I have recently been involved in a very interesting discussion around ownership of IP in the knowledge economy, is the industrial model of all IP being owned by your organisation appropriate or should a more sharing based model be used? Should Facebook, Google, Woolworth's and other corporations be able to harvest your data and sell it without any compensation to you.
A relevant article was recently published by Wharton School of Business, interview with Felicia Day , it is an interview with Felicia Day, an American actor, writer and producer who got frustrated with Hollywood and pioneered the creation of a "TV like series" on YouTube in 2007 called "The Guild". What is interesting is that she was able to keep IP of the project because she partnered with IT companies who did not have a business model that demanded ownership of content the way the movie industry does. One of the conclusions of the article is that this ability to maintain IP ownership on the web may be fleeting as traditional media production companies move into web production and bring their business models with them.
If you are interested in more discussion around IP and knowledge workers I can recommend the Linked-in discussion group initiated by a colleague at University of Technology Sydney Building the Organisation of Tomorrow.
David Gwillim
Exploring the value of IT to organisations
email: david.gwillim@optusnet.com.au
blog: http://www.businessitvalue.blogspot.com/
