Intel inside. . .your car
Now we know that cars are using more & more electronics and computers, but now Intel is making sure you select the
right computer inside your car. Soon we will be able to control our home from a central computer. We already have remote starters for cars -- I can't wait for automatic cars. .
When will copyright law change?
With renewed complaints that search engines are
stealing content from paid sites, and the UK examining copyright law to see if it can
keep up with the "times" when will substantial, international law (practice) happen? US law, of course, takes quite some time to change, and we'll have to see what happens. Will Creative Commons and related initiatives gain ground, such that law change is not necessary, because practice has changed?
Join another patent commons
It's open source, another step further. It looks like Sun has created a new OSI-approved license and is
releasing hardware open source. Even Sun questions how this will work, so it's a bold move. One wonders what the discussions were inside the company that led to this. .
Measuring Technology ROI
Watch this
project: groups collaborate to help the government better analyze ROI of technology projects.
The Center for Technology in Government (CTG) and SAP are collaborating on
a research project regarding public-sector return on investment (ROI), focused
on improving the government's ability to analyze individual information
technology projects.
Long ago I asked an NSF Program Manager how they evaluated effectiveness of granted proposals, and he said he wasn't sure. Perhaps this is one mechanism the feds will look to.
Shall I move to Singapore?
With Singapore's
great investment in electronics, high tech and digital media, they seem to be the place to watch for future growth. With Asian markets growing fast, growing international trade, new found (?) respect for intellectual property, and lagging investment in these areas in the other parts of the world, Singapore is ahead of the curve. Who will join?
When bugs aren't so shallow
Open source is touted as better, often for one particular reason: everyone sees the information and "fixes it." But what if the knowledge is so obscure, or so advanced, that peer review can do no good -- or, can do harm? Or what if anonymous "helping" actually hurts -- someone has a grudge, or is playing a prank, or just is wrong?
John Seigenthaler Sr. is unhappy with wikipedia for this reason. More reasons to be aware of what you read, see, hear, in open source -- because it can be great, but it doesn't have to be. It's all in how the information is presented, and if you have the access to it you need. . .
Thanks Google.
Google helped Stanford get $336 million for future research and development, as Stanford held stock in Google (and just
sold that stock). While most universities will sell all their stock as soon as they can (to avoid conflict of interest issues, and, remember, universities are not involved in technology transfer solely to generate money), it sounds like Stanford sold their stock in at least 2 transactions, spread out over time. Most technology transfer offices do not control the timing of their stock sales. .
So, good news. Google, a company that has a culture Intel wants to emulate, which allows employees to spend 20% of their time on their own projects, helps Stanford further its stellar education.
Revocable verbal license? Changing community?
Too many possible titles for this story. .
Grateful Dead fans are mad that "the band" (or at least some of the band)
wanted to pull fan-made recordings off the archive.org site, as the Dead have allowed trading so long, this was a violation. The Dead point out that the trading was one-on-one, so it was a different activity for the community -- and had different economic impacts. Now, archive.org was likely not the first site to host such recordings, so why was this one selected? But are fans also saying that they have the right to extend the "license" they had from the Dead? While we hate those long, written contracts, they do provide some safety in how they delineate what happens when new technology comes down.
For certainty, the license to this post: For 2 years, this post may be reproduced, but not altered, and always with attribution to chiefnode.blogspot.com. .
Sun continues the march toward service
What does intellectual property mean in the age of service? With
Sun open-sourcing more of their products, Microsoft offering their products more like "services" rather than "sales" (er, licenses), and IBM having a huge service side, where will intellectual property be, and who will want it? I counted 4 relatively new books out about how the current use of IP is "killing creativity" (I'd put them here but I think I purposefully lost them) -- so will people be convinced? Will IP law become so ignored as to be moot? Or will everything change to a service (music subscription v buying music; software subscription v buying software)? Stay tuned.
The Blackberry debate continues
I've been waiting to see if Blackberrys will suddenly go silent. With the settlement between the companies ruled moot earlier this week, it appeared many "connected" people would soon be unhooked. But with
today's ruling regarding patent validity (bad news for RIM) there may yet be hope.
How much money has been spent on these legal battles? Can the market really support these? I wonder how much money Blackberry users have contributed to the war chest here. Will telecom just take over this market, anyway?
