[BBF Standards] BioHackathon, or Characterization Challenge

[Raik Gruenberg]

Even in the fast-paced hacker world, such activities are usually given a bit 
more time than just a day.

What you are discussing, sounds to me like what they typically call a "Sprint" 
in the open-source world -- people join up into clusters (rather than a single 
meeting) for a weekend or up to one or two weeks and try solving a particular 
set of problems or pushing forward a certain open-source project.

And then there is Google's "summer of code" where many projects are attacked 
independently but in parallel over one or two months. But that's what iGem 
already does (and better), isn't it?

Josh Perfetto wrote:
> I see this discussion taking two separate paths.  One is primarily an 
> inter-lab collaboration to perform useful work needed to advance the 
> state of BioBricks.  The other is a community-building event which may 
> push the limit further in designing systems based on BioBricks.  Both 

So that would translate into two sprints:
* Characterization sprint
* Design sprint

... to which I would add a classical programing...
* data exchange sprint :-)

Greetings,
Raik

> will result in a sharing of information throughout the community, albeit 
> information of a different sort.  Both are valuable activities.  I think 
> Mac outlined a good approach for what I am terming an inter-lab 
> collaboration.  For a community event, the design-a-thon idea Jason 
> presented earlier is very interesting—especially since this approach 
> seems to be where we want to be headed with BioBrick-based design.  The 
> design of new systems, possibly around problems we wanted to tackle, 
> could take place at such an event, with synthesized DNA being ordered 
> after the event and shared between group members, who could perform 
> wetlab testing independently.  Possible problems/ideas:
> 
>  
> 
> -          It may take a few iterations to get the designed systems 
> working.  Subsequent collaboration could take place via 
> email/Skype/Wiki, and/or this could be a recurring event.
> 
> -          I’m not sure what the community interest in this would be.  
> If it were light then such an event might best be run consecutively with 
> SB 4.0 or another such event.  However simply scheduling one such event 
> may attract a lot of external interest and draw more people into the 
> community.  If the interest is large enough, it may be possible to have 
> multiple projects, some more complex for the experienced members to push 
> the design limits, and some more simple for newer members to bite their 
> teeth on, perhaps with the guidance of one or two more experienced members.
> 
>  
> 
> -Josh
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> *From:* standards-bounces at biobricks.org 
> [mailto:standards-bounces at biobricks.org] *On Behalf Of *Mackenzie Cowell
> *Sent:* Sunday, February 10, 2008 2:28 PM
> *To:* Bryan Bishop
> *Cc:* standards at biobricks.org
> *Subject:* Re: [BBF Standards] BioHackathon, or Characterization Challenge
> 
>  
> 
> I theoretically agree with Bryan's comment. However, I also agree with 
> John and Jason that in practice there would be significant overhead for 
> bringing non-native lab members up to speed on all the little details of 
> how to accomplish something in the host lab, and that more time might 
> even be spent on explaining the lab's logistics to the visiting 
> experimenters (where is the agar?  where are the antibiotics?  where are 
> the small falcon tubes?  wait, you don't use falcon tubes? etc.). 
>  Perhaps it would be possible to accommodate a few visitors with lots of 
> preparation and organization by a sort of experimental coordinator 
> beforehand, but let's not try and tackle that problem this time.
> 
>  
> 
> Instead, I envision:
> 
>  
> 
> * continuing the discussion on this list, solidifying organizational 
> issues and an overview of what we would like to accomplish with the 
> community gardening / barnraising party.
> 
> ** augmenting the discussion with a conference call between interested 
> labs to nail down the specifics
> 
> * picking a date,
> 
> * identifying point people in each lab who will organize the event 
> locally and be responsible for setting up teleconference equipment (i.e. 
> a group skype chat with speakers, ichat video, etc.)
> 
> * DOING A TEST RUN
> 
> * linking up all the participating labs on the chosen date and producing 
> some quality characterization data and / improving the categorization 
> and documentation of existing and new parts in the registry.
> 
>  
> 
> I also very much support the idea of bringing iGEM teams in on this.
> 
>  
> 
> mac
> 
>  
> 
> On Feb 10, 2008 11:38 AM, Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com 
> <mailto:kanzure at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> On Sunday 10 February 2008, John Cumbers wrote:
>  > Yes I agree, I was thinking about it and it just complicates it to
>  > have a lab host it, we just need to decide on what we're doing and
>  > then each lab can do it at the same time, e.g same weekend and
>  > publish results on-line. I'm open to suggestions, Vincent which
>  > promoter do you want to start with :) cheers,
> 
> Although I am not against having many labs working on the same problem
> at the same time, separating them all to their usual labs and routines
> significantly reduces the buzz, and this buzz is something valuable.
> 
> - Bryan
> ________________________________________
> Bryan Bishop
> http://heybryan.org/
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Mac Cowell
> iGEM Coordinator
> igem.org <http://igem.org>
> 231.313.9062
> 
> 
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-- 
________________________________

Dr. Raik Gruenberg
http://www.raiks.de/contact.html
________________________________