WSJ OpEd from Other Papers for M Gerstein

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Link to original article:
Link to original article:
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http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/Too-big-to-close-down-Websites-need-regulation-6217233.php
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443437504577544760132413258.html
==== Cached Copies ====
==== Cached Copies ====
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[http://archive.gersteinlab.org/public-docs/2015/04.28/gcodeoped.docx DOC of late preprint],  
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Main:
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[http://archive.gersteinlab.org/public-docs/2015/04.28/gcodeoped.html HTML of late preprint]
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[http://archive.gersteinlab.org/mark/out/log/2012/09.01/oped/Pistorius-oped-wsj-reprint.txt TEXT],  
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[http://archive.gersteinlab.org/mark/out/log/2012/09.01/oped/Pistorius-oped-wsj-reprint-small.pdf PDF]
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Other:
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[http://archive.gersteinlab.org/mark/out/log/2012/09.01/oped/Pistorius-oped-wsj-reprint-html-bundle-large.zip Large zip of HTML],
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[http://archive.gersteinlab.org/mark/out/log/2012/09.01/oped/Pistorius-oped-wsj-reprint-html-bundle-small.zip Small zip of HTML],
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[http://archive.gersteinlab.org/mark/out/log/2012/09.01/oped/Pistorius-oped-wsj-reprint-html-bundle-large.pdf Alt PDF]
(Home: [http://papers.gersteinlab.org Papers.GersteinLab.org] / [[Other Papers]] )
(Home: [http://papers.gersteinlab.org Papers.GersteinLab.org] / [[Other Papers]] )
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==== Wiki Text of OPED ====
==== Wiki Text of OPED ====
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Too big to close down: Websites need regulation like utilities
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The Age of Genetically Optimized Sports
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We are entering a brave new world of athletes-by-design.
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By Dov Greenbaum and Mark Gerstein
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By DOV GREENBAUM AND MARK B. GERSTEIN
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Google recently began the long process of shutting down its once popular software distribution platform, Google Code.
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The eyes of the world will be on Oscar Pistorius when he competes at the London Olympics. Mr. Pistorius, a double amputee who runs with the aid of carbon-fiber artificial legs, will contest the 400-meter sprint and the 4 x 400-meter relay against non-disabled athletes.
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Why should you care?
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Mr. Pistorius, and others like him, present a real dilemma for sports competitions: When does an artificial enhancement become an unfair advantage?
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Because this isn't the first time a content provider has closed down a service, and it won't be the last. Although we grudgingly acknowledge that our online information is being mined for salable nuggets, we may be less aware of the other deal-with-the-devil with free online storage and services: without hard copies, we are overly reliant on the supposedly enduring, albeit untested, viability and usability of our online host sites.
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Lasik eye surgery can give an athlete better than average vision. Elbow joints can be reconstructed with stronger ligaments. Swimsuits may reduce friction in water. Oxygen tents can boost cardiovascular capacity. While sports organizations typically draw the line at taking performance-enhancing drugs, such as steroids, these other apparent enhancements are permitted by most major sports associations.
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With untold petabytes of memorable photographs, critical e-mails, favorite music and important documents likely saved for posterity only online, the possible consequences from this unfounded reliance may be greater than previously imagined. Moreover, it's not just the actual data that can get lost - it's time: users also spend countless hours uploading and customizing workflows for each particular site.
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Yet retired American sprinter Michael Johnson spoke for many when he claimed that "because we don't know for sure whether [Mr. Pistorius] gets an advantage from the prosthetics that he wears it is unfair to the able-bodied competitors."
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And it gets worse: Vinton Cerf, often referred to as a father of the Internet, recently foreshadowed a new and imminent Dark Ages because of the predicted huge data loss through obsolescence of our current data storage systems. However, Cerf's is not just a prediction of some far off future. The axiom that the "Internet never forgets" is a misnomer. The Internet loses boat loads of data every time "www.your_new_favorite_website_for_storing_all_your_important_data.com" closes down; remember all those flashing gifs and god-awful midi music of Yahoo's Geocities? Neither does the Internet.
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Of course top athletes are often defined by their success in a genetic lottery that granted them natural yet "unfair" advantages over their peers.
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But while Cerf's proposal, Digital Vellum, may be useful for large institutional libraries and long-term archival storage, the general public needs a simple to employ solution so that when the next Friendster or Kodak Gallery goes dark, or the next Digg is re-engineered and customized workflows no longer work, users are guaranteed both sufficient notification and data portability before all is lost.
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Even more radical changes are on the way. Future developments in genetics, particularly as a result of the growing personal genomics industry, will allow individuals to sequence and partially decipher their own genomes. This will draw public awareness to genetics in athletics, creating a paradigm shift in our appreciation of the quality of competition in sports. Genomics may eventually accentuate the inequality among athletes, allowing those with genomic knowledge to better focus their abilities and strengths.
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While Google ought to be commended in how it allows for the easy exporting of Google data through its Takeout system, not everyone is Google. The Internet isn't really an option anymore. Like a public utility, people need to be able to rely on the continued viability of their service providers and their stuff. With so much of society's permanent record represented only online, these sites have an implicit obligation to protect the permanence of that record. However, we can't rely on profit-motivated companies to maintain what are, in all fairness, collectively mostly junk, but to each of us individually, irreplaceable memories.
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Some companies that sequence human genomes already claim to be able to identify genetic sports-related health risks and the genes that maximize individual athletic potential. In fact, sports may be one of the first really successful applications of personal genomics, as it presents some potentially simple genetic correlations, given easily identifiable physical traits in successful athletes.
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As such, we propose a regime wherein once a website or service hits a predetermined number of active users, it becomes too big to simply close down without legal repercussions. Fundamentally, the site takes on some of the character of a public utility and is perceived as such by regulatory bodies. Standards and their enforcement could be through industry committees, or  a statutorily imposed duty-bound relationships. Effectively, content hosting sites with sufficient active users would have to employ open and/or standard formats, for example as are commonly used in e-mail systems and online calendars. Further, these sites would have to either provide for user-friendly data import and export tools, or allow for such tools to be developed by interested third parties.
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Thanks to a greater popular appreciation of the genetics behind athleticism coupled with advances in genetic manipulation, we may soon see athletes-by-design, either from conception or a childhood tailored to sports for which the budding athlete is already genetically optimized. Will society discriminate against the athlete whose parents selected a child with superhuman resting and maximum heart rates, a disproportionate arm span or double-jointed ankles? After all, these super-competitive traits were naturally endowed to Lance Armstrong and Michael Phelps.
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In the event that the service provider can no longer maintain the data, e.g., for financial reasons or business-related concerns, the users must be provided with sufficient notification of the imminent loss of their data. Moreover, in general, users should always be provided with the ability to move their data to another provider or service, should they choose, and the service provider must actively help users move their data once notification is provided that the data will be lost.
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The genomics industry will introduce transparency into an otherwise opaque system, eventually allowing athletes, fans and spectators alike to pull back the curtain and look under the genetic hood. By taking away much of the mystery of athletic talent through correlating athleticism with observable genetic variations, and bringing that technology to the masses, science will eventually prove to the public just how uneven the playing field already is.
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While many companies already provide some of these services, particularly in the examples listed above, it is important that we enforce these protections universally. Establishing universal portability standards are important, and everyone will benefit from the knowledge that they can always move their data elsewhere. Furthermore, becoming a "public" standard and utility is very flattering to the service provider - even though it comes at a cost. While, the public should also be educated to help themselves and create regular backups, new, naive and/or unsophisticated users are the ones most likely to be harmed when a website goes unexpectedly dark.
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Genome analyses may be able to predict athletic prowess and the likelihood of sport-related illnesses and injuries. But such knowledge will likely come at the expense of privacy.
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By developing and enforcing broad comprehensive protections, we will be able to protect even those that haven't taken otherwise necessary precautions to protect their data.
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Coaches and fans today demand to know players' height, weight and other pertinent statistics. Tomorrow, they might insist on knowing athletes' genomic sequences to determine how they have leveraged their genetic gifts.
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The closing down of your favorite website is inevitable, likely as a result of corporate and technological growth and change, but it is doesn't have to be overly disrupting.
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Analyzing genomes raises numerous non-trivial ethical challenges, with an inevitable shift to viewing athletic accomplishment through the prism of genetics. Whereas traditionally one's medical records are thought to be private information, we may soon see organizations divulging their athletes' genome sequences in the interest of transparency just as athletes' drug-testing results eventually become public knowledge and fodder.
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Dov Greenbaum is director of the Zvi Meitar Institute for Legal Implications of Emerging Technologies at the Radzyner Law School, Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel and a professor in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University. Mark Gerstein is the A. L. Williams Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Yale University.
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Mr. Pistorius is thus at an athletic and scientific vanguard. He may catalyze a whole new way of looking at sports when he runs, and perhaps finds success, among his able-bodied peers.
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Mr. Greenbaum, an intellectual property attorney and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University, is a non-resident fellow at Stanford University's Center for Law and the Biosciences. Mr. Gerstein is a professor of biomedical informatics at Yale University.
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A version of this article appeared July 24, 2012, on page A13 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The Age of Genetically Optimized Sports.

Latest revision as of 06:04, 28 April 2015

D Greenbaum & M Gerstein (2012). "The Age of Genetically Optimized Sports", Wall Street Journal, July 24, Page A13 (Opinion)

Link to original article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443437504577544760132413258.html

Cached Copies

Main: TEXT, PDF

Other: Large zip of HTML, Small zip of HTML, Alt PDF

(Home: Papers.GersteinLab.org / Other Papers )

Wiki Text of OPED

The Age of Genetically Optimized Sports We are entering a brave new world of athletes-by-design.

By DOV GREENBAUM AND MARK B. GERSTEIN

The eyes of the world will be on Oscar Pistorius when he competes at the London Olympics. Mr. Pistorius, a double amputee who runs with the aid of carbon-fiber artificial legs, will contest the 400-meter sprint and the 4 x 400-meter relay against non-disabled athletes.

Mr. Pistorius, and others like him, present a real dilemma for sports competitions: When does an artificial enhancement become an unfair advantage?

Lasik eye surgery can give an athlete better than average vision. Elbow joints can be reconstructed with stronger ligaments. Swimsuits may reduce friction in water. Oxygen tents can boost cardiovascular capacity. While sports organizations typically draw the line at taking performance-enhancing drugs, such as steroids, these other apparent enhancements are permitted by most major sports associations.

Yet retired American sprinter Michael Johnson spoke for many when he claimed that "because we don't know for sure whether [Mr. Pistorius] gets an advantage from the prosthetics that he wears it is unfair to the able-bodied competitors."

Of course top athletes are often defined by their success in a genetic lottery that granted them natural yet "unfair" advantages over their peers.

Even more radical changes are on the way. Future developments in genetics, particularly as a result of the growing personal genomics industry, will allow individuals to sequence and partially decipher their own genomes. This will draw public awareness to genetics in athletics, creating a paradigm shift in our appreciation of the quality of competition in sports. Genomics may eventually accentuate the inequality among athletes, allowing those with genomic knowledge to better focus their abilities and strengths.

Some companies that sequence human genomes already claim to be able to identify genetic sports-related health risks and the genes that maximize individual athletic potential. In fact, sports may be one of the first really successful applications of personal genomics, as it presents some potentially simple genetic correlations, given easily identifiable physical traits in successful athletes.

Thanks to a greater popular appreciation of the genetics behind athleticism coupled with advances in genetic manipulation, we may soon see athletes-by-design, either from conception or a childhood tailored to sports for which the budding athlete is already genetically optimized. Will society discriminate against the athlete whose parents selected a child with superhuman resting and maximum heart rates, a disproportionate arm span or double-jointed ankles? After all, these super-competitive traits were naturally endowed to Lance Armstrong and Michael Phelps.

The genomics industry will introduce transparency into an otherwise opaque system, eventually allowing athletes, fans and spectators alike to pull back the curtain and look under the genetic hood. By taking away much of the mystery of athletic talent through correlating athleticism with observable genetic variations, and bringing that technology to the masses, science will eventually prove to the public just how uneven the playing field already is.

Genome analyses may be able to predict athletic prowess and the likelihood of sport-related illnesses and injuries. But such knowledge will likely come at the expense of privacy.

Coaches and fans today demand to know players' height, weight and other pertinent statistics. Tomorrow, they might insist on knowing athletes' genomic sequences to determine how they have leveraged their genetic gifts.

Analyzing genomes raises numerous non-trivial ethical challenges, with an inevitable shift to viewing athletic accomplishment through the prism of genetics. Whereas traditionally one's medical records are thought to be private information, we may soon see organizations divulging their athletes' genome sequences in the interest of transparency just as athletes' drug-testing results eventually become public knowledge and fodder.

Mr. Pistorius is thus at an athletic and scientific vanguard. He may catalyze a whole new way of looking at sports when he runs, and perhaps finds success, among his able-bodied peers.

Mr. Greenbaum, an intellectual property attorney and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University, is a non-resident fellow at Stanford University's Center for Law and the Biosciences. Mr. Gerstein is a professor of biomedical informatics at Yale University.

A version of this article appeared July 24, 2012, on page A13 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The Age of Genetically Optimized Sports.

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