Open Source Biology

Just a place to store notes & links about the nascent open source biology/biotech community

References

• Open Source Biotechnology (Janet Hope thesis)
  • Jason R. Kelly 21:04, 19 May 2007 (EDT): Lots of good references here, and a good (if long) starting point. Overall Hope concludes that OSB is likely to succeed and suggests a few models for how to move it forward.

• The Penguin's Genome, or Coase and Open Source Biotechnology (D.Opderbeck, Harvard J of Law and Tech)
  • Jason R. Kelly 21:04, 19 May 2007 (EDT): Opderbeck is more critical of OSB and suggests that "romanticized" views of open source fail to account for the differences between software and wetware. He concludes that information in biology is likely more rivalrous than information in software due to economic, social, and biological rivalry (section IV.C). He advocates an approach directed at lowering the transaction costs associated with traditional IP negotiations (rather than a new open source IP scheme) via a "National Biotechnology Database" that would contain all necessary info for prospective licensees and licensors.
    • "The analysis in Parts V.A and B above suggests that the principal issue in the biotechnology research commons is access to data that will help reduce transaction costs and strategic behavior. Therefore, biotechnology innovation policy should focus not on weakening intellectual property rights or on encouraging alternative development methods such as open source, but rather on making such data available." (p.244)

Groups doing this sort of thing

• Registry of Standard Biological Parts
• CAMBIA