Open Source Biology

Freeman Dyson has an interesting essay on the future of biology and genetics http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20370

This is an incredibly rich area of knowledge that is opening up. The significance of which people are only beginning to grasp. It is incredible fuel for the imagination. If there is a need for an open commons based approach to knowledge in any key science, genetics is it. This article has a very positive outlook. I find the the prospect of enclosure and privatisation of this knowledge daunting. So I wonder are there any real efforts being made towards an Open Source Genetics?

Seemingly there are -

http://www.hapmap.org/

http://www.cambia.org

http://www.gene-watch.org/genewatch/articles/18-1Hope.html

An good article discussing how open source methodologies and licensing might apply to biotech – http://www.gene-watch.org/genewatch/articles/18-1Hope.html
Public Domain Genome Mapping – http://www.hapmap.org/
Open Access Biotech Toolkits – http://www.cambia.org
And if you really want to get your teeth into it here’s a 266 page PhD on Open Source Biotechnology by Janet Elizabeth Hope.
http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/hope.pdf

This post was essentially a comment and response to -
http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/how-open-source-biology-will-supercede-darwinian-biology/2007/07/09