Virtual Technology Communities
Yesterday I went to a lecture entitled "New Bioscience Frontiers in a Flat World", given by William Hoffman.
As described on his web site, Hoffman "is the founding executive director of the Minnesota Biomedical and Bioscience Network (MBBNet), an Internet gateway to the state’s life sciences and health care industries and research centers. Based at the University of Minnesota, MBBNet provides open global access to 1,400 regional companies, laboratories, institutes, and support and service organizations. Hoffman has created a series of interactive, online global maps that chart developments in the biosciences including human embryonic stem cell research and policy, bioscience clusters or hubs of activity, and biotech crop production."
His talk showed how to use these maps to identify locations around the world where biomedical and biotechnological activity is clustered (this world is spiky, not flat), and how the Internet enables collaborations between far-separated institutions (Yale-Fudan, Minnesota-Zurich). In response to questions, Hoffman demonstrated the MBBNet directory, which enables search of 1400 Minnesota companies and University of Minnesota research labs for particular topics and technologies. Powered by Google and boasting impressive access statistics, it's a remarkably fast and powerful way to find common interests, needed expertise, and potential partners.
As I've said numerous times on this blog, technology transfer is an important form of public engagement. MBBNet is an innovative and useful mechanism for facilitating partnerships, and is an important contributor to the University of Minnesota's public engagement mission.