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Category Archives: Social Science
We are *not* drowning kittens
From time to time that it really does happen that someone invents, gets patents, raises investment, and builds a product that gets sold at market. We say, this event is an instance of a class, or a metonymy for the … Continue reading
Posted in Social Science, Technology Transfer
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Innovation Stories
The story of invention to money happens, generally, afterward. It is a way that stories like this are told. Once there is a product, one can pick any starting point and tell of challenges and effort and luck, so long … Continue reading
Posted in Social Science, Technology Transfer
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Is This as Good as It Gets?
One of the biggest problems with university technology transfer is that it cannot manage deliberative rhetoric. Everything is criticism, and the criticism is construed to attack the idea of technology transfer, Bayh-Dole, and/or the competency of those working in the … Continue reading
Posted in Bayh-Dole, IP, Literature, Metrics, Social Science
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Lack of Debate
I suppose the trouble of reports by committees is that they end up trying to represent a consensus view, a set of compromises that in the drafting make everyone happy. This can look like thumb pie–where everyone has their bit … Continue reading
Posted in Social Science
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Barnett's Conjecture
The leaders of any status quo cannot self-propose changes to the status quo under which the leaders cease to be the leaders. Or, put it another way, proposed changes in a status quo by those most benefiting from the status … Continue reading
Posted in Social Science
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Who To Listen To?
I’m sort of fascinated by the academics doing surveys to ascertain technology transfer practice. They don’t actually sully themselves by observing practice–that would take too long, be expensive, and would compromise some degree of (what to call it?)–oh–innocence–perspective. Survey is … Continue reading
Posted in Social Science, Technology Transfer
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Taking it to the Street
Jane Jacobs wrote one of the definitive critiques of central planning in her The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Fifty years on, the work still hits home. In DLGAC, Jacobs starts with the life of the street, arguing … Continue reading
Posted in Commons, Social Science, Technology Transfer
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Early Stage Technology
What does “early stage” mean in “early stage technology”? Does it arise from DoD “Technology Readiness Levels“? Perhaps. With TRL treatment, we are deep into the Linear Model. The starting point is basic research, which has to be translated into … Continue reading
Posted in Social Science, Technology Transfer
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Masks of Pluralism
Joan Roelofs’s Foundations and Public Policy: The Masks of Pluralism provides a critique of superficial consensus building. The basics are to capture passionate outliers, make them dependent for funding, and eventually lead them to conform to a consensus rallied around … Continue reading
Posted in Social Science, Sponsored Research, Technology Transfer
Tagged central planning, Hayak, pluralism, roelofs
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Having Feck
“Feckless folk are aye fain o’ ane anither.” We see in this Scots proverb a classic condition of the bozonet. It’s a human condition, and I don’t begrudge the feckless their friends. But it does mean that majority rule in … Continue reading
Posted in Bozonet, Social Science, Technology Transfer
Tagged bozonet, feck, feckless
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