[p2p-research] open green R&D

Wed Aug 19 08:42:26 CEST 2009

Thank you Chris, but I think this must be our 'Austin', with whom we had
this conversation before ... I'll post it to Ning just in case,

Michel

On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 1:08 PM, Chris Watkins <chriswaterguy at appropedia.org
> wrote:

> This was posted to Appropedia at
> http://www.appropedia.org/User:Buddhanoir/Energy_outline - the contributor
> has asked for feedback. (Add your comments on that page or its talk page,
> and I'll also point the contributor at any responses on this thread).
>
> Thanks,
> Chris
>
> User:Buddhanoir/Energy outline
>
> Hello Appropedia Energy Community,
>
> I am currently working on a MBA dissertation with a special focus on
> renewable energy. In writing my literature review, I focused on 3 different
> areas of research (open innovation, open source, and stakeholder theory).
> Here is a condensed break-down of the paper:
>
> 1. Green R&D is non-profit company whose sole purpose is to assist with
> innovation. In addition to keeping a stable of paid scientists and
> researchers, Green R&D also oversees financing, budgeting, patent
> applications, and litigation. It essentially pays for the more expensive
> aspects of Renewable Energy research that freelance scientists might not be
> able to afford if they worked in more open source-style collaboration. It
> also assists with long-term planning, suppliers, contracts, etc. All
> prototypes and research are placed under a GPL-style license.
>
> 2. Green R&D opens it findings to the public for contributions, thus
> benefiting from peer-to-peer production and input. Scientists, researchers,
> and laypeople around the world collaborate, adding to the growing pool of
> research. Whenever technically feasible, new improvements and discoveries
> are placed under the same GPL-style license.
>
> 3. Private firms may use this public information for its own purposes, but
> in doing so, it must pay a royalty. The royalty would have to be carefully
> determined to minimize cheating while maximizing payments.
>
> 4. A volunteer watch group ensures compliance between privatized products
> and royalty payments. I'm still working on the incentive structure for this
> watch group, although http://www.peertopatent.org/ offers some useful
> insights on how this might work. I'm also still working on a way to properly
> measure royalty payments.
>
> 5. Royalty payments go back to the Green R&D solely for the purpose of
> future research. There are no "profits" per se. Green R&D exists only to
> make renewable energy financing possible. The entire system is more of an
> innovation machine than it is a "business model." It helps brings Inventors
> and Entrepreneurs together if and when the former lacks sufficient capital
> to get started.
>
> There are a few areas I have yet to resolve with the above model, and I was
> hoping you might be able to advise me on the best approach:
>
> 1. Financing....how do we finance the initial start-up capital necessary
> for this venture? Traditional investors would be hard to implement since
> open source and profit are often at odds. Would volunteer contributors get
> involved if they knew that their efforts would make someone else rich? I've
> considered crowdfunding as an option. And government assistance would be
> very helpful (although I prefer not to remain dependent on antyhing
> government related.
>
> 2. Governance....who would actually be in charge of Green R&D? In the
> absence of investors, to whom is Green R&D responsible? How do you sanction
> bad behavior or poor performance? Who decides on the allocation of funds?
>
> 3. Measuring IP.....in the programming world, it is "relatively" easy to
> enforce dual licensing since one need only compare the final code to the
> original to determine percentage overlap. Cheaters exist, but catching them
> and prosecuting them is fairly straightforward. In the research, science,
> and technology worlds, however, enforcing dual licensing seems much more
> difficult. If the OS community creates prototype A....and a private firm
> takes prototype A, makes changes, and sells it as its own, how do you detect
> this? I recommended a volunteer watchgroup, but I'm not sure how that would
> work exactly. And even if the watchgroup caught all cheaters, how do you
> measure what percentage of the original technology was used in the final
> product. What if a private firm makes many many changes to Prototype A while
> another firm only makes minor changes to Prototype A? How do you determine
> what royalties both firms should pay?
>
> Does anyone have suggestions for the above areas (or other areas I need to
> explore more carefully. In addition, does anyone know of an existing
> community of freelance researchers and scientists who already work in the
> renewable energy sector? For some of my primary research, I need to talk to
> those who might potentially be involved with the above business model. I've
> already spoken with energy scientists from corporate firms and with P2P
> experts, but finding those in the middle (i.e. P2P energy scientists) has
> been difficult.
>
> Anyway, hope all is well. Thanks again for all the previous assistance you
> offered...and thanks in advance for any additional insights you might be
> able to provide.
>
> -Buddhanoir
>
>
> --
> Chris Watkins
>
> Appropedia.org - Sharing knowledge to build rich, sustainable lives.
>
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>
> I like this: five.sentenc.es
>
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