Category Archives: Social Science

Coolangatta IP

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Traditional knowledge encompasses the information possessed and developed within a community.  Such knowledge arises and is used to inform the activities of the community–it is “traditional” in this way.  The authors of a AAAS handbook, in a discussion of TK, … Continue reading →

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Equity culture vs bonus culture

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Paul Graham has a new essay on the challenges of concepts of property that don’t work.  For instance, ownership of smells, which might work on a moonbase selling air with distinctive scents to people, but strikes us as a foolish … Continue reading →

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Systems that tolerate stagnation

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Neal Stephenson, in a World Policy Institute essay: Today’s belief in ineluctable certainty is the true innovation-killer of our age. In this environment, the best an audacious manager can do is to develop small improvements to existing systems—climbing the hill, as it … Continue reading →

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Francis Bacon, Vannevar Bush, and Technology Transfer

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

Peter Harrison and Benoît Godin trace the history and transformation of two of the critical concepts that underlie the present formula for university research: curiosity and innovation. Remarkably, both concepts have much of their early existence as negative things, to be … Continue reading →

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The Root of the Problem

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

In the current Businessweek there’s a short interview by Tom Keen with John Taft about the idea of stewardship in the banking industry.  The parallels with university IP are striking: [T]he leaders of our financial institutions lost touch with their … Continue reading →

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IP policy architectures, simpler than possible

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

One of the challenges of dealing with university technology transfer is that many of the descriptions of what is to be accomplished are cast in the singular, without context.  Policies are then built around these singularities, and anything multiple is … Continue reading →

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Regulation Is Not a Plan

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

A recent interview (only one free article a month) at The American Interest with Peter Thiel caught my eye.  The interview takes up the idea that there has been a stagnation of innovation since the 1960s, other than in IT and … Continue reading →

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Stealing IP from grant proposals, oh no!

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

In the US House of Representatives, bill HR 3433 would add “grants transparency” to the review and awarding of federally funded grants and cooperative agreements. The bill would require publication of awarded grant proposals within 15 days of notice of award, … Continue reading →

Posted in Commons, Innovation, Social Science, Sponsored Research | 1 Comment

The University D-Economy, Fitt 5

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Gerald Barnett

I have been looking at various statements regarding the “D-economy.” It goes by various names–Shanzhai rules, débrouillards, System-D. The Wired write up was interesting. Here is another, from Coley Hudgins at Resilient Family. Here’s another by Robert Neuwirth (who was … Continue reading →

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Limits of Causation Models in Technology Transfer

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Gerald Barnett

There is an article by Jonah Lehrer in the latest Wired magazine that is worth the read. It’s called “Trials and Errors” with the subtitle “Dead-end experiments, useless drugs, unnecessary surgery. Why Science is Failing Us.” Lehrer discusses the growing … Continue reading →

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