Biotechnology - Genomic and Proteomics/Sage - A Merck Project

MGI > SNP > Sage

HGP > HapMap > Encode

these have been extensively profiled as modes of "property preempting investments" but they also serve as emerging platforms for collaboration. by their very existence - created as anti patent device - they create a pressure to standardize and form networks that did not exist previously. this is because of the now-digital nature of the knowledge, and because of the ability of networks to deliver it. the value now outweighs the value of competitive withholding.

Thus, HGP leads to Distributed Annotation System. Gene ontology. Etc. which in turn create their own commonses, dependent on the root structure of a public domain of genomes. FLOSS and corporate entities compete as service vendors etc.

Analyze the ecosystem that it takes to convert PPIs into a networked commons platform: the legal tools (PD), the norms (Bermuda Rules), the corporate pressures (journal requirement of GenBank ID), etc. it's not just about dumping into the network.

Find examples of PPIs that did not form a commons.

how the interplay of public and private investments, using the PD for different reasons, has created and sustained a self-perpetuating commons. no one looking at thepolitical economy of collaboration as a result of self-interested investments against patents!

access to what we do actually know - and the right to reformat and integrate it - is the non miraculous way to systematically increase the odds we do something right.