Open Sourcing Innovation 93
Super_Z writes "Reading an old issue of The Economist, I came over this - whynot.net - a forum for ideas - effectively open sourcing innovation. Doing so, these ideas can hopefully be adapted faster and on a broad basis. Now if I can only get someone to take up and produce my radarguided laser mosquito trap."
Half Bakery (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Half Bakery (Score:2)
SlipHead.com (Score:2, Interesting)
What? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:What? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What? (Score:1)
I thought of that first!! (Score:5, Funny)
That was my idea, it came to me right after the Hamburger Earmuffs!!
The only problem with a radarguided laser mosquito trap is that it will also fry whoever is being bitten by a mosquito at the time,
well thats not always a bad thing!
Re:I thought of that first!! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I thought of that firstest!! (Score:2)
The sonic-queued, solar-powered, multi-homed, focusing mosquito, wasp, bee and fly vapouriser was the creation of a lazy afternoon many decades ago.
One day I'll actually get around to building it; but only after my ......
....nope, you're not ready for that just yet.
Re:I thought of that first!! (Score:2, Funny)
Hamburger muffs. Hmmm. Could do wonders in the realm of foreplay. Wouldn't have to worry about your girl accidentally biting your ear too hard, and it might actually give you incentive to let the foreplay go on longer than normal (which I'm sure many women would like). You could tell her, "you're not getting any until you've eaten all of my, errr, all of the meat...." However, this would be terribly detrimental to those of us with vegetarian girlfriends.
Thank god for Morningstar!
Re:Open source being used in Genetic Research (Score:5, Interesting)
"In the National Interest" (avail via Audio
on Demand) on Open Source methods being
transplanted from S/W dev't to scientific
research in genetic engr'g, etc.
So... call it all the names you like...
it still seems to be doing some good, eg
giving folks in remote/isolated places of
developed countries or developing countries
opportunities to contribute to progress of
State of the Art.
It apparently works.
Re:Open source = evangelism (Score:1)
Cf: GlobalIdeasBank.org (Score:5, Informative)
There are several other, similar sites as well.
Is there a portal to such sites... yet?
GlobalIdeasBank.org is for 'soft' inventions (Score:1)
Re:Cf: GlobalIdeasBank.org (Score:1)
Why not.... (Score:5, Funny)
2. Steal idea
3. ???
4. Profit!
whynot.com is prior art (Score:5, Informative)
But once product or process ideas are published on whynot.com, this means nobody can turn around and patent the broadest form of the idea. Of course, engineers who implement the ideas can patent the specifics of their inventions, but they can't get a monopoly on what's been published.
Spying? (Score:5, Insightful)
Good idea, but I am cautious.
Re:Spying? (Score:3, Insightful)
To benefit the community, all is well (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Spying? (Score:2)
One would think the date on the submittions would be a big $$ka-ching$$ for the inventor when it came to trial.
Which is why we need a way to patent the ideas (Score:2, Interesting)
Otherwise a site like that is useless. Currently it costs too much money to patent anything, so only the rich CEO can afford it.
whynot.net? (Score:5, Funny)
Or...Because using
open sourcing (Score:2, Funny)
Re:open sourcing (Score:1, Funny)
You obviously can't read. You're fired. A man named Imrhod in East India will be taking up your job as of Monday (tomorrow) morning.
Why not? (Score:5, Funny)
getting ideas already... (Score:1)
Houston, we have a problem (Score:5, Funny)
Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone can have good ideas, it's actually putting it into practice which is the difficult bit. Intellectual property implies that you can have an idea, patent it and then charge anyone who actually wants to put it into use. You should have to produce a *working* prototype for anything you want a patent on.
Re:Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult (Score:4, Informative)
I don't know where you get "implies", but in fact you can't say, "Hey, I thought of a radar guided laser mosquito trap!" and patent it. An implementation is necessary. (If the patent officials do their job properly, which the frequently don't, but that has nothing to do with the validity of the concept.)
Except for the emphasis on working prototypes, the current system is exactly what you want.
Re:Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, incorrect you do not need a working example; except in certain special cases- IRC the patent office only accept perpetual motion machines patents if accompanied by a working model :-).
A patent is an *idea* that is being patented. It's your own problem if your idea doesn't actually work.
Paper and practice are quite different. (Score:3, Insightful)
The need for a real working prototype which actually demonstrates that it can target and zap mosquitos successfully with a real laser would force inventors to actually go through the process of solving the many and real problems.
It would
Re:Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult (Score:4, Insightful)
(You do, of course, have to have the idea fully worked out before it's a saleable item; it's only the rarest ideas which can be considered truly novel without a detailed plan for implementation. The border between novel and not-novel is badly defined and very ugly.)
The same idea applies to copyright. I, as an author, can write a book, but it takes a publisher to actually make money with it, since it takes a lot of money to get a book published (editing, printing, distribution, advertising, and the monetary risk of the fact that all those things happen up front.) The author owns the copyright and sells it (or leases it) to the publisher in exchange for a cut of the sales of the physical books.
The law protects the copyright owner as owning property. Although it isn't like real property in every respect, it shares many common features: the right to sell it, the limitation on who may use it, the ability to sue if ownership is violated.
Such is the concept, at least. In practice, when the law gets involved, money talks. One can certainly quibble with the implementation, even to the point of declaring the flaws in implementation more important that the benefits, but I don't think the concept itself merits being called "bullshit".
Re:Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult (Score:2, Informative)
it takes a lot of money to get a book published (editing, printing, distribution, advertising, and the monetary risk of the fact that all those things happen up front.)
Not to the extent anymore. CafePress Self Publish [cafepress.com] handles printing and online distribution, and you can scale advertising up gradually: a K5 ad here, a Google ad there, etc.
Although [copyright] isn't like real property in every respect, it shares many common features: the right to sell it, the limitation on who may use it, the ability
Re:Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult (Score:3, Informative)
It's been suggested that the reason is that intellectual property isn't a right, but rather that ideas (not being physical objects) are community property and that the government establishes the fiction of property rights with a limited term to encourage people to innovate.
If so, IP rights are their own thing, and not bound by any other understanding of property. But there are important
Re:Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult (Score:2)
It's not that ideas are public property- it's that the government wants to encourage the cross fertilisation you get when ideas aren't hidden in the middle of companies and corporations as 'trade secrets'.
So the government invents patents, which protect the idea for a few years (typically 15), but then expire, allowing the idea to be improved upon by others (independent of how bloody minded or wrong headed or just unable to
Re:Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult (Score:2)
You mean to say the ideas phase can often be done by people without money, without perseverance, and without the necessary skills.
Yep, this is exactely what we need more of. We need more ideas from poor lazy unskilled people. Imagination is such a rare commodity.
Re:Ideas are easy, deeds are difficult (Score:2)
No. Not all ideas are easy.
Tell me, could you design a phased-array slotted waveguide radar antennta?
I thought not.
Could you take a ruler, measure one, make a few drawings and start selling your own? Probably.
"Intellectual property" is what makes sure that guy who can actually design the antenna gets paid.
Without patents, copyright, etc there's a lot less financial incentive for a company to do
radarguided laser mosquito trap (Score:1)
Boost the radar power (Score:2)
Ideas are cheap (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly: one lunch with some intelligent company and a little wine can produce enough ideas for five years' work. No big deal.
Radar-guided laser mosquito trap? (Score:4, Funny)
You're right, (Score:2, Funny)
As if (Score:1)
Re:Resume shooter (Score:1)
ShouldExist (Score:5, Informative)
Re:ShouldExist (Score:1)
The Ultimate Secturity System (Score:3, Funny)
It crashes whenever somebody goes to it...nobody can steal their ideas.
should exist? (Score:3, Informative)
Based on scoop (the same engine that runs Kuro5hin), and been running for a few years now. There's some neat stuff within there.
--Robert
All I ask for... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:All I ask for... (Score:3, Informative)
Open sourcing innovation (Score:1)
Under what license are these ideas? (Score:1)
These ideas must be free of patents or patented in such a way that anyone can use these ideas in any product.
Then I will support the project.
It Helps To Get Free Assistance (Score:4, Insightful)
says me, seun [afriguru.com]
SlipHead.com (Score:2, Informative)
They have some pretty cool ideas on there and really seem to have the 'right feel' of what a good idea board should encompass.
related sites (Score:5, Informative)
Would this be a good way to disrupt patenting? (Score:2)
= 9J =
Why Not Dot Net? (Score:2)
Economist pr0n? (Score:1)
Wow, doesn't take much to turn you on, does it? Try something with a centrefold.