Launched in 1985, Red Nose Day is an annual charity fund-raising programme supported by a huge range of UK organisations, schools and offices. It has even worked its magic across Twitter, Facebook, Bebo, numerous blogs and other social media – where numerous avatars, including mine, now feature temporary red noses (courtesy of DigitalRedNose.com). Among other initiatives, Twitter has even been used to help develop, produce and disseminate a RND fund-raising book, published by online company Lulu.com, called TwitterTitters.
Why talk about RND here? Well, Red Nose Day is powered by cloud computing – reports Computer Business Review. This once-a-year extravaganza reaches out to hundreds of thousands of people – the vast majority engaging on just one day (in 2007, over 450,000 people donated money online in just one evening). It’s a great example of how cloud computing can meet a short-lived requirement by Comic Relief for massive processing power without needing hardware that sits dormant for the rest of the year.
Update (13 March 2009): BIW’s hosting partner, Attenda, has also got into the Comic Relief spirit with its own YouTube take on Bohemian Rhapsody.
