ZhengHe
02-20-2008, 04:51 PM
I was looking at the team stats yesterday and realized something really interesting. If you look at a list of Folding teams there are quite a few, which bear the names of our home nation. Among those teams most of them are based in Europe and Asia, which makes a great deal of sense. It seems to me that folding stats, at least for some, must be a focus of national pride. To be able to say that my country outfolds (if that isn't a word it should be) yours is to in effect say that my country is more advanced then yours.
Think of it as Folding based nationalism, which is spread out in all it's glory on the international scene, although realistically that metaphor doesn't even work at all. Even in the circumstances where it does work there is much to be desired as far as consistency. Still, it is an interesting thing to consider. Of course it helps that all this is going toward a good cause, but I would argue that is not the prime impetus for many of these teams.
Consider the Following:
Here is a list of Teams, which are associated with a specific country in order of output:
Overclockers Australia
Alliance Francophone
TSC! Russia
Dutch Power Cows
Portugal@Folding
Russia
Vietnam Global Team
Folding@Malaysia
Team Lithuania
Ukraine
Fórum PCs Brasil
Poland
Team Latvia
Team Canada
Taiwan Team
Czech Republic
Team Turkey Darkhardware
Folding Belarus (FBY)
Folding@Home Team - Indonesia
Folding@Hungary
Team-Norway
Hong Kong Team
This list was simply gleaned from the Top 500 teams.
Now obviously some of these examples work better then others. Some of them could be rightly taken out entirely, but there are a number of subtle trends that can be gleaned from even this imperfect set of information. Now I'm going to rework the information based on country name.
Australia
France
Russia
The Netherlands
Portugal
Russia
Vietnam
Malaysia
Lithuania
Ukraine
Brasil
Poland
Latvia
Canada
Taiwan
Czech
Turkey
Belarus
Indonesia
Hungary
Norway
Hong Kong
Now out of the 21 countries (after account for Russia) there are 7 nations, which are former Soviet Republics: Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, The Czech Republic, Belarus, and Hungary. They comprise 33% of the countries listed, yet as compared to the 48 odd countries in Europe are slightly above 14% of the total. So to speak these accounted for 2.35 times more then they arguably should be, which is a very significant factor. Even when you account for populations and access to technology it is very hard to imagine it being a coincidence.
I would like to advance the argument that it instead as much to do with the fact that these nations were effectively occupied territory in the recent past. During the Cold War most of these nations were under the direct auspices of the Russia and can not be said to have been true "nation states" according to the accepted European definition. As such once they did become nations they were left with something of an identity problem, which brings us back to the present state of things.
I would like to advance the argument that it instead as much to do with the fact that these nations were effectively occupied territory in the recent past. During the Cold War most of these nations were under the direct auspices of the Russia and can not be said to have been true "nation states" according to the accepted European definition. As such once they did become nations they were left with something of an identity problem, which brings us back to the present state of things.
Between the years 1989 to 1991, coinciding with the collapse of the Soviet Union, every single Post-Soviet republic listed along with most of the rest declared formal independence in one form or another. This coincides conveniently with the rise of the Internet, which began at almost exactly the same time, though it did not become truly commonplace until 1996. As such these rising nations, looking for a new identity amid a rapidly advancing world must certainly have turned to the internet and other related technologies. Folding@Home began in earnest on October 1 2000, which is about the time that most of these nations would be receiving relatively widespread and consistent internet access.
So you see technology oriented individuals in each country would have been in a prime position to use Folding@Home as a symbol for showing to the world that they had truly come of age as technologically sophisticated nations and players on the international scene. Having a high folding score could be thought as a measure of international prestige. These nations, which are some of the most nationalism oriented examples in all of Europe are effectively using Folding@Home as a tool to assert themselves on the international scene both technologically and politically.
Think of it as Folding based nationalism, which is spread out in all it's glory on the international scene, although realistically that metaphor doesn't even work at all. Even in the circumstances where it does work there is much to be desired as far as consistency. Still, it is an interesting thing to consider. Of course it helps that all this is going toward a good cause, but I would argue that is not the prime impetus for many of these teams.
Consider the Following:
Here is a list of Teams, which are associated with a specific country in order of output:
Overclockers Australia
Alliance Francophone
TSC! Russia
Dutch Power Cows
Portugal@Folding
Russia
Vietnam Global Team
Folding@Malaysia
Team Lithuania
Ukraine
Fórum PCs Brasil
Poland
Team Latvia
Team Canada
Taiwan Team
Czech Republic
Team Turkey Darkhardware
Folding Belarus (FBY)
Folding@Home Team - Indonesia
Folding@Hungary
Team-Norway
Hong Kong Team
This list was simply gleaned from the Top 500 teams.
Now obviously some of these examples work better then others. Some of them could be rightly taken out entirely, but there are a number of subtle trends that can be gleaned from even this imperfect set of information. Now I'm going to rework the information based on country name.
Australia
France
Russia
The Netherlands
Portugal
Russia
Vietnam
Malaysia
Lithuania
Ukraine
Brasil
Poland
Latvia
Canada
Taiwan
Czech
Turkey
Belarus
Indonesia
Hungary
Norway
Hong Kong
Now out of the 21 countries (after account for Russia) there are 7 nations, which are former Soviet Republics: Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, The Czech Republic, Belarus, and Hungary. They comprise 33% of the countries listed, yet as compared to the 48 odd countries in Europe are slightly above 14% of the total. So to speak these accounted for 2.35 times more then they arguably should be, which is a very significant factor. Even when you account for populations and access to technology it is very hard to imagine it being a coincidence.
I would like to advance the argument that it instead as much to do with the fact that these nations were effectively occupied territory in the recent past. During the Cold War most of these nations were under the direct auspices of the Russia and can not be said to have been true "nation states" according to the accepted European definition. As such once they did become nations they were left with something of an identity problem, which brings us back to the present state of things.
I would like to advance the argument that it instead as much to do with the fact that these nations were effectively occupied territory in the recent past. During the Cold War most of these nations were under the direct auspices of the Russia and can not be said to have been true "nation states" according to the accepted European definition. As such once they did become nations they were left with something of an identity problem, which brings us back to the present state of things.
Between the years 1989 to 1991, coinciding with the collapse of the Soviet Union, every single Post-Soviet republic listed along with most of the rest declared formal independence in one form or another. This coincides conveniently with the rise of the Internet, which began at almost exactly the same time, though it did not become truly commonplace until 1996. As such these rising nations, looking for a new identity amid a rapidly advancing world must certainly have turned to the internet and other related technologies. Folding@Home began in earnest on October 1 2000, which is about the time that most of these nations would be receiving relatively widespread and consistent internet access.
So you see technology oriented individuals in each country would have been in a prime position to use Folding@Home as a symbol for showing to the world that they had truly come of age as technologically sophisticated nations and players on the international scene. Having a high folding score could be thought as a measure of international prestige. These nations, which are some of the most nationalism oriented examples in all of Europe are effectively using Folding@Home as a tool to assert themselves on the international scene both technologically and politically.