cosmology@home is one of my favorite projects, due to the subject matter. That said, it is also one of the most enigmatic. I'm a person that thrives on information, it's essential for my work and my life. The complete and utter lack of updates on this project by the administrators is unsettling. It's even more bizarre in that the project is active and constantly giving out new work units. Why then is the project being maintained, but with the community essentially being left completely in the dark as to the project status? Weekly or even monthly updates would be nice, just to let us know you guys are still there and interested in what's going on. I would like to know that my CPU cycles aren't being wasted on a defunct project.

i second that!

So where in the project have?

The situation of this project is similar to one at orbit@home project... I just do not get it.. It is not too hard to get out at least some info or some kind of update... So I am assuming the project runs on some kind of autopilot and even the competent ones cannot enlighten us. It is a shame.. such fascinating topic of interest :(

Yes it really damage ....

Why not send and email to this Ben... I think that's what I'm going to do.

If many users do it, it might have an impact, showing that we're still here and that we don't like being left in the dark like this.

If there's no answer, good bye c@h!!

EDIT: I just sent the email, I'll let you know if there's any answer...

For me its got to the point where i think an update once a year would be nice :¬(
I am sure Ben is still on the same planet, i think he is working in france .

Here's Ben's answer:

[...]
Cosmology@Home is still working for the same purpose it was designed to fulfill - to enable high precision parameter estimation from current and upcoming cosmological data sets, such as the WMAP data and Planck.

I agree that our communication with users has been sorely lacking. This is due to unavoidable personnel developments - this is a university project and the two main contributors to the day-to-day running of cosmology@Home have graduated and moved on in their professional lives. I should explain that I created the concept of cosmology@home but the implementation was done by Scott Kruger and Chad Fendt and graphics design was contributed by Laura Chu and Nikita Swho were both students at Illinois.

I am currently engaged in a job search for 2 positions, one of which is entirely dedicated to communication with users, and the other a system administrator to maintain and develop the technical aspects of C@H. So far these jobs have not been filled.

I am happy to be able to report that I have begun to train a collaborator in the use of Pico, one of the key components of cosmology@home (for an explanation of this role see the C@H wikipedia page, or the material on my home page, linked from C@H).

We are currently adapting an updated cosmological simulation code which includes a more accurate calculation of recombination (again, see cosmos.astro.illinois.edu for an explanation). As soon as we are able to find a sys admin for C@H this code will be released as a new kernel for C@H.

The basic concept behind cosmology@home continues to be valid and powerful: to enable tens of thousands of cosmology enthusiasts to contribute to high precision cosmology and enable high precision cosmology based on these contributions.
[...]

Well, its nice to have a bit of news, some old and some new.

Well, that's good to hear. Someone should probably mention to him that taking literally 10 seconds to log onto this forum and type "Hi!! I'm still alive and the project continues as planned" once a month would be infinitely preferable to the total comm blackout that we're currently experiencing. The way it is, people are left to wonder whether to continue dedicating resources to this project, or if it's a total wash.

That's what I told him... But there's no sign yet.

As I said, perhaps more people should send emails? His address can be found on his homepage.

Hi there -

I just posted an updated version of the e-mail that was copied above to project announcements. Planck is in full swing and there was and is much to do to get the data to the point where we can start doing precision cosmology with it, using the technology we developed here at C@H, and your generous and crucial support.

All the best,
Ben

---

Creator of Cosmology@Home

Thank your for these updates :)