In my previous post “Rethinking Crowdsourcing“, I suggested that with the world getting more interconnected via the internet, the notion of crowdsourcing as a strategy that used to be organizational driven would start to change. Also, I shared resources on open education resources in my post “Universal Education is Possible“.
After watching the presentation by Jay Bradner below on “Open-Source Cancer Research”, I can’t help but think that crowdsourcing and open resources are not mutually exclusive domains. In Bradner’s presentation, he shares a story about how a molecule (JQ1) was developed at his lab to target a protein called BRD4 that causes cancer.
Instead of developing this into a drug, Bradner shared his research with the world and told them exactly how to make it. This act of sharing was fundamental to the makeup of a free resource. And in doing so, this research opened up a crowdsourcing movement where labs across the world would conduct their own research using JQ1 to further improve and test the effectiveness against BRD4.
In my opinion, what we see here is the highest form of collaboration where chemist all over the world strive to achieve the single aim of eradicating the cancer causing protein. This allows for a collective wisdom in devising a cure for cancer. Contrasted to corporations who’s aim is to maximize profit, the research will be protected, safeguarded and not be made available to scrutiny of the brightest minds in the world. I hope it is not too idealistic of me to think that this should be the model of how research is conducted moving forward.
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