Category Archives: Projects

Cities of Innovation

Geoffrey West in Edge 343 (WHY CITIES KEEP GROWING, CORPORATIONS AND PEOPLE ALWAYS DIE, AND LIFE GETS FASTER): “Well, Google is a bit of an exception, because it still tolerates some of that. But most companies start out probably with … Continue reading

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Artifact, Invention, Technology, Change

University research technology often takes the form of artifacts.  Often the academic discussion is about the merit of research objectives in terms of demonstrating, proving out, or advancing a concept or theory or argument.  The “technology” that results is treated … Continue reading

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Thinking about software

I’ve spent a large part of the past 20 years working on university-originated software IP–in research, instruction, and administrative services. We’ve done open source, source available, venture-backed start ups, technology access programs, commons, publication agreements, distribution agreements, site licenses, waived … Continue reading

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Contexts

Have been looking at a new collection of essays edited by Leroy Searle, “The Natural History of Reading”. Searle makes a general claim: “we do not start, in reading, at the ‘beginning,’ but at a particular point in a history … Continue reading

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Waiters Packing Heat

A basic question I ask university tech transfer officers is this: in a licensing situation for university IP, who is it who first needs a contract? I get a lot of interesting answers to this. But here’s the thing. It’s … Continue reading

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Pathway Dependence

Let’s look at a licensing situation set up two different ways. The purpose is to illustrate pathway dependence of an offer. Let’s say we have an invention with an associated patent right and a university laboratory willing to engage industry … Continue reading

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Whose Research is It?

Really, it is *their* research, but not in the normal ownership way of thinking. I’m talking about university principal investigators. In the university way of doing things, faculty are not required to conduct research as a part of their employment … Continue reading

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Frame Agreements

Over in the “Pages” area on the upper right I am starting to add illustrative documents that show how one can extend research enterprise to include open innovation, commons, collaborative research, and the like. The first of this involves frame … Continue reading

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Intermittency

In The Survival Game, David Barash discusses the prisoner’s dilemma as a instance of where the payoff for defecting on collaborators is better than playing nice. When such situations repeat, there are huge problems for collaborators in responding to attempts … Continue reading

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DIWO

Check out biocurious.org for an interesting take on the “do it with others” (DIWO) effort to extend co-working to scientific research. Here’s the good comment on paper credentials. “The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out.” In a … Continue reading

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