Radio Galaxy Zoo Talk

Would you like your computer to work on an astronomy project while you're asleep?

  • ivywong by ivywong scientist, admin

    Hi all,

    On the off-chance that you're wondering if your computer could help process astronomical data while you're asleep, why don't you give the SkyNet project (www.theskynet.org) a shot? It's a program started by some of the people who I work with here at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR, Perth Australia).

    The main idea with SkyNet is to connect 100s and 1000s of computers together through the Internet in order to simulate a single super machine to help process huge amounts of data. So if you're interested in participating, please check out www.theskynet.org

    Cheers,
    Ivy

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM Zooniverse Team

    Hi @ivywong, great idea! We all love our Zooniverse, but there's no reason that we can't help out other places, too... especially if it can be done while sleeping. 24/7 science!!

    Posted

  • Dolorous_Edd by Dolorous_Edd in response to ivywong's comment.

    The main idea with SkyNet is to connect 100s and 1000s of computers together through the Internet in order to simulate a single super machine to help process huge amounts of data

    Sorry, I can't resist

    enter image description here

    Soon ....

    enter image description here

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  • DZM by DZM Zooniverse Team

    HAH.

    It can't be an accident. It just be named after "that" SkyNet. 😃

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  • ivywong by ivywong scientist, admin

    Hahaha, well done! I was wondering how long it'd take before Terminator references started popping up! Definitely a "Cafe" sort of post. Don't worry, this SkyNet does not develop "hardware" --- no signs of a robot arm in the department just yet 😉

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate

    A fellow zooite - JohnF - posted links to POGS (the PS1 Optical Galaxy Survey) in the GZ forum, over a year ago now. And there's actually a discussion thread on it, theSkyNet POGS - PS1 Optical Galaxy Survey: anyone have experience with it?.

    A couple of months' or so later (Jan 21, 2014), I wrote this:

    Having just finished reading Nielsen's "Reinventing Discovery" (GZ forum thread on the book here), it was a bit of a let-down to review my participation in the POGS forum ("Message boards").

    Getting good, quick replies to technical queries about BOINC, Linux, machine performance, etc ... check.

    Getting any answers at all about data, the science, published papers, etc ... not so much (just one example).

    I guess the PIs didn't read the Nielsen book (or, if they read it, were not particularly enamored with it) 😦

    Unlike here in RGZ Talk, in the POGS Message Boards the POGS scientists seem to be extremely reluctant to engage in discussion of science; for example, the Science board is basically dead (and not because people who have been contributing their spare cycles to the project have not been asking questions). Disappointing.

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  • ivywong by ivywong scientist, admin

    Sorry to hear that @JeanTate... 😦 But am very glad that RGZ Talk is working well. We do try very hard 😃

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  • ivywong by ivywong scientist, admin

    Also, just as an added note, the comparison is not as fair between the SkyNet and RGZ as there is a big difference in project/team sizes. The SkyNet only has ~2 scientists on the team while many of the Zoo teams have lots more...

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM Zooniverse Team in response to JeanTate's comment.

    Although I'm disappointed to hear that another citizen-science project has less science-team involvement, I'm very proud of our Zooniverse-affiliated science teams for being the good ones!

    I'm trying to make it a personal point from here on out to school new science teams on the best practices for Talk when we launch new projects... check regularly, answer questions, make an FAQ that your mods can point to for answering the most common questions, and, certainly, respect the zooites!

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate

    Thanks Ivy, DZM for your comments.

    [DZM] make an FAQ that your mods can point to for answering the most common questions

    We have mods, here in RGZ Talk? I did not know that! 😮 Who are they?

    Here are some suggestions, for future reference (and perhaps present day practice too), that may be of some interest:

    • Keep your promises realistic. In POGS, Kevin wrote (11 Nov 2013): "Folks, Be careful what you ask for... David and I can talk the hind legs off a donkey about our research. 😃 And I'd have a crack and trying to persuade the donkey to walk home... Fire away and we'll answer your questions." It turned out that hardly any questions got answered, by either of them (and the donkey kept its hind legs! 😃)

    • Per the research done on 'demographics' (references? you have only to ask!), zooites are 'better educated', 'older', and more 'STEM-involved' (careers, study, etc) than the average US internet population; there are likely thousands, possibly tens of thousands with at least BScs in physics, astronomy, mathematics, etc, and likely hundreds with MScs or PhDs in such fields. Do not disrespect them by dumbing things down to the point of posting nonsense misleadingly simple explanations.

    • A related example: if you post a reference (published paper) highly relevant to a zooite's question (or similar), at least mention that ordinary zooites cannot read it (if it's behind a paywall); example: "Classified as giant by 2013MNRAS.430.2090S Strom, R. G.; C... et al... 4C73.08"

    • I know you're working on this as fast as you can, DZM, but the sooner we can bid farewell to Talk - and migrate to something with functionality more like the old GZ forum - the better. With such a platform, ordinary zoooite-led activities such as an Object of the Day/Week could provide a fruitful outlet for zooites' interests and creativity (IMHO, attempting to run something like an OotD/W in Talk would likely end in tears)

    • Get at least a handful of ordinary zooites involved in new projects before they launch. As far as I know, this was done for Space Warps only, and the selection of who got to join the Science Team was done by the PI (Phil Marshall) at his sole discretion (not exactly what most people would think of as "open")

    • Finally (for now anyway), open these sorts of discussions up in a cross-project way.

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM Zooniverse Team in response to JeanTate's comment.

    Out of curiosity, what functionality in particular is missing to run an Object of the Day/Week in the current Talk?

    As you know, cross-project discussion, or, at least, having both a centralized discussion area and a way to easily navigate between discussions on your favorite projects, are high priority items for me!

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  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to DZM's comment.

    It's not a single, if-only, feature; rather a combo of many ...

    Out of curiosity, what functionality in particular is missing to run an Object of the Day/Week in the current Talk?

    In no particular order (and not necessarily complete):

    • lack of an even half-way decent Search capability

    • inability to easily and reliably 'point' to a particular post (i.e. no unique URL)

    • ghosting: if a post/thread is moved, Search can't find it, and you can't easily continue posting etc to its thread

    • lack of semi-private 'sandbox' (GZ forum had a 'Semi-Secret OOTD Board' where drafts could be prepared at leisure, authors could discuss nominated objects, etc)

    • traceless editing: an author (and, presumably SCIENTISTs, MODERATORs, etc) can edit posts at any time, without even a note 'last edited by ...'

    • the certainty that the new Talk that you're working on will be incompatible with this one, and so when the plug is pulled (surely without warning), all the OOTD/W prep etc will be locked and inaccessible (yes, I haven't gotten over the fact that zkChris killed the GZ forum without any notice)

    • this one is peculiar to RGZ: inability to easily obtain an image faithfully resembling an ARG one (i.e. FIRST contours on WISE). This means that the OOTD/W would have to be a discussion explicitly tied to the ARG Talk page, or something less than ARG images used

    • based on my experience as the GZ OOTD editor, you need an editor (all kinds of reasons); current Talk has nothing like that

    • Talk PMs are far too limited to serve as an efficient means for an OOTD/W editor to communicate privately with authors

    • also RGZ alone limitation: inability to find an ARG image based on (RA, Dec) coordinates

    • nominations for OOTD/Ws would quickly become nigh on impossible to keep track of, let alone manage

    • generally, once a Talk-based OOTD/W got to have more than ~a dozen/~hundred entries/threads, it'd be an absolute nightmare to manage.

    It goes without saying that, as the last GZ forum OOTD editor, I am biased re what I think an OOTD/W should look like, and how I think it should work. However, earlier this year I* did put quite a bit of effort into examining how a RGZ OOTW might work, using Talk, and even posted a dummy OOTW or two (since deleted). It was hugely more time-consuming than preparing OOTDs in the GZ forum, and the results were considerably inferior (IMHO).

    As you know, cross-project discussion, or, at least, having both a centralized discussion area and a way to easily navigate between discussions on your favorite projects, are high priority items for me!

    Yes, and it's good to know it is.

    *there's a back story, which I'm happy to talk about (but would need to do some prep first)

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