# Key Ideas from #hplusroadmap IRC Discussions

• Participants debated the future of DNA synthesis technology, with some advocating for desktop DNA synthesizers over centralized mail-order services, developing economic models showing that when prices drop below a certain threshold, decentralized synthesis becomes more viable.

• A collaborative project to develop enzymatic DNA synthesis was initiated with the creation of a Google Group called "enzymaticsynthesis," focusing on methods to precisely control DNA polymerase activity for programmable nucleotide addition.

• Several innovative approaches for controlling DNA polymerase were proposed, including light-switchable proteins, magnetic microparticles (with switching times around 350μs), and treating polymerase as a nanopore.

• The group discussed DIY computing hardware development, sharing resources like HomeCMOS (http://code.google.com/p/homecmos/), reflecting the community's interest in technological self-sufficiency outside commercial manufacturing.

• Concerns about academic freedom were raised regarding Canadian universities allowing publishers to access faculty emails to check for copyright violations, alongside discussion of the shutdown of Library Genesis and tensions between copyright enforcement and open access to scientific literature.

• A participant mentioned developing a decentralized trust-group-based file-sharing platform similar to Dropbox but peer-to-peer, designed to work without internet connection and with plans to integrate WiFi meshing and sneakernet synchronization.