Open Source Solutions for Small Business Problems

A ZDNet blog has an interesting post titled The rise of the open sorcerors, summarizing and putting a new spin on a Doc Searls’ editorial posted here: Getting Flat, Part 1 | Linux Journal.

The key criticism of Friedman’s book is that he keeps describing Open Source software in the context of proprietary software, portraying it as a big battle. To put Searls’s point succinctly: Open Source isn’t a new addition to the marketplace; it’s a new marketplace.

I’ve read a couple of Friedman’s books, and think he has some great insights. Looks like I’m going to have to pick this one up.

The O’Reilly Network has a fascinating Interview with Lawrence Lessig, where he explores these and other topics.

“… if you think about the ways kids under 15 using digital technology think about writing–you know, writing with text is just one way to write, and not even the most interesting way to write. The more interesting ways are increasingly to use images and sound and video to express ideas. Well, all of those ways of writing under the law as it’s understood right now are basically illegal unless you secure permission from the author up front. So the same act of creativity in some sense, you know, taking, creating, mixing out of what other people do, is legal in the text world and illegal in the digital media world.”

A whole series of stories about Intellectual Property. First, an interesting story in the Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail: How copyright could be killing culture. Unfortunately, this one is no longer freely available, but it argues that the way television programs have been locked up in copyright is stifling the development of culture, citing a PBS documentary that can no longer be shown due to the copyright on some of its footage.

Patents are usually regarded as something positive for innovation, but if you haven’t looked closely lately, you may be surprised to find them having the opposite effect. Here’s a set of rules to encourage innovation, published by Science Hobbyist: Rules for unconventional researchers. And here’s an inventor’s explanation of why he doesn’t patent his inventions: Eagle-Research We Don’t Patent.

Two interesting stories from Mad Penguin: a good essay by Christian Einfeldt posted at: Open source is disrupting the fourth estate.
And another: Open Source: spinning straw into gold.
What an exciting time we live in–no longer do big companies hold a monopoly on information.

Wired has a story about how current copyright law has made it illegal to view a PBS documentary film series from the late 1980s. Wired News: Putting Eyeballs on Copyright Law

The main motive of the Free Software Movement is to reverse the trend of locking up copyrights, explicitly making “Intellectual Property” available to everyone.