not only lend your computer but your brain.

one example recently popped up at acm: Foldit, gaming for cure:

Two years ago, University of Washington researchers launched a project to harness the brainpower of computer gamers to solve medical problems. The game, called Foldit, turns difficult molecular biology problems into a game similar to Tetris. The researchers found that human players did better than computers on problems that required radical moves, risks, and long-term vision, all qualities that computers do not possess | technews

others are:

Bossa: middleware for volunteer thinking, brought to you by david p. anderson, the guy who also started the seti movement and boinc.

the citizen cyberscience community meets in london, 2-3 of septembre.