Announcement: OPEN-SOURCE AND PROPRIETARY MODELS OF INNOVATION: BEYOND IDEOLOGY

           OPEN-SOURCE AND PROPRIETARY MODELS OF INNOVATION:
                            BEYOND IDEOLOGY

                              Hosted by:

                The Center for Research on Innovation &
             Entrepreneurship at Washington University Law

                         "Ubi amici, ibi opes"
                  (Friends hold all things in common)
                       -Erasmus, Adages I.iii.24

           "For this Labour being the unquestionable Property
           of the Labourer, no Man but he can have a right to
           what that is once joined to, at least where there
           is enough, and as good left in common for others."
        -John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, Book II, Chap. V


      In 2005, IBM, owner of one of the largest patent portfolios
      in the world, announced that it is contributing 500 of its
      patents to what it hopes will become an industry-wide
      "patent commons,"[1] and is putting its corporate heft
      behind a popular open-source Web development technology in
      an effort to reach out to a broader set of developers.[2]
      Clearly, the open-source phenomenon has gone mainstream.

      Meanwhile that doughty band of academics and software
      innovators who proudly self-identify as the "copyleft" has
      "forked" into competing "free" and "open-source" factions,
      and the open-source phenomenon has migrated into other
      technology and creative fields, such as biotechnology and
      publishing. Some would even argue that open-source
      innovation is not really new at all, as it began seven
      centuries ago with the founding of the modern university, or
      alternatively traces its origin back to the beginning of
      agriculture.

      But what kind of phenomenon is it? Are we faced with two
      competing ideologies of innovation - open-source vs.
      proprietary  or two complementary models of innovation?


      TOPICS:

      This interdisciplinary academic conference will seek to
      address the following specific questions about open-source
      and proprietary models of innovation:

      - How and when do the two models work?
      - How and when (and how well) do they work together?
      - What does law have to do with it?


      SPEAKERS:

      Hear from experts in the following fields of study:
      Anthropology: Christopher Kelty - Rice University
      Biology: Richard Jefferson - CAMBIA
      Business: Ned Gulley - MathWorks; Karim Lakhani - Harvard
      University; Joel West - San Jose State University
      Economics: Michele Boldrin - Washington University; David
      Levine - Washington University
      Education: Keith Sawyer - Washington University
      Engineering & Computer Science: Christopher Gill -
      Washington University; Mark Jakiela - Washington University
      Law: Robert Gomulkiewicz - University of Washington; Michael
      Madison - University of Pittsburgh; Ronald Mann - Columbia
      University; Charles McManis - Washington University; Tina
      Piper - McGill University; Arti Rai - Duke University;
      Andrew Torrance - University of Kansas; Greg Vetter -
      University of Houston; Jonathan Zittrain - Harvard
      University/Oxford University


      REGISTRATION/FURTHER INFORMATION:

      To view abstracts for the research being presented visit:

            http://www.law.wustl.edu/crie/conferences

      Registration required. For more information contact:

      CONTACT:       Karma Jenkins
      Email:         MAILTO:kqjenkins@wulaw.wustl.edu
      Tel:           314.935.9490

      or visit:

      http://law.wustl.edu/crie/conferences/registrantform.asp

      Registration closes March 31, 2008.

      MCLE credit available.


      FOOTNOTES:

      [1] See Paul McDougall, IBM Grants Open-Source Developers Use
      of 500 Patents, InformationWeek (Jan. 11, 2005), available
      at:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=57700456

      [2] See Martin LaMonica, IBM backs open-source Web software,
      c/net News.com (Feb. 25, 2005), available at:
      http://www.news.com/2100-7344_3-5589559.html
Posted 3/20/08