A few days ago I was involved in a discussion with someone wanting something to be featured on diybio.org. This idea had not gotten traction yet so it was still missing and there were some upset voices. It was implied that the management was being dictatorial and repressing the idea.

And I couldn't understand what the problem was.

If I'm lacking something on the net that's important to me, why wouldn't I just build it and set it running myself? Why expect the management of diybio to embrace it, how would that be important?

So I asked. And the answer was summed up in “You know that diybio.org isn't the same as diybio right?”. Meaning that all individuals doing wet biology are collectively defined as the diybio community and the site diybio.org was doing a poor job at representing them.

So I start to understand.

Seen this way Mac and Jason by starting diybio.org took upon themselves to be the voice and bureaucracy of this community. By filtering which ideas they promote they aren't faithfully representing the community and thus are lying when they claim they are.

But the thing is Mac and Jason never claimed this role. DIYbio is diybio.org, it's just an arbitrary name made up by Mac and Jason as part of a platform for their ideas. The reason it's successful is that they do a good job at promoting their ideas and the name.

DIYbio is just the Home Brew Computer Club of biohacking. If you don't like it – just start your own club. Big deal.

Don't bitch about it, Speciate.


-Splicer