Free biosafety advice kits for community labs --> Ask a Biosafety Expert poster and magnet

[Jason Bobe]

Hey All -

The Ask a Biosafety Expert (ABE) service by DIYbio.org provides free biosafety advice from a panel of volunteer experts to the DIYbio community. Check it out here: http://ask.diybio.org/

We are offering a free biosafety advice kits for community labs based in the United States. Each kit includes a poster and a magnet featuring awesome artwork by the llustrator Himanshu Sharma (http://www.gohemu.com/), as well as a printed copy of a recent report about the DIYbio community (Here is a PDF of 7 myths & realities).

Here is a pic:

Want a kit? Please follow the link below and give us some info and we'll ship you a kit. 1 kit per community lab. Don't belong to a community lab, but still want a kit? Outside the U.S.? Stay tuned, we plan to make these available to individual practitioners and international folks at a later time.

Sign-up here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1-BLIQGR5WFvqdTEaVu7prKhupxsUE2k3sGn57uHuGrA/viewform

Jason Bobe

[Marc Juul]

On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 3:18 PM, Jason Bobe <jaso...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey All -

The Ask a Biosafety Expert (ABE) service by DIYbio.org provides free biosafety advice from a panel of volunteer experts to the DIYbio community. Check it out here: http://ask.diybio.org/

Hey Jason.

While I really appreciate the availability of this service, it seems to me that you are potentially setting people up for a visit from the authorities since this service in itself is not anonymous in any way. Your site should have a big clear warning about the lack of anonymity and instructions on how to use Tor to access the site safely. Biosafety is great, but cybersafety is equally important and I'm sure several government organizations around the world are interested in identifying everyone involved in diybio.

 
--

marc/juul

[Jason Bobe]

On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 6:59 PM, Marc Juul <ju...@labitat.dk> wrote:

On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 3:18 PM, Jason Bobe <jaso...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey All -

The Ask a Biosafety Expert (ABE) service by DIYbio.org provides free biosafety advice from a panel of volunteer experts to the DIYbio community. Check it out here: http://ask.diybio.org/

Hey Jason.

While I really appreciate the availability of this service,

thanks

 

it seems to me that you are potentially setting people up for a visit from the authorities since this service in itself is not anonymous in any way.

As it is currently set-up, people can simply submit a question, without providing contact details. They may optionally submit name, email and location.  Many people do. 

Are you most worried about surreptitious tracking of IP addresses, or what?

Based on the survey data we have of the community from the 7 myths/realities of DIYbio, many people favor working in community settings (vs. anonymous/solitary) and also favor openness over privacy in their research. I don't want to downplay your suggestions, I think it is important that people who feel threatened by potential oversight get access to solid biosafety advice.  I also would hope to focus our efforts on having the most impact, where there is most demand since we are on a shoestring.

 

We may actually be moving in the opposite direction here to some extent.  Most professional biosafety advice is dispensed with good knowledge of what the lab looks like, its resources, staff, etc. Biosafety professional are frequently embedded in the locations where bench work is taking place. Believe me, it is not always easy to provide good answers without minimal context.  So, this service may be heading toward more transparency, rather than less, i.e. opportunities for people to share photos / videos of workspace, bench set-up, etc.

Your site should have a big clear warning about the lack of anonymity and instructions on how to use Tor to access the site safely. Biosafety is great, but cybersafety is equally important and I'm sure several government organizations around the world are interested in identifying everyone involved in diybio. 

 

It might be worth trying to see whether there is uptake with Tor. Would you like to write-up a Tor tutorial?

Jason

[Bryan Bishop]

On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 9:50 PM, Jason Bobe <jaso...@gmail.com> wrote:

Based on the survey data we have of the community from the 7 myths/realities of DIYbio, many people favor working in community settings (vs. anonymous/solitary) and also favor openness over privacy in their research. I don't want to downplay your suggestions, I think it is important that people who feel threatened by potential oversight get access to solid biosafety advice.  I also would hope to focus our efforts on having the most impact, where there is most demand since we are on a shoestring.

Note that your survey method is significantly skewed towards people that would not answer in favor of tor, i2p, etc. Asking Marc to write a tor tutorial is silly; why don't you go grab their documentation instead?

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507

[Cathal Garvey]

It's pretty amusing, given that context, that the actual link URL in
Jason's email is a Google redirect; I wonder if that was accidental or
did Google Groups inject it into the URL Jason posted?

Still, Marc's point is sound; people who wish to hack (legally, please)
in privacy should consider using torproject.org to visit sites that
expect people-who-feel-they-need-biosafety-advice. But, if you were
worried about being a known DIYbioer you might already be using Tor/i2p
to access this mailing list, right? :)

On 05/06/14 23:59, Marc Juul wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 3:18 PM, Jason Bobe <jaso...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hey All -
>>
>> The Ask a Biosafety Expert (ABE) service by DIYbio.org provides free
>> biosafety advice from a panel of volunteer experts to the DIYbio community.
>> Check it out here: http://ask.diybio.org/

>> <http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fask.diybio.org%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFhI86QE7Nn22xj9Wvvg4fViEnNqA>

>>
>> Hey Jason.
>
> While I really appreciate the availability of this service, it seems to me
> that you are potentially setting people up for a visit from the authorities
> since this service in itself is not anonymous in any way. Your site should
> have a big clear warning about the lack of anonymity and instructions on
> how to use Tor to access the site safely. Biosafety is great, but
> cybersafety is equally important and I'm sure several government
> organizations around the world are interested in identifying everyone
> involved in diybio.
>

--

T: @onetruecathal, @IndieBBDNA
P: +353876363185
W: http://indiebiotech.com

[Cathal Garvey]

> also favor openness over privacy

Minor quibble, Jason: privacy is the *right to be open at your choice*.
I have privacy, because I can choose to disclose what I am doing to
whomever I choose. If I did not have privacy, I would not be "open"; I
would be "naked".

And yes, I value openness as well as privacy; I chose to share my synbio
work as much as I was able. I encourage others to do the same. The fact
that I encourage them to is because they have the right not to; they
have privacy.

On 06/06/14 03:50, Jason Bobe wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 6:59 PM, Marc Juul <ju...@labitat.dk> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 3:18 PM, Jason Bobe <jaso...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hey All -
>>>
>>> The Ask a Biosafety Expert (ABE) service by DIYbio.org provides free
>>> biosafety advice from a panel of volunteer experts to the DIYbio community.
>>> Check it out here: http://ask.diybio.org/

>>> <http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fask.diybio.org%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFhI86QE7Nn22xj9Wvvg4fViEnNqA>

[Jason Bobe]

On Friday, June 6, 2014 3:34:16 AM UTC-4, Cathal Garvey wrote:

>  also favor openness over privacy

Minor quibble, Jason: privacy is the *right to be open at your choice*.
I have privacy, because I can choose to disclose what I am doing to
whomever I choose. If I did not have privacy, I would not be "open"

Not a quibble, I totally agree.

 

Jason

[Cathal Garvey]

Meeting Richard Stallman did <strike>terrible</strike> great things to
my outlook on language. :P

[Jason Bobe]

On Thursday, June 5, 2014 10:51:14 PM UTC-4, Jason Bobe wrote:

On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 6:59 PM, Marc Juul <ju...@labitat.dk> wrote:

On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 3:18 PM, Jason Bobe <jaso...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey All -

The Ask a Biosafety Expert (ABE) service by DIYbio.org provides free biosafety advice from a panel of volunteer experts to the DIYbio community. Check it out here: http://ask.diybio.org/

Hey Jason.

While I really appreciate the availability of this service,

thanks

 

it seems to me that you are potentially setting people up for a visit from the authorities since this service in itself is not anonymous in any way.

As it is currently set-up, people can simply submit a question, without providing contact details. They may optionally submit name, email and location.  Many people do. 

Are you most worried about surreptitious tracking of IP addresses, or what?

I think it is potentially important to work on putting together a more secure "anonymous hotline" for people who need biosafety help, but won't ask without a high level of assurance about security/anonymity.  However, at this point, we're prototyping on a shoestring and I am more worried about being careful not to oversell the anonymity part, I think. To marc's 1st point, perhaps the right thing to do is to simply put a warning that the service is non-anonymous.

Perhaps there are people who are worried about revealing their IP address, who are not already using Tor, that would benefit from a link on the ask a biosafety officer site.  Not sure. Seems simple enough to add a link to Tor documentation. But, I am also a little worried about presenting a false sheen of security by recommending Tor.  With heartbleed and the myriad other ways we've learned that we are not secure when we thought we were, I'm reluctant to pretend that the problem is solved by adding a link to Tor. Maybe that is overcautious?

It is possible that identity gets revealed in other ways too.  The content of the submitted question itself may have aspects which reveal identity, even for people who believe they are being careful. My favorite recent example of surprising identity leakage is a study published in PLoS: mining facial data from corneal reflections: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0083325

Jason

[Cathal Garvey]

I think the best you can do is to recommend the best available option
and leave it to the individual to take it upon themselves. Even
heartbleed didn't seriously affect Tor, though there are serious
question marks over Tor's security given that it's developed on US soil
with US gov money; in the end, the best anyone can do is to at least try
to use secure systems if they want security.

And, in the end, the AABE service isn't likely to be a huge target for
scrutiny, it's just prudent to make sure people aren't afraid to ask
safety questions for fear of having their door blown in a-la Steve Kurtz.

On 06/06/14 14:29, Jason Bobe wrote:
> On Thursday, June 5, 2014 10:51:14 PM UTC-4, Jason Bobe wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 6:59 PM, Marc Juul <ju...@labitat.dk> wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 3:18 PM, Jason Bobe <jaso...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hey All -
>>>>
>>>> The Ask a Biosafety Expert (ABE) service by DIYbio.org provides free
>>>> biosafety advice from a panel of volunteer experts to the DIYbio community.
>>>> Check it out here: http://ask.diybio.org/

>>>> <http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fask.diybio.org%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFhI86QE7Nn22xj9Wvvg4fViEnNqA>

[Jason Bobe]

First shipment of biosafety kits went out today, thanks to everyone who signed-up.  

If any other U.S. based community labs / hackerspaces want a kit, please sign-up now, I plan to do another shipment next week:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1-BLIQGR5WFvqdTEaVu7prKhupxsUE2k3sGn57uHuGrA/viewform

Jason Bobe

[Jason Bobe]

Another shipment of biosafety kits went out earlier this week. We've got about a dozen more kits available.  If you want one for your community lab or hackerspace or tech accelerator / incubator, please sign-up here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1-BLIQGR5WFvqdTEaVu7prKhupxsUE2k3sGn57uHuGrA/viewform

DIYbio.org's biosafety advisory is a group of professional biosafety experts with training and experience with common biosafety topics, such as: disinfection, safety equipment and personal protective equipment, waste and disposal, laboratory practices, transport of biological substances, facility design. 

If you working on a project and have a biosafety related questions? Now is your chance to ask a group of volunteer biosafety advisors for free:

http://ask.diybio.org/

Jason 

[Tom Hodder]

Anything available for biolabs in the UK?

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[Jason Bobe]

Yeah sure, please sign-up

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