I just came across a rather interesting article about the drugmaker, Novartis.
It turns out that they they did something almost unheard of in big business (especially outside of the tech industry..) They paid millions trying to unlock the genetic basis of type 2 diabetes, only to turn over all of the raw data to the rest of the industry!
They just open sourced research!
This is pretty striking really. Is it an act of generosity? How do they stand to benefit from it?
According to researchers, there are far more leads than any one lab could possibly follow up alone. So by placing its data in the public domain, Novartis hopes to leverage the talents and insights of a global research community to dramatically scale and speed up its early-stage R&D activities.
To me, this is a phenomenal business decision. Not only does it set the standard for charity and pharmaceutical development, but it establishes Novartis as being a socailly responsible partner for how many big research firms!
The internet that is starting to unfold out of web 2.0 is growing to be pretty amazing. From my point of view, the emphasis is starting to shift away from social networks to more productive uses of the very same technology.
Someone please come up with a better term than Science 2.0 or Enterprise 2.0, though. We could at least agree that both chemistry and business are well past their second stages..