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Category Archives: Innovation
More Bayh-Dole Nonsense
In the “Innovation U 2.0” report, we find the now expectable misrepresentation of the Bayh-Dole Act: Following the passage of the Bayh-Dole legislation in 1980 every US university had the responsibility–and new opportunities–to work with faculty innovators in assessing the … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, Innovation, Policy, Technology Transfer
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Ouroboros Innovation Advocacy
SSTI just sent out a note about a new report by Louis G. Tornatzky and Elaine C. Redeout, “Innovation U 2.0 Reinventing University Roles in a Knowledge Economy.” After a brief read through it, I’m left puzzled. Perhaps this note … Continue reading
Posted in Innovation, Metrics, Policy, Technology Transfer
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Incommensurate Innovation Mindsets
Alasdair McIntyre in After Virtue presents two contrasting arguments. Shortened up and re-cast slightly, they are: (a) Justice demands that every citizen should enjoy equal opportunity to develop his or her talents. But that requires equal access to health care … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom, Innovation, Technology Transfer
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The basic researcher as poet-maker
In 1953, the NSF in its third annual report publishes a discussion of basic research. In its opening paragraph, the NSF associates scientific creativity with that of “poet or painter”: A worker in basic scientific research is motivated by a … Continue reading
Posted in History, Innovation, Sponsored Research
Tagged Bacon, basic research, poet, Sidney
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Adam Smith’s Innovation by Division of Labor
Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow describes what he calls “What You See Is All There Is”: The combination of a coherence-seeking System 1 with a lazy System 2 implies that System 2 will endorse many intuitive beliefs, which … Continue reading
Posted in 3D Printing, History, Innovation, Policy
Tagged Adam Smith, division of labor, gadgeteer, Kahneman, tinkerer, warfarin
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Is more and more research spending the answer?
Battelle is out with a new study forecasting “Global R&D Funding” for 2014. The report covers countries and various areas of research such as biotech and energy. The findings are rather bland–the US will spend $465 billion next year on … Continue reading
Posted in Innovation, Metrics, Policy, Sponsored Research, Technology Transfer
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The Woody Guthrie Public License
Kevin Carson wrote a book a few years ago called Organizational Theory: A Libertarian Perspective. In it, he develops a number of concepts that ought to be central to university thinking about research and innovation. Carson picks up on Ronald Coase‘s question–if … Continue reading
Posted in Commons, Freedom, Innovation, Policy
Tagged closed control, fascists bound lose, Kevin Carson, open labs, public license, Woody Guthrie
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A Redtail’s Dream for University IP Management
[Update 10/21/2018: Sundberg raised $124,000 on Indiegogo to print book one of her webcomic Stand Still. Stay Silent. She then raised $250,000 on Kickstarter to print book two. The webcomic is available “for free” on the web. Sundberg has … Continue reading
Posted in Commons, Freedom, Innovation, Projects, Technology Transfer
Tagged crowd funding, NIPIA, open source, Sundberg, webcomic
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Federal Sweep and Swamp Policy
The US government proposes spending $1b on innovation in manufacturing. If one likes government spending on such things, this sounds like a really good thing. Here is a link to the NNMI homepage overview. The preliminary design document for the … Continue reading
Posted in Innovation, Policy, Sponsored Research, Technology Transfer
Tagged linear model, manufacturing, NNMI, TRL
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Feynman on his patents
Richard Feynman was awarded patents. Here is a recording of an interview that describes how it all came about. You can also read about the episode in Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman? Could be academic inventions are a dime a … Continue reading
Posted in Innovation, IP, Policy
Tagged consideration, Feynman, invention, motivation, patent
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