Succeeding at open-source innovation: An interview with Mozilla’s Mitchell Baker and the USD $34 million Indian Government plan for Opensource Drug Development

Benjamin Franklin said “As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.” – Any one listening !

Leaders and veterans in Biotechnology and Health care research industry may not be welcoming open source ideals. But IT industry has set new benchmarks and proved that open source brings in much needed new ideas and innovation. So hear out loud from none other than chairman and former CEO of Mozilla. The article is published for free at the Mckinsey quarterly

Mitchell comments that Mozilla’s real contribution isn’t just the browser but the model of participation.

In 2005 annual report on Association of American Medical Colleges acknowledged that industry, academic and government researchers can and must work together to remove scientific hurdles in drug development.

For hte uninitaited a look at the article published in Nature Magazine in 2006 with help from Pharma major Eli Lilly-Open source R&D and collaborative drug discovery and other related blogs  MnDoci FuturePundit

And don’t think these are just rants of an overenthusiastic researchers, who doesn’t know the dynamics of business, why because Director-General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in, India unveiled a USD $34 million plan for Open Source Drug Discovery. CSIR is one of the world’s largest publicly funded R&D organisations 38 laboratories working on a range of subjects from molecular biology to road research to Himalayan bio-resources. The Council has more than 4,000 scientists working for it at these 38 labs.

The January 18 2008 meeting in NewDelhi in India was organized by Knowledge Commons, Delhi Science Forum, IIT Delhi, Red Hat and Sun on Free and Open Source model of knowledge. The highlight of the event was opensource drug development — make sure you read the Opensource India blog by Venkatesh

CSIR’s chief Sameer K. Brahmachari says, he looks for “taare zameen par” (stars on earth, a reference to one of Bollywood’s latest blockbusters), in large numbers

OSDD has the support of Sun Microsystems Inc. Hewlett-Packard, IIT Delhi, Red Hat and Indian corporate houses like TCG Life Sciences.

Related Topics Video: open source drug discovery for neglected diseases from google tech talks , Articles: The Ecconomist -An open-source shot in the arm

If you still think open source has no place in biotechnology and life science its not likely that you would listen to Alexander Graham Bell

“Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than myself.’