Bayanihan is a Filipino term taken from the word bayan,

referring to a nation, country, town or community. The whole

termbayanihan refers to a spirit of communal unity or effort to
achieve a particular objective.
Etymology
The origin of the term bayanihan can be traced from a common
tradition in Philippine towns where community members
volunteer to help a family move to a new place by volunteering
to transport the house to a specific location. The process
involves literally carrying the house to its new location. This is
done by putting bamboo poles forming a strong frame to lift the stilts from the ground and
carrying the whole house with the men positioned at the ends of each pole. The tradition also
features a small fiesta hosted by the family to express gratitude to the volunteers.
Bayanihan

Pronounced like "buy-uh-nee-hun," bayanihan is a Filipino word derived from the

word bayan meaning town, nation, or community in general. "Bayanihan" literally means, "being
a bayan," and is thus used to refer to a spirit of communal unity and cooperation.

Although bayanihan can manifest itself in many forms, it is probably most clearly and
impressively displayed in the old tradition of neighbors helping a relocating family by getting
enough volunteers to carry the whole house, and literally moving it to its new location. They do
this by placing long bamboo poles length-wise and cross-wise under the house (traditional
Filipino houses were built on stilts), and then carrying the house using this bamboo frame. It
takes a fairly large number of people -- often 20 or more -- working together to carry the entire
house. All this is done in a happy and festive mood. At the end of the day, the moving family
expresses their gratitude by hosting a smallfiesta for everyone.

Bayanihan has been a favorite subject of many artists. The picture above is from a mural by
Filipino National Artist Carlos "Botong" Francisco, commissioned in 1962 by UNILAB founder
Jose Y. Campos, and currently on display at UNILAB's administration building in Manila. It is
used here with permission from UNILAB.
There is also an impressive real-life photograph of bayanihan in action in National Geographic
Magazine, March 1977, p. 382. Unfortunately, we cannot post a copy here due to copyright laws.
If you're interested in seeing this picture, we suggest going to a library.

By developing the idea of volunteer computing, Project Bayanihan seeks to bring

the bayanihan spirit into the realm of world-wide computing, making it possible for people
around the world to help each other and work together toward a common goal. The software
framework we are currently building serves as a tool that, much like the bamboo framework in
traditional bayanihan, will allow people to more easily pool together and coordinate their
processing resources.