I need some volunteers for a special climate related project.

I have a need to test something. Unfortunately testing that something requires a lot of careful manual labor at the PC keyboard.

When the work is done, it will give a basis for a comparison that as far as I know, has not been done before.

I don’t want to say what it is, because I’d like the work to proceed without having to deal with commentary until it is done. It’s easy work without need of any special skills other than attention to detail, and can be done at your computer. While it is just detailed and somewhat tedious, I consider it very important.  The scope of work is far larger than one person can do easily, which is why I’m asking for help from my loyal readers. I figure I need at least 20 volunteers to do it. The more volunteers the better, because it will mean that each volunteer will have less work. You can do this from anywhere in the world with any Internet connection on any PC or Mac.

The caveats:

1. You have to be a real person known to me. No phantoms or non de plumes. You can stay under a handle on this forum, but you have to reveal your identity to me privately. No exceptions.

2. Once I get a volunteer count, I’ll divide up the work amongst the total volunteers and make assignments

3. Everyone will get credited in the final result, unless you opt not to.

4. The results will be made public on this forum when the project is complete, eta 15-30 days. Results will be made available for sharing, checking and replication by others.

5. Be prepared for perhaps as much as 8-12 hours of detailed work, possibly more, possibly less, based on how many volunteers we have.

6. Self starters will do best; once I turn you loose with instructions, there won’t be much support I can offer beyond answering questions.

7. There’s a chance the results may show nothing of interest, but the work needs to be done so that a comparison can be made.

If this sounds like something you would like to help with, please indicate your willingness to help with this project in comments below, and I will contact you privately.

UPDATE 7/7/08: I have plenty of volunteers, and the project will go very quickly now with this many. So I’m closing the thread for additional volunteers. Thos that have volunteered, look for an email from project -at- surfacestations dawt org in the next day or so and we’ll work out assignments.