Trying to get my head around the morasses of issues surrounding Intellectual property has lead me to do some investigating and I think I am starting to make some progress…..

Firstly, there are several forms of IP protection as explained by the Design Council. They include:

Patents – “apply to inventions such as new or improved products, services and processes that have business applications. They give an inventor the right, for a limited period, to stop others from making, using or selling an invention without permission”

Trademarks – “A trademark is therefore a ‘badge’ of your business. It is used as a marketing tool so that customers can recognise the product of a particular trader.”

Designs – “design as ‘shape, configuration, pattern or ornament which can be judged by the eye in a finished manufactured article or set of articles’.”

Copyright – “gives the creators of material such as literature, art, music and broadcasting control over their own output. It can be transferred to others for making copies, performing in public, broadcasting or using material online. Copyright applies as soon as there is a record of the work.”

It is important to note that the very act of creating something means that you hold the copyright, i.e. there is no longer a requirement to ‘take out’ a copyright as it exists as soon as something is created.

It is this change coupled with the burgeoning growth of the www that lead to the development of the creative commons licence. The problem is a simple one, if we are to leverage the www to its full potential for creative collaboration, we need to know what we can do with published material, what are the creators intentions? This lack of explicit labeling holds back this collaboration as we don’t know what we are allowed to do with material. If on the safe side we assume that all material is big ” copyrighted, then much of the potential of the www is lost. This neat video clip explains all of this well.

There is another dimension to this of FLOSS (free/libre and open source software). The Open Source Initiative explains this in detail with examples of licences. “The basic idea behind open source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves.”

For both creative commons and OSS approaches there is a simple principle at work. By having access to other peoples work we can both push back the boundaries of knowledge faster and also create the conditions for a wider pool of people to be involved in this knowledge creation.

This is a neat piece of software introduced to me by Jed

This ”TiddlyWiki” installation is a collection of some ‘stuff’ that I might want to visit when not using my own computer. There are several neat things about this technology. It has some of the attributes of a wiki, some of the attributes of a blog, and although hosted on a web server, once accessed all of the content and functionality reside in the browser application – that is on your own machine.

Now all I need to do is work out how to deal with the brown and beige skin!

I have talked about this service many times with Nick Billowes (a New Zealand friend and colleague) and sad to say Nick we have missed the entrepreneurial boat! Here (West End suburb of Leicester) you can access DVD all day every day through touch screens. You can see what is available, read about the films/games, even see the trailer. Then simply insert your ‘charged’ membership card an chose the rental period.

What more could a person ask for:^)

A great web service from Frappr. A piece of mapping software that allows groups of people to locate themselves on a map and ‘shout’ a comment to each other. This would be a great start to an online course/programme or for anyone running collaborative projects between schools or individuals in different loactions. Also a neat satelite/map/hybrid option for the geography enthusiasts out there!

Take a look

A dry autumn has meant a lean time for fungi. However, a couple of weeks ago in North Wales we spent a couple of hours seeing what we could find in the woodlands around Bethesda. Nothing was eaten:^)

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been reflecting upon aspects of my ‘management’ and ‘leadership’ style prompted by instances of my inability to perform well – some miscalculations!

I think this has been a useful exercise as I have begun to understand some critical distinctions in the differences of management/leadership roles that are required over time. In particular, I can identify a life cycle (there will be many different ones) that moves from the start-up phase of a project through to maturity and then to the need for a project to re-define itself to keep ‘ahead of the game’. If this ‘reinvention’ does not take place then there is a likelihood that an apparent success will turn into decline and eventual extinction. The avoidance of this requires a project manager/leader to take action. Technological business theorists talk of the S curve when they explain this phenomena (best link I could quickly locate to explain the idea).

The undertaking of a complicated and complex project is a daunting thing for all involved. There are often many areas of uncertainty and the project team will be constantly forced to step outside their comfort zone. I recall Simon Woodruff (the founder of Yo Sushi) as explaining using the image of a person stood in a sand pit with a scratched circle in the sand outside which they must step each day. As they repeat the process the circle grows and is reflected in their confidence and ability to deal with challenge and uncertainty through innovation – thinking outside of the box!

At the outset, there is little choice but to behave as Simon describes. The role of the project manager/leader is less complex as most readily accept the ‘nature of the beast’ is uncertainty, and all that brings with it. Decisions taken tend to be received well as sense of direction is at a premium in terms of holding the community together and allowing progress to be made. This building of some certainty is warmly received by most as over time it results in increasing self-confidence of all involved. This feels good.

As a project ‘beds in’ a collective understanding of how to be successful in that particular way grows and develops. Practice is negotiated, understanding develops, and uncertainty declines. In short, people start to feel good about themselves and what they are doing.

However, according to S curve theory at some point the role of the project manager/leader has to develop to become that of a change agent. This is a tricky act as the old rules no longer apply. Decisions that change the status quo are not necessarily welcome as instead of brining certainty, change is in the ‘here and now’ perceived as threatening. This seems to me to be a perfectly logical reaction to someone ‘ rocking the boat’ as from one set of analysis there is no obvious need to do so.

My points of learning are: