[BBF Standards] Model System

[Julius B. Lucks]

Hello List,

It seems to me that many of these abstract discussions would benefit  
immensely from a concrete model system around which to discuss.  It  
looks like from the character of the discussion that there is not  
enough discussion about the practical laboratory details and users  
that will ultimately defined the needs and the user community for  
such Biobrick abstractions.  I would like to pose the following  
question to the list:

Is there a simple and practical model system that can be constructed  
and characterized in the lab around which to focus and coordinate  
discussion?

If this is the case, or one exists already, then it could really  
focus the discussion, and give it a much needed practical slant.  In  
particular, I am imagining a system with at most 3 parts that can be  
made, individually characterized, and characterized in all  
combinations, so that:

1.) People on the laboratory side can get involved in the discussion:  
Ideally someone would volunteer to make the 3 parts, someone would  
volunteer to characterize them, and someone would volunteer to  
characterize combinations.  (I realize this could be a lot to ask  
with people's busy schedules, but hopefully 3 parts would not take  
too much time).

2.) People on the information science side could have an actual  
system on which to test ideas:  There has been lots of abstract  
discussion, but until it is actually applied, I'm not sure that the  
ideas being posited can be truly developed and vetted.

This system could very well already exist, in which case the list  
should decide to focus the discussion around it.  The one standards  
process that I am familiar with is the RSS 1.0 -> RSS 2.0 -> Atom  
standards process in which each step benefitted greatly from having  
lots of hands-on experience using the previous versions in a concrete  
way.  I'm advocating something like that here.

In the end, whatever standards are developed have to be immediately  
practical and useful for the laboratory scientists who will  
eventually make parts, characterize them, and use whatever standard  
format to express the ideas behind these parts.  Focusing on a real  
world example system would help achieve that goal.

Cheers,

Julius

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