Monthly Archives: April 2005

Blue Knights, Patent Trolls, and IP! Oh my!

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The New York Times online edition has an interesting read on IBM’s move toward releasing some of its patents into the public domain. The gist of the article is that patents covering inter-operability and commerce may be in for a shake up. Since NYT is a (free) registered site, here’s a small quote (though you might seriously consider registering):

So why has I.B.M. shifted course recently, giving away some of the fruits of its research instead of charging others to use it? The answer is self-interest.

Diverging from conventional wisdom, the company has calculated that sharing technology can sometimes be more profitable than jealously guarding its property rights on patents, copyrights and trade secrets. The moves by I.B.M., the world’s largest supplier of information technology services and computers, are being closely watched throughout the business world.

Given the dramatic change in Big Blue’s standard operating procedure, I’ve got to wonder if the CEO didn’t get a copy of Seth Godin’s Idea Virus for his birthday.

“From HR to Industrial Design”

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BusinessWeek has an excellent article on IBM’s business makeover which discusses how, as their operation evolves, it’s becoming less grounded in real products (which are more and more just commodities) and turning increasingly to “virtual” services. This provides an excellent example of the flipside of VR: as virtual worlds and simulations become increasingly realistic with graphics and simpler interfaces, real world operations are migrating towards them as well. I think there’s a collision on the horizon – a “rebang”, if you will. Even if IBM fails, the trend is there. Now let’s wait and see if Big Blue can successfully shed that earthbound hardware heritage.

Miyake Rules

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People who know me (and that would in this case include anyone working at a department store where I have credit) know that I’m not much into clothes. Jeans and sweatshirt and some timberlands. That’s me. I don’t even care to wear black, which would of course be the designer thing to do, I suppose. However, I am interested in fashion because obviously there are relations to ID. And if there’s one name I know, it’s Issey Miyake. I mean, what other fashion designer… hell, just read this old article on Wired and see what I mean. Then visit his website. I was looking for a bit of inspiration and stumbled into his “Autumn Winter 2004-2005” Women’s section. Damn. That is a nice bit of web/interactive design.

Wired: Second Life Lessons

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Here’s a short but interesting write-up over on Wired regarding Second Life and the sometimes unexpected (but uplifting) uses to which the application is put. Having a virtual neighbor involved in one such activity has also raised my awareness of these kinds of possibilities (beyond the press clippings I’d previously read). In a world where people can don any visible appearance and change it at will, coming to terms with how I form judgements on even those obvious (mis)representations has been enlightening.

And kudo’s to Gwyneth Llewelyn, who is both mentioned in the article and whose blog – along with the news reports regarding Tringo – finally got me involved in this virtual community.

(p.s. Wired does realize they’re quoting a virtual persona, right?)