Proposal for a Global DIYbio Competition from Science-alliance.nl

[Cathal Garvey]

Hello all,
I've had the pleasure of talking to Pieter van Boheemen from
science-alliance.nl, and he's shared with me his/their plan of hosting a
Global Competition for DIYbio, to help spark collaboration and creativity.

Pieter is a formal iGEM finalist himself, so he's no stranger to a
well-run bio competition. However, the focus will seemingly not be
solely upon synthetic biology as with iGEM: The competition will likely
include areas for hardware, software and more general wetware hacking.

Some additional blurb from Pieter:
"For your information: Science Alliance is a Dutch intermediary
organization between science and society. And it is their mission to
connect both worlds, often through means of organizing networks,
meetings and competitions. They operate in i.e. life sciences,
international law, co-innovation and incubator / science park development.

Right now [I am] doing a brief feasibility study and drafts [for] the
outlines of the competition, and [I am] seeking input to help shape the
concept. Your thoughts or just simple support would be much appreciated."

If you're interested in weighing in, get in touch with Pieter, who is
cc'd on this email!

All the best,
Cathal

--
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[Pieter]

Thanks Cathal for sharing the idea with everyone in the community! So
far I have been contacting a number of people individually, and got
very enthusiastic and encouraging replies. So I am curious to see what
everyone here thinks about setting up a global event.

A question I would like to ask is for example, is a competition really
the best way to set up a global meetup, or should we host more of a
conference/workshop event? In my opinion the goal should be to learn
and have fun as much as possible. The exciting thing about DIY Bio is
that when taking the DIY approach to solving biotech challenges you
sometimes end of with totally new methods that nobody has thought of
before. The ideal place for this to happen is when you go out, meet
people with different background, but with the same passion for
DIYBio. Competitiveness does catalyze this proces, but maybe other
methods work even better.

So in true spirit of the open DIY Bio community, let's set this up
together and help us by posting your thoughts on how to achieve these
goals best.

[Mega]

>The competition will likely
>include areas for hardware, software and more general wetware hacking.

That's awsome for I have a few friends that are machine and electrical
engineeres. They may not be into biology that much but they can surely
help me creaing hardware :)

[Ian Simmons]

I'm new to the list, but may be able to help on this one - seems to me that the Maker Faires bring people together in this kind of spirit and that doing something round one of these would potentially achieve what you want to do, they are excellent at sparking collaboration and creativity in carious tech fields, and with last year's San Mateo and New York ones there were specific bio areas that started bringing people together. We run the UK one here in Newcastle, which will return next year, and also have a pretty good suite of labs that could form the basis of a pre-faire get together for this kind of exchange - would something like that be of interest?

IAN

Ian Simmons
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[Avery louie]

I would be excited to participate in either a competition or a meetup!

I am in the boston area, and people are starting to do some DIYBIO here.  In the next few weeks I will be showing people how do do a plasmid extraction and how to observe basic aseptic technique.

--Avery

[Pieter]

Thanks for all the great input! We see so many local groups on this
list that it would be a shame not to set up a global event.

Is anyone in touch with DIY Bio communities in Asia? I'll contact the
guys from Singapore, but their website hasn't updated in over a year.

On 23 feb, 14:33, Avery louie <inactiv...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I would be excited to participate in either a competition or a meetup!
>
> I am in the boston area, and people are starting to do some DIYBIO here.
> In the next few weeks I will be showing people how do do a plasmid
> extraction and how to observe basic aseptic technique.
>
> --Avery
>

> On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 10:12 AM, Ian Simmons <Ian.Simm...@life.org.uk>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > I'm new to the list, but may be able to help on this one - seems to me
> > that the Maker Faires bring people together in this kind of spirit and that
> > doing something round one of these would potentially achieve what you want
> > to do, they are excellent at sparking collaboration and creativity in
> > carious tech fields, and with last year's San Mateo and New York ones there
> > were specific bio areas that started bringing people together. We run the
> > UK one here in Newcastle, which will return next year, and also have a
> > pretty good suite of labs that could form the basis of a pre-faire get
> > together for this kind of exchange - would something like that be of
> > interest?
>
> > IAN
>
> > Ian Simmons
> > Science Communication Director
> > Centre for Life
> > Management Suite
> > Times Square
> > Newcastle upon Tyne
> > NE1 4EP
>
> > Tel: +44191 2438250
> > Fax: +44191 2438201

> > Email: ian.simm...@life.org.uk

[Sung won Lim]

I'm in touch with a group starting in Korea.

What are you looking for from the groups though? Just a list of potential participants?

-sung

[Pieter]

At the moment I am trying to get a grasp of how many groups or
individuals would be interested in joining this initiative. At this
stage all input on how a global event could be set up best are very
welcome.

Also a global competition might be of great value of local groups that
struggle to give direction to their organisation. Lots of groups seem
to start up very excited, but seem to loose this drive after a while.

On 24 feb, 17:11, Sung won Lim <4phle...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm in touch with a group starting in Korea.
>
> What are you looking for from the groups though? Just a list of potential
> participants?
>
> -sung

[William Heath]

I am interested.  I am located in Hawaii on Oahu right now.  I don't have any contacts but specialize in software.  I was involved with diybio in Menlo Park and San Francisco.  I wish I could receive simple little tasks that  I could solve in bio python for synthetic biologists.  Would anyone be interested in giving me such tasks?

-Tim

P.S.

I would prefer they be for real projects instead of just practice.