By Jason Derry —

Can the open source problem-solving model used in the
software community work in the world of science?  The Harvard Business School has published a
very interesting interview on this topic (see "Open Source Science: A New Model for Innovation").  In the interview, Karim R. Lakhani, assistant
professor at the Harvard Business School, discusses his research relating to
whether or not collaborative problem-solving methods should/could be used in
the scientific community.  He mentions
some of the obvious reasons why scientists and companies generally shy away
from asking for outside help with their research, including fear of losing
intellectual property rights, fear of divulging scientific or business
strategies to potential competitors, and the reluctance to share secrets with
others.

However, Lakhani provides solid arguments for why
presenting problems to the scientific community can lead to innovative
solutions and progress.  For example,
Lakhani emphasizes that very often a solution to a problem lies in a separate
or intersecting scientific area than the problem itself, and once a person
skilled in a different area of science views a problem, a solution becomes
clear.  As a specific example to support
this observation, Lakhani mentions an instance where a pharmaceutical company
was having trouble analyzing unusual toxicology results, until a protein
crystallographer viewed the problem offered a solution.  The company, therefore, benefited from someone
viewing the problem as a crystallography problem rather than as a toxicology
problem.

The biotech community may reap huge benefits from using
an open source method of solving problems.  The main concern, of course, is the need to structure licensing
agreements or other types of collaborative agreements such that proprietary
information is not given away or lost in the process.  If a company does not want to develop such
agreements or open source methods on its own, the company InnoCentive has created
an environment for open source scientific collaboration using a reward based
system.  More information about
InnoCentive and its collaborative problem-solving model can be found here.

Jason Derry, Ph.D., who graduated with honors from DePaul University College of Law, is a molecular biologist and founding author of Patent Docs.