ABSTRACT
This is the unfortunate, and not inaccurate, impression that the average VDC volunteer has of the scientists at the top of the pyramid. But what of the scientists themselves? How do they view VDC? And the volunteers who are involved in VDC, what does it mean to them? Do they see themselves as scientists? There is a lot of resistance to VDC from within establishment science. Principal Investigators (lead scientists) I interviewed said that they feel VDC applications for funding are given low priority and that the established adjudication procedure of peer review of scientists within the established institutions of science, mostly do not grasp the potential of VDC or the role it can play in scientific research. None of the PIs felt that VDC was going to replace existing structures but there was a feeling that it had a place which as of yet has not been given proper recognition or support. There is significant fear of ‘letting the masses in’ and a mistaken perception that it would mean less control over the process, with fears around security. Certainly people are less predictable than the supercomputer cluster but not all research projects are suited to VDC so there is a selection process and secondly, those that are, have developed strict procedures to prevent fraud.
