"Short on time and big on ideas": Perspectives from Lab Members on DIYBio Work in Community Biolabs

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

DIYbio challenges the status quo by positioning laboratory biology work outside of traditional institutions. HCI has increasingly explored the DIYbio movement, but we lack insight into sites of practice such as community biolabs. Therefore, we gathered data on eleven community biolabs by interviewing sixteen lab managers and members. These labs represent half of identified organizations in scope worldwide. Participants detailed their practices and motivations, outlining the constraints and opportunities of their community biolabs. We found that lab members conducted technically challenging project work with access to high-end equipment and professional expertise. We found that the unique nature of biowork exacerbated challenges for cooperative work, partially due to the particular time sensitivities of work with living organisms. Building on our findings, we discuss how community biolab members are creating new approaches to laboratory biology and how this has design implications for systems that support non-traditional settings for scientific practice.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDIS 2022 - Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference : Digital Wellbeing
Number of pages19
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Publication date2022
Pages1358-1376
ISBN (Electronic)9781450393584
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022
Externally publishedYes
Event2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing, DIS 2022 - Virtual, Online, Australia
Duration: 13 Jun 202217 Jun 2022

Conference

Conference2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing, DIS 2022
LandAustralia
ByVirtual, Online
Periode13/06/202217/06/2022
SponsorDeakin University, Monash University, SIGCHI

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Owner/Author.

    Research areas

  • citizen science, community biolab, community labs, DIY, DIYbio, laboratory science

ID: 339328806