Old School
On the about us homepage there is information that surely is put there to make the public more aware of this or that.
All over the aboutus site is the “tone” of openness and sharing and collaboration – in contrast to “old school” tight fisted top down control.
For this reason I think on the home page there should be posted some very important aboutus news that I suspect most of the “community” does not currently see, mentioning something like this:
“Sometimes even aboutus is “old school” despite our rhetoric. To see what we mean go to this page: ConnectUs Project
Here you will find the statement posted:
“Unfortunately we can't open up full access to this project until we've filed a provisional patent application. We'll try to get the provisional filed ASAP!”
For those of you not familiar with the world of patents let me explain the gist of what this really means. It means aboutus has done internally something that it thinks is ingenious, that nobody out there in Internet world has yet done. And because of this aboutus thinks they can take control this “new thing” and not openly share it. Once aboutus has gained this control status (via award of patent by the USA government), they can use this position of control to generate revenue – by not allowing access to this “new thing”, unless in some way aboutus is paid for this access, and others agree to the aboutus terms of use.
Since aboutus is keeping this a secret, there is currently no way for the “community” to contribute so as to further improve this new ingenious thing, or to in other ways collaborate on this new ingenious thing, rather we are “shut out” – excluded.
Can somebody at about us explain to the community how this “old fashioned” secrecy mode and control mode (patents are all about keeping secrets – one cannot openly disclose until they have gone through certain legal steps to insure ones position of control) reflects the open sharing and collaboration soul of aboutus?
Maybe the answer is, “aboutus has to make a buck just like everybody else to stay operational and we now think this ‘old fashioned’ secrecy mode might help us do a better job of staying operational” – or maybe I’m way off base? MartinPfahler
I take from these comments that 1. you are not opposed to us inventing things so long as we tell you what we have invented in a timely way, and, 2. you are not opposed to us protecting our inventions so long as we do not use that protection to interfere with free and open culture. Beyond these two points concerning us, I also hear that you think software patent law could be improved. We are aware of these issues and agree at least to the degree that I have paraphrased your comments. I hope you will encourage us forward and share willingly with us as we have shared with you. -- Ward
Ward, thank you very much for your feedback!
As somebody that is a long time student of the innovation process I see there are too often invention modes that stifle better and more “out of the box” innovation – and most definitely better cross discipline research. This is the typical “in-house” invention mode. This is where I thought the Wiki mode/culture could make a potentially big difference – where at the earliest stages of the creative thinking process as well as during the time of later refinement and improvement “outsiders” are allowed to hear the new ingenious idea, share their ideas, and that wider scope of input leading to potentially even better refinement or invention. That can’t happen under the mode of patents, as you know Ward, because by definition one cannot publicly disclose and “share” and collaborate with the community during this inventive process. So an underlying question is who exactly is doing the inventing, a tiny elite and select group of insiders, or the larger community?
You state, “you are not opposed to us protecting our inventions so long as we do not use that protection to interfere with free and open culture”. Does not the very act of keeping the secret and not allowing the larger community to participate in fact stifle the more “creative” and inventive process? I assume you are an open source fan. There is today an existing effort to build an “open source” car where no secrets are kept. Seems to me you folks would be pushing such open mode rather than falling back to the age old secrecy mode.
To me it seems a tone sort of like, “let us all share and contribute and collaborate in an open and caring environment – so long as it does not hit to close to my own backyard”.
As you can probably tell this issue is for me a hot button one because as time goes on technology innovation activity will become a bigger factor in terms of who gains power, influence and wealth - and early stage innovation processes are the underlying driver. Seems to me Wiki modes have potential to change who gets to be involved and who benefits, so that in the future we do not have just a few “tech barrons” and their VC taking the spoils (as in the old days the rail road barrons), rather a more democratic and mutually beneficial (for the populace) invention and innovation process.
I have a hunch your VC and Angel investors might read these comments and roll their eyes, thinking “with that open Wiki invention mode how the heck are we going to stake out a competitive position and maintain barriers to entry?” – which as you and I both know is business as usual and not what I thought the Wiki culture was all about. MartinPfahler
