BOINC Radio PSA #27
Description
- If we had a PSA, we could approach the Ad Council and college radio stations with the PSA and ask if they would air it. We could of course, ask them before such a PSA existed, but I think they'd be more inclined to say yes if we already had the PSA in hand.
- The purpose of this PSA is not only for our use for direct outreach to radio stations, but for other BOINC community members to use. This is part of a wider package of promotional materials (flyers, business cards, and other designs). The goal here being that anybody enthusiastic about BOINC will have a set of materials they can use to successfully promote BOINC in their workplace, school, place of worship, etc. For college students, having a PSA ready to use that they can take to their radio station would be a useful component of this toolkit.
- I'm not proposing we do ALL these PSAs (though we could if we want!), these are just drafts for feedback to see how people like different wordings.
- It may make sense instead of directing people to boinc.berkeley.edu to instead direct them to some other website (computeforscience.org or similar) which is directed to being a little easier to navigate and get started with than the main berkeley website. This also helps make it clear that BOINC berkeley is not behind these advertisements and avoids needing to get approval/sign-off. Even if we are confident we can get that approval for some ads, any station that plays this is going to want to seek that same approval and that may be more complicated, and we may not be the only people taking these ads to stations. Linking people to our own "compute for science" site also enables us to promote other volunteer computing platforms and engage a wider variety of users.
PSA Proposal 1:
Did you know that you, yes you, could find a cure for cancer? And that you could even do it in your sleep? You can volunteer your computer's spare computational capacity to finding cures for childhood cancers, detecting deadly asteroids on a collision course with earth, or finding new pulsars and galaxies. BOINC, the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, is a free software you can download which uses your computer's spare power to process data for scientists at prestigious universities across the world. It can be configured to run with low priority, so it won't slow down your computer while in use. And YOU get to choose what kinds of science to support. Join a movement of people building a better world through science by installing BOINC. Find out more at boinc.berkeley.edu. This announcement is brought to you by the Science Commons Initiative and this station.
PSA Proposal 2:
Every day, there are scientists, grad students, professors, and regular people tackling some of the world's biggest problems. They're finding cures for new diseases, testing new materials for more efficient power generation, and making sure our planet is safe from asteroids and other threats. These problems are big, but you can play your part in solving them by joining BOINC4Science. We're a community of people donating our computer's spare processing power to help scientists process massive datasets. You don't need to be a computer expert to join, and getting started takes just five minutes. Install the software, pick some projects to support, and everything else happens in the background without slowing down your computer. Together, we can make an impact. Join us at boinc.berkeley.edu. This announcement is brought to you by the Science Commons Initiative and this station.
PSA Proposal 3:
If you watch the news, it would be easy to come to the conclusion that the world is about to end. Politics, global climate change, natural disasters, pandemics, and other shocking events sell papers. But good news doesn't, so we don't hear about it. We never see headlines about all the good that's being done in the world. About neighbors helping neighbors. About people, coming together, to build a better future for our children. This is your reminder, today, that it's happening, and that you can join them, regardless of your politics or background. You can join a movement of people using the spare processing power of their computers to help scientists tackling the world biggest problems like climate change and disease. Big problems require big computation. Join us in making a better world, no PHD required at boinc.berkeley.edu. This announcement is brought to you by the Science Commons Initiative and this station.
PSA Proposal 4:
<series of dings and "youve got mails>. We're all used to closing and swiping away our notifications. It's always the same: spam calls, "one time offers", the most annoying person in your high school class getting married -- But what if a notification told you that you helped cure a disease or detect an asteroid on a collision course with earth? Got your attention? BOINC is a free software you can install on your computer that works in the background to help process data for scientists working on some of humanity's biggest problems. We make it easy. Just download, run, pick the projects YOU want to support, and you can track your progress any time in the app. It feels good to make a contribution to science. Join us at boinc.berkeley.edu. This announcement is brought to you by the Science Commons Initiative and this station.