Our software works like a screensaver, activating when you are not using your computer and getting in touch with our site. We give you a small part of a large computing task, like finding a new treatment for a disease, rendering computer graphics, or analyzing complex data. Your computer works on the task while the screensaver is running, and then returns the results to us. When you return to your computer (when you move your mouse or press a key on the keyboard), our software immediately stops work.

During the Preview Release period, while we are testing our system, we are donating computing power to non-profit projects, and we are starting tests of commercial projects. When we have finalized this testing period and we send out an official release of the Worker software, we will start to compensate our users for the time we use on their computers. For instance, we might provide a discount off your Internet Service Provider bill each month, or we might give you a gift certificate for an online store. If you are a business with more than 100 computers running the Worker software, we will pay you directly for the work your computers do. (Please note, we can only pay you for work done on computers you own -- not computers your employer owns!)

When you register, you will be asked to choose a username and password, and provide an email address. If you have more than one computer, and you want to receive credit for them all, simply enter the same username, password, and email address each time you install. Your computers will be automatically linked into one account.

The more work you do on the system -- both during the Preview Release and after -- the better ranking you will get in our system. After our official release, when two users' computers are available for work, the user with the better ranking will get first crack at the higher-paying jobs. So, the more jobs your computer does, starting today, the more you will earn in the future.

We know that different users will have different reasons for joining Popular Power, and we want to give each user control over the types of work done on their computers. We provide this control by letting you choose how to balance the work done on your system. You can either choose to maximize your earnings -- working on commercial projects of any type, with the goal of getting the greatest reward -- or you can choose to maximize your nonprofit work -- donating your time to projects you want to support. You can also choose a balance between these two extremes.

The software our customers and non-profit projects write does not have access to the files on your computer. Our software encloses their programs in a container, called a "sandbox," that limits what they are allowed to do. This is the same way your Web browser protects you from Web sites that you visit.

The Popular Power Worker is designed to be low maintenance. If you are happy with the way it is working, you won't have to keep downloading and installing new copies to get new features -- instead, most of its operation should be automatic. However, please be sure to come back to our site when we issue the official release, so you can sign up to start earning for the work you do, and so you can take advantage of the bugfixes and enhancements we make during the Preview Release. And if you find a bug, please be sure to send us a message through our feedback form.

Find out how to join Popular Power and download the Worker software.