kmyle

Why isn't ESA crowdsourcing some of the science around the event?

Judging from the huge enthusiasm and comments on the esa blog, people would love to contribute, and a number of (fairly) simple things could benefit from the power of the crowds if more raw data was made available as well as a dedicated platform.

Great work you guys are doing there! I'd have 3 questions for you in relation to the new interface in between synbio and the general public kickstarter is offering: 1) Could you share some data about who your backers are? Scientists? Hobbyists? Techies? What age range? 2) You did a great job at science popularization - what principles or tricks did you follow? Did you work with journalists or marketing experts for exemple? 3) How do you fix the price to a thing that does not exist yet and where there's no market to start with? Thanks!!

Thanks for the reply! About research before launch, it makes me think about the lean startup concept ;) I have two follow-up questions: 1) For this pre-launch research phase, how did you probe people (for the design, content and pricing)? Any specific software / platform or tricks there? 2) Being endorsed was probably very important for you. How did you get all of these big names? Is there money incentive for them or its just scientific interest? PS: I'll be writing a small blog post here if that's ok about kickstarter as a new platform Synthetic Biology. It's a new Synbio Consulting startup I'm launching ;)