Browser / HTTP Map-Reduce driver

Working example of browser based, HTTP driven map-reduce for a distributed word count. The jobs are assigned by the job-server and computation is done by the clients browser, after which the results are posted back (emit) to the server and the cycle repeats until the computation is done.

Huh, why?

It’s a proof of concept with the goal of lowering the barrier to entry for any online user to contribute some of their spare CPU cycles to a distributed computation. After all, what could be easier than clicking a link?

Launching example

  (1) > ruby jobserver.rb -p 80 -e production
  (2) > open your browser and point it to the jobserver

  That's it.

For full details, take a look at: www.igvita.com/2009/03/03/collaborative-map-reduce-in-the-browser/

Contact

Ilya Grigorik <ilya@igvita.com> (Twitter: @igrigorik)