ISCBacademy webinar: Open Sourcing Ourselves – Together (Mad Price Ball)
The ISCB, which runs the annual ISMB conference, is offering a series of webinars hosted by the Communities of Special Interest (COSIs), which include BOSC/OBF. These webinars are free to ISCB members.
The first BOSC/OBF ISCBacademy COSI webinar will take place on Tuesday, September 14, 2021, at 15:00 UTC / 11am EDT, and will feature Mad Price Ball of the Open Humans Foundation speaking about “Open Sourcing Ourselves – Together.” Before Dr. Ball’s talk, BOSC 2021 Chair Nomi Harris will give a brief overview of the OBF and BOSC.
If you missed the webinar, you can watch the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjMb19NxjdM
Open Sourcing Ourselves – Together
Mad Price Ball (Open Humans Foundation)
September 14, 2021 at 15:00 UTC / 11:00AM EDT
ABSTRACT: “Open source” refers to the practice of making software freely available, re-usable, and adaptable. We might also ask: how can we apply “open source” to understanding ourselves as humans — our genomes, health, or behavior? While navigating concerns about privacy and consent, the principles of “open” should also prompt us to consider what we can do to enable others. How can we make it more “open” for people to research themselves? Open source communities have come to understand that it takes more than just sharing code: it requires building a community. These same principles also apply to individual and collective research about our health. Drawing on my work with the Personal Genome Project and Open Humans, I share insights and lessons I’ve learned in efforts to collect, share, and analyze our personal data to better understand ourselves.
BIO: Mad Price Ball is Executive Director and President of Open Humans Foundation and co-founder of Open Humans, and Affiliate Faculty at the Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI). Their work focuses on enabling people to access and use their health and personal data. They explore methods for sharing tools, ideas, and data to advance individual understanding, collective empowerment, and research. This work occurs through Open Humans and its associated nonprofit, and with the Peer Produced Research Lab at the CRI. Mad’s past experience and research has included work in genomics and biotechnology, bioethics, digital technology and advocacy, as well as participatory and participant-centered research. More about Mad