Can Distributed Volunteers Accomplish Massive Data Analysis Tasks

The science community is accustomed to interacting with the public for two main purposes: outreach to adults (since they are the patrons upon whose good will future funding will depend), and education for children (since they are the reservoir from which the next generation's talent must be drawn). We suggest that a third relationship can now be fruitful, one that has been little used until now - with the notable exception of the astronomy community. Astronomy has a long history of relying on non-professionals for some observations. Important contributions have been made by amateur astronomers in several areas of research including monitoring dust storms on Mars, timing asteroid occultations, and discovering comets. Note that three distinct contributions are being made by amateur astronomers: they supply their own instrumentation, provide access to observing sites around the Globe, and contribute their innate powers of perception.