Document Actions
Intellectual Property
Up to Schedule and Events
Posted by
It's a growth area and if you have to make money, it's not a bad 'job'.
The online boom, the WWW being the most obvious manifestation, has created an insatiable market for 'ideas', good or otherwise, and 'ideas' are about Intellectual Property and Copyright.
Kids should know about it and be encouraged to use it, yet as a subject it is conspicuous in its absence from curricula. So if you have a good idea, how do you make money out of it.
I see a corner somewhere providing an explanation of the situation as it stands, available resource, and an ongoing 'on line and physical - whiteboard discussion / questions and answers'.
Various people can be invited to join in (on example of many I could cite being Russ Heinl (who took the picture of UBC campus I use on http://thebluecrane.com/idec%2Donline/idec2008.htm ), another being James Dyson (vacuum cleaner fame).
My 8yr old son makes more money than I do sometimes (actually quite often come to think of it!); he has a regular cartoon slot in a newspaper. As so many children of that age do, he draws a lot... as adoring parent of course I exclaim by admiration at the latest Dante's Inferno I am presented with. But having some experience with media, Intellectual Property and Copyright etc., pointed out that if he submitted them to a newspaper and they printed them they would pay him, and he could buy his own outrageously priced Lego extravaganzas. They do, and he does. The newspaper doesn't know he's 8ys old. I like that!
But one of the outcomes is that he is quite aware of Intellectual Property and Copyright. There was a bit of a rumpus at his 'free school' when someone copied an idea he had for a drawing. "It's not that kind of "free school" was the point in question.
So, the kids should be told; the brain is your very own built in factory and it doesn't have to make rubbish for you to make a living.
Well, I would love to hear more! It would be great to have you offer this as a work shop. If you have some info on international patent I would also be very curious. I have been sitting on a few inventions for some years, largely because I don't know what to do with them and how to put them into the world and still keep them.
That is amazing about your son? Do you have a sample of his cartoons? I am really curious, though I would hate for you to violate his intellectual property and get in trouble at home. 
this is fantastic!
be good to bring in information about the creative commons movement
to read more check out: http://creativecommons.org/
I used one of these for my publications, it's more democratic, get's out of the hands of big money, etc.
check it out!
Previously Carla wrote:
this is fantastic!
be good to bring in information about the creative commons movement
to read more check out: http://creativecommons.org/
I used one of these for my publications, it's more democratic, get's out of the hands of big money, etc.
check it out!
Creative Commons is very 'useable'.
I am hoping to do some workshops (I've posted them in Open Space) about some of the digital stuff I have been doing with the students at Windsor House. The issue of intellectual property is huge. The "digital kids" often see information, images, music and media as raw material to be used and reused (in mash-ups for example) with no thought of "ownership". Digital literacy needs to include information about copyright, intellectual property rights, Creative Commons, Open Source as well as what are reliable sources of information. I think these issues are as important as teaching kids how to use a word processor or make a spreadsheet. And I keep reminding the kids that when they are rich and famous they need to remember the people along the way that helped them
Forgot your password?
New user?