Conference 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 3/14/08