Firms are spectacularly good at creating innovations that people are able and willing to pay for. This is the storied "engine of capitalism" and it chugs along, driven by a desire for profit, sometimes running roughshod but generally producing things that people want---at least, in proportion to people's ability to and willingness to pay.
I would like to see us strengthen the third vertex of this triangle, which I am calling Public Invention. Public Invention means both invention for the public good and invention that is done in public, because the two ideas are very closely related. It is hard to imagine a monopolistic or secret altruism.
Who does Public Invention? I certainly didn't invent it. It has always been a strong undercurrent in the great waters of human thought---at least since the time of Pythagoras. However, since I am an American, I will point out that Benjamin Franklin was a champion of this idea, particularly with respect to the Franklin stove, an energy-efficiency improvement of tremendous import. Thomas Jefferson was a proponent, and Buckminster Fuller was one of its 20th century heroes. A fine description of its spirit can be seen in My Inventions, the autobiography of Nikola Tesla, a Serb who spent the latter part of his life in America.
Most recently I think we must recognize the late Michael Hart, creator of Project Gutenberg, and Richard Stallman, creator of the Free Software Foundation and the GNU organization. The Wikipedia owes a great debt to both these gentlemen---though of course we should thank thousands, perhaps millions by now, of mostly approximately anonymous contributors for the Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg and the GNU/Linux and free software in general.
Since Project Gutenberg and the Wikipedia both represent a form of "knowledge work", I consider them a form of Public Invention. The genius of these organizations is that they have made it cheap and easy for people to contribute to them---which is good, considering what they pay. I've led the addition of about 50 books into Project Gutenberg, and personally processed about a dozen of them. I got thanks, recognition, a sense that I had done my duty, but not half a sandwich or a free beer.
What I am trying to do with Public Invention is to follow in the footsteps of Prof. Hart and Richard Stallman, but focusing on a harder task---the production of the kind of innovation we call "invention". This is not more important than the kind of knowledge work that goes into the Creative Commons or a Wikipedia article or a software patch or a book processed into Project Gutenberg and thereby preserved forever for all mankind. It is, however, harder, in that most ideas, even good ideas, don't work. To create an "invention", a physical invention, typically requires much more capital to test and prove out, and also to publicize, than the sweat equity required add something to a Wikipedia article.
My job, (and I hope soon to be able to write "our job" once someone has joined me), is to make contributing to an invention that really helps the world in some way as easy as possible. I don't know how to do this yet, but I intend to learn. What I can do right now is provide enthusiasm, organization, technical expertise,wisdom, and money---in that order.
I think there is an ocean of brilliant energy out there waiting to be harnessed. I would like to somehow organize it and direct it behind ideas freely contributed by others and myself in a way that is accountable and responsible and, above all, effective. The third vertex of the triangle of innovation has always been important. Let's put our shoulders beneath it now and find a way to elevate Public Invention to contribute as much as Universities and Capitalism does.
Robert -- What you say here reminds me of something I read about the superconductivity breakthrough some years ago. As I recall, the first breakthrough came from a research scientist at IBM or some other big company that had a great policy for its R&D Department: The researchers were free to spend a third of their time experimenting in any way they pleased, and it was in his spare 1/3 time that this scientist made a breakthrough (and maybe too won the Nobel Prize?). I guess what I'm saying is, a supportive and nurturing environment like IBMS' and the one you're creating just might lead to something big. Go for it!
ReplyDeleteThanks---that makes me want to work at IBM. But seriously, yes, that is my goal. I think the energy and genius is out there---I can barely hope to add or detract from it---but perhaps I can get it to nucleate around some ideas.
ReplyDeleteBeing the head cheerleader may be my most important job. However, I know a little about science, math, and management as well.