Sweepstakes Incentive Model and Associated System

Abstract

A sweepstakes incentive model and associated system for a distributed processing system are disclosed that identify the capabilities of distributed devices connected together through a wide variety of communication systems and networks and aggregate these distributed device capabilities to accomplish desired distributed workload objectives.

1 . A method of operating a distributed processing system, comprising:
 offering a sweepstakes as an incentive for client devices to join the distributed processing system;   determining, at least in part with a computing device, a workload capability of one or more client devices;   assigning a sweepstakes entry value to individual client devices of the one or more client devices based, at least in part, on the workload capability of the one or more client devices; and   determining a winner of the sweepstakes, based at least in part, on sweepstakes entry values of the one or more client devices.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining the workload capability further comprises:
 allocating a workload to the one or more client devices;   receiving a workload result based on completion of the workload by the one or more client devices; and   determining the workload capability of the one or more client devices based at least in part on the workload result.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the workload comprises a benchmark workload. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the workload comprises at least one of a network site testing workload, a network site indexing workload, a bioinformatics workload, a pair-wise comparison workload, or a data mining workload. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the sweepstakes entry value increases for increased capabilities of the one or more client devices. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the workload capability of the one or more client devices is based at least in part on a processor capability of the one or more client devices. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the workload capability of the one or more client devices is based at least in part on a storage capability of the one or more client devices. 
     
     
         8 . A system, comprising:
 a server system configured to be coupled to one or more client devices and configured to:
 offer a sweepstakes as an incentive for client devices to join a distributed processing system; 
 determine a workload capability of one or more client devices; 
 assign a sweepstakes entry value to individual client devices of the one or more client devices based, at least in part, on the workload capability of the one or more client devices; and 
 determine a winner of the sweepstakes, based at least in part, on sweepstakes entry values of the one or more client devices. 
   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the server system is further configured to determine the workload capability by:
 allocating a workload to the one or more client devices;   receiving a workload result based on completion of the workload by the one or more client devices; and   determining the workload capability of the one or more client devices based at least in part on the workload result.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the workload comprises a benchmark workload. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the workload comprises at least one of a network site testing workload, a network site indexing workload, a bioinformatics workload, a pair-wise comparison workload, or a data mining workload. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the sweepstakes entry value increases for increased capabilities of the one or more client devices. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the workload capability of the one or more client devices is based at least in part on a processor capability of the one or more client devices. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the workload capability of the one or more client devices is based at least in part on a storage capability of the one or more client devices. 
     
     
         15 . A distributed processing system comprising:
 a server system configured to be coupled to a plurality of client devices, wherein the server system is configured to offer a sweepstakes as an incentive for client devices to join a distributed processing system;   a capability database coupled to the server system and configured to store workload capability factors associated with the plurality of client devices; and   a sweepstakes database coupled to the server system and configured to store sweepstakes entry values associated with the plurality of client devices, the sweepstakes entry values being useable to determine a winner of the sweepstakes.   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the server system is further configured to utilize the workload capability factors to determine the sweepstakes entry values. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the server system is configured to determine a sweepstakes entry value for a client device by:
 allocating a workload to the client device;   receiving a workload result based on completion of the workload by the client device; and   determining the sweepstakes entry value for the client device based at least in part on workload result.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the workload comprises a benchmark workload. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the workload capability of the client device is based at least in part on a processor capability of the client device. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the workload capability of the client device is based at least in part on a storage capability of the client device.