yes, I think there are various forms of intelligent life out there. I am not so sure that there are whiz-bang technologies as in Contact or Star Wars that will ever allow much interchange among the Galactic Federation, though.
I don't think we should blab. I think that if there are billions of races out there, some of them will be pretty hostile.
I just want to help. I'd like to see us pick up some old TV or Radio signals from some group like us that is just emerging.
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.