Another day, another survey.

I was going to take it, but then I noticed that like most of the other surveys it is full of typos, buzzwords, loaded language and bias.  I find this insulting, and annoying.  If anyone is interested, here are my criticisms on your survey.  It also seems like you have done very little research on this topic, and that you just sent this survey off to get some quotes for your paper.  This could breed more BS when people cite your paper. Hopefully this will nip it in the bud.  If anyone researches your "paper" they will hopefully find the source of the data, and see the problems with how it was collected.

Question 1: "socio-political reasons" is even more vague than "fun".  This spans people who would want to see governments/organizations taken down, to people who want to build companies to help their economy.

Question 2: Leading question.  Double barreled question.  "DIYBIO" is more than what it is stated as, but it makes it sound like it is mostly about "experimentation, creativity and amusement".  "in the economy and in everyday life" is double barreled, meaning that choosing yes is choosing yes to both.  Including "DIYBIO equipment and practices" makes it essentially quadruple-barreled.

This could be re-written as something like "Do you think that in the next 15 years DIYBio equipment might have a tangible impact on the way biotechnologies are employed in the economy".

Question 3: "DIY is becoming a popular topic and has been promoted from very different perspectives." is Irrelevant and leading.  Also, slightly ambiguous.  Are you talking about biology, or repairing your home by yourself?  Making your own PCBS?  "DIY" is a big category. "BigBio" is also loaded with (negative) meaning, especially in English where we have "big brother", from orwells novel, 1984.

Question 6: "GM crops diffusion has not granted so far any benefit to farmers"

In addition to the negative, the only options that make sense are "I totally agree" "it is plausible" "I don't agree" and "I don't know".  However "it is a dangerous idea" makes no sense,  and is an emotionally charged and ambiguous wording.

Question 7:

Then, you combine the buzzword "Open Source" with Biology to make "open source biology" which is not well defined.  It could mean something totally different to different people.  According to openwetware (1st, 2nd google hit) nobody has cared to post anything about it since 2007 (link).  This is kind of like asking 10 people.

Question 8:

"In your opinion, are biotechnological products currently "on the shelf" adecuate to face the following agricultural and development challenges"

I have never seen a kit, product, or service that is "adequate to face" or even targeted at "Reduction of rural poverty" or any of the other questions.  Not in biology, anywhere.

Question 9:

"Open Source Biotechnology aims to foster the use of biotechnologies in developing countries" Loaded language, "foster X in developing countries" and again with the OSB thing.  Who are these open source biologists?  I have not met anyone or heard of anyone who uses that term, and I can't google them, so the burden of proof is on you.

"redefining intellectual property protection" Nobody here has a particularly rosy view of IP.  Loaded language again.

"Can you envisage how DIYBio practices might contribute to this effort?" So you want us to write you some good quotes here, where we explain how DIYBIO is going to help an imaginary organization or idea that has literally never been discussed on this group?  No thanks.

--A

On Jul 31, 2013 10:00 AM, "goliste1" <goliste1@hotmail.com> wrote:

Dear all,

I am preparing a paper for a conference on "Knowledge commons for sustainable agricultural innovations" and I will focus on how DIYBio practices may contribute to a commons-based peer production model in the field of agricultural biotechnology (if you wish, see the attachment for the abstract).

In this regard, I would be extremely grateful if you can take some time to fill a brief questionnaire that you can reach through this link

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/52QCTV8 .

I know that you are getting bored of all these "political" researchers concerning the DIYBio community, but it won't take a lot of time to answer and your feedback would be immensely valuable for my research. Obviously, if there is someone particularly interested in these issues, I'd love to receive more elaborated inputs on the role that DIYBio might play in agricultural development. You can write me here, however if you'd like more privacy my e-mail is goliste1@hotmail.com.

Best,

Stefano

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