Diane and I have just finished collecting DNA samples to send to the Genographic Project. I found it very strange that the only information required when you send in a sample is a form stating what sex you are — I’d expect that to be obvious from the DNA. (The form is also the consent form to allow one’s DNA to be analyzed — it is an anonymous consent form, which, itself, is an interesting concept.)

The collection process is very simple — you use a swab to take a little tissue from your cheek. And then eight or more hours later, you do it again (I chose to use the other cheek :-)) to make it more likely to get a good sample.

Then you put the samples in the mail, and in a few weeks, you check the website, input your random id (Diane’s and mine differ significantly, even though our kits arrived in the same mailing box, so there is a good deal of randomness in the assignment), get the results, and the opportunity to contribute your data in the aggregated results the project is creating.

The most painful part was paying for the kit!

“The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.”

This has been the case ever since I started blogging, so why am I saying it now? Because IBM is now encouraging IBMers to join the conversations in the blogosphere, and so it’s a good idea to make it clear that I represent myself here, not the company.

Sixteen years ago, I was heavily involved in bringing Usenet into IBM (for purely selfish reasons — I wanted realtime access to misc.kids, and the easiest way to do it let me gateway Usenet to our internal conferencing system as trivial extension), and that made a big difference in opening the company to the rest of the world, and an even bigger difference in helping IBMers understand what was happening on the other side of the Blue Curtain. I don’t now if encouraging blogging will make as much of a difference, but it won’t hurt!