ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):

[Dr. Richard] Jefferson said the tools of innovation were being withheld from the public and from innovators themselves, stifling competition, fair play and creativity.

“For example, access to the fundamental tool used to transfer a gene into a plant, Agrobacterium transformation, is controlled by a handful of large companies,” he said.

Jefferson called for a “democratisation of innovation” based on “open source genetics”. Central to this concept was a distinction between the tools of innovation and the products of innovation.

Tools of genetics and modern biology should be made freely available just as computer programming tools were shared in the open source software movement, he said.

[…]

“The open source revolution in information technology has proven itself rock solid as one of the greatest innovations in the history of creativity. If you decentralise the group of tool creators and make sure people are bound to a public good ethos, it works and makes money for people,” he said.

“With Linux and all the open source innovations, you’re not seeing the death of Microsoft, you’re seeing Microsoft work harder to be a better company so that it can stay afloat.”

Link supplied by my father, Larry Murdock. Dad’s a scientist (a professor of entomology at Purdue University) and adds:

Richard Jefferson is an original and well known guy in the biotechnology community. The adoption of biotechnology for use in developing nations is being hindered severely by intellectual property in the hands of a few.

It’s great to see the philosophy behind open source spreading, empowering the many against the time-immemorial power of the few, particularly when the benefits to the many are so clear, i.e., to the developing world.