Economic Research: Garage Ideas

Garage Ideas

A few of us have been tossing around the idea of founding Garage Bio Magazine -- a magazine dedicated to the Garage (or kitchen, basement, closet), DIY, open source, alternative, amateur or otherwise unconventional biologist. Topics to be explored would include the history of DIY biology, security and safety issues, profiles of leaders and workspaces, technologies and tools, entrepreneurship, training resources, forecasting, legal and social issues, and more. The goal is to become a forum for the social, technological, and economic issues generated by the distributed use and improvement of biological technologies. There's a healthy amount of interest in moving forward, so we've secured a web domain and mocked up a few cover templates to help visualize the idea (see below, thanks Chris!). While it's probably too early to do a newstand print magazine, a digital/pod (print on demand) offering, like h+ magazine, is within reach. Having a publication platform will facilitate meeting key people, learning more about companies or laboratory groups, attending conferences, and more.