of grantees said the offering will have a positive impact on their organization. And 98 percent said IBM should continue to provide the offering to other organizations.

The packaged services and technology offerings of the Trailblazer Grant program will continue to evolve as the needs of the not-for-profit community change and IBM’s business offerings grow.

Currently, there are 10 different grant packages, including:

• Project Management: Concepts & Consultation
• Strategies for Social Media
• Leadership & Collaboration Workshop
• Operational Risk & Resiliency Assessment
• Data Backup Services
• Hacker Vulnerability Assessment
• Strategic Assessment
• LotusLive^™
• Lotus^® Foundations^™
• Mini-Jam Collaboration Platform

Disaster Relief

When disaster strikes, people want to help. IBMers are no different. As such, IBM has a long tradition of swiftly responding to disasters. In particular, IBM has helped to speed and coordinate relief efforts on the ground through a combination of expertise from its consultants, volunteer efforts and monetary donations by its employees, and the deployment of technology and resources to fit the situation.

In 2010, IBM responded in a variety of ways to earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, China and Australia, as well as to flooding in Pakistan. In Haiti, IBM worked with a number of nongovernmental organizations with local staff and experience. We donated services to design an enterprise mobility solution, which led to an expanded system that helped track vehicles and supplies during the chaotic months following the earthquake. We provided an in-depth assessment of the options available in the portable data center market, helping NGOs with crucial criteria for selecting and deploying a portable data center. We donated KidSmart Early Learning Centers to educational facilities being managed by local NGOs. Other equipment was donated to government ministries through the Clinton Global Initiative. A consortium of medical practitioners trying to improve medical care for Haitians received a donation of Lotus Live. Volunteers assisted Haitians with U.S. legal residency matters and taught project management skills to those involved in rebuilding. And IBMers contributed more than $1 million of their own money to charitable groups working in Haiti.

In addition, IBM translated and distributed trauma guides that aid caregivers in recognizing and treating the effects of trauma in children and adults affected by disaster. IBM’s trauma guides were developed in collaboration with trauma specialists from Harvard Medical School, who based the content on training they provided following the 2004 Asian tsunami. These guides provide a practical resource for caregivers offering psychological support to survivors of disaster. Following the earthquake in Haiti, IBM translated the guides into French and Haitian Creole for distribution throughout the country. More than 10,000 copies of the Haitian Creole and French translations were distributed in Haiti following the earthquake. Spanish, Simplified Chinese and Urdu translations were distributed following incidents in Chile, China and Pakistan, respectively.

American Red Cross

IBMers donated more than $1 million
of their own money in 2010 to volunteer
efforts in Haiti.