entrepreneurship, innovation, business information and stuff
I wouldn’t want you to think that I spend a lot of time dwelling on the topic of funerals given my previous blog post on Crazy Coffins.
However as a confirmed biker, I couldn’t resist this story in the latest edition of Springwise. Instead of using an ‘old-fashioned’ horse to pull the nineteenth-century style hearse they go for a trike motorbike instead.
I have to say it doesn’t appeal to me, but it shows there is no niche too small when it comes to speciality services.
I was rather shocked to see this posting on the British Medical Journal’s website. The author Tony Delamothe, the deputy editor of the BMJ, accuses our use of the shed advert (shown here) as “representing an absolute repudiation of the role of libraries”.
Here is the introductory paragraph from his article entitled Amnesia strikes the memory business.
“A poster advertising the British Library’s Business and Intellectual Property Centre shows a padlocked garden shed, on which the following words have been painted: “Inside is your invention. We’ll help you stop it becoming someone else’s.” Nothing could better symbolise the suburban smallmindedness underlying this initiative.”
Fortunately Stephen C. Due a medical librarian from Australia corrected Tony’s misunderstanding of the role of the Business & IP Centre in providing information and advice that helps people protect their intellectual property. As he correctly states “There is nothing in this enterprise that conflicts with the traditional values of libraries – it is essentially no different from advising an author on how to make the most of his or her rights and opportunities under copyright law.”
Thanks Stephen for leaping to our defence!
My colleagues in our Science collection have asked me to point out that the British Library-led partnership was recently chosen to run UK PubMed Central. This enables scientists to access a vast collection of biomedical research thanks to a major new initiative that aims to promote the free transfer of ideas in a bid to speed up scientific discovery. Based on a model currently used in the United States, UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) provides free access to an online digital archive of peer-reviewed research papers in the medical and life sciences.
Also it seems the British Medical Journal is not entirely controversy free when it comes to open access publishing, as can be seen by this discussion thread Access controls on bmj.com – Restore true open access to bmj.com
As a fan of the Common Craft website which explains tricky Web 2.0 concepts such as Twitter and Web 2.0 itself, I was pleased to see that their latest video covers Google Reader.
I have been using Google Reader for several years now as my RSS feed aggregator of choice, and although I am aware it has lots of competitors such as Bloglines and Rojo.com it works for me.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSPZ2Uu_X3Y&hl=en&fs=1]
I like to think I live in something of a rural idyll, despite being less than forty five minutes from central London by train. And over the years I have been fortunate to see plenty of wildlife stray into my garden, including rabbits, squirrels, woodpeckers, pheasants and even a grass snake.
However, for the last two nights I have been surprised to spot a trio of deer (a mother and two youngsters) in my garden, just feet from my window. Tonight I managed to take a snapshot through the rain with my mobile camera (hence the grainy quality).
I’m just beginning to worry that if they become too settled, they may decide to start eating my vegetable patch.
In what might be considered something of a busman’s holiday, last night we hosted a visit from the City Information Group. The fifty or so information professionals who came along seemed to be suitably impressed by both our Treasures Gallery and of course the Business and IP Centre itself.
The organiser Jill Fenton has written a nice note in her blog.
Katy Crosse came with a group from TFPL (the Recruitment, Consultancy and Training company), and put a short write-up on their blog.
Apparently the list of attendees was oversubscribed so we may do it again.
I know the Business & IP Centre has had a lot of good press coverage since it opened in March 2006. We even had a full page story in the Financial Times and appeared on Working Lunch on BBC2. However, I was very surprised to hear on returning from holiday last week that we would be appearing on Richard and Judy on Channel 4.
The media interest (including a double page spread in the Daily Mail and an interview on the BBC Radio Today Programme) has been caused by our Weird and Wonderful small display currently in the Centre. It consists of over 50 ingenious gadgets, from a two handled self-pouring teapot (1886) to a clockwork burglar alarm (1852).
I first met Maurice Collins, the owner of this amazing collection, at the The British International Innovation & Technology Conference and Exhibition at Alexandra Palace, last October. He is also involved in the Prime Thinkers service for inventors and entrepreneurs I mentioned at the time.
Although we hoped the small display would be of interest to visitors to the British Library, the press interest has taken everyone by surprise.
Since joining the British Library in 2006 I have been fortunate enough to meet many inventors. A frequent complaint is about the negativity they come across when trying to promote or sell their invention or idea. This usually stems from a ‘not invented here’ syndrome, and is very frustrating for inventors. The implication is that only a specialist working in a particular area is ‘allowed’ to come up with new ideas in that sector.
I had a client suffering from this syndrome last week, in this instance the resistance came from the shoe trade. Her experience reminded me of the story of my cousin’s invention.
He was a window cleaner and was frustrated by the difficulty in finding his clients locations using local map finding systems. In typical inventor fashion he spent some time thinking of a better way, and came up with “a method of specifying a location on a surface”. As with all the best ideas, it was very simple, and consisted of dividing the map page into 9 sections, in a 3 by 3 grid. This concept was repeated to give up to three levels of accuracy.
Unfortunately, despite having a patent application and a knowledgeable colleague, none of the map producers approached were prepared to take his idea seriously.
Given the cost of maintaining a patent over it’s 20 year lifespan he was forced to let it lapse, which means anyone can now apply the idea.
Another reminder spotted on the streets of Seattle, that the United States is the home of innovative products and services, and that nothing is too niche.
Dine with your Dog is an ‘additional’ service provided by the Three Dog Bakery.
Often when talking to innovative designers and inventors in the Business & IP Centre, I discover they have a great fear of having their intellectual property stolen. Of course there are many examples where this has occurred. Our friend inventor Mandy Haberman had her idea for the Anywayup Cup copied, and had to win a legal battle to regain her rights. This experience has turned her into something of spokesperson on the topic.
However for many new products such as the Wattson mentioned in a previous blog post, the key is being first to market, and keeping ahead of the competition.
The other winning approach is to produce a design classic first time out. A case in point is the Bic Crystal ballpoint pen. Designed by Marcel Bich, more than 100 billion Bic pens have been sold since 1950 – enough to draw a line to the moon and back more than 320,000 times, according to the Observer newspaper. The only variation on the original design was to create a hole in the cap to prevent choking.
The pen has even become part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and has been reinventing in various guises.
For those of you who get as frustrated as I do with poorly designed products, you will be pleased to know there is now a place you can go to air your grievances. There is even a chance that the product manufacturers will take note and listen to your improvement suggestions.
Just pay a visit to RedesignMe and start a new topic. Or add you comments to the hundreds of suggestions already on the website.
For those of you who are a source of new ideas the site could even pay you for input into new product suggestions.
According to SpringWise, product manufacturers pay RedesignMe to establish “RDM Challenges,” through which a new product concept is presented and the site’s 1,000 or so active members are asked to react to it. Currently on the site, for instance, is one from the international DECT Forum, a group of wireless communications companies that are seeking product ideas based on CAT-iq (short for Cordless Advanced Technology – Internet and Quality).
Beginning with an initial proposed concept, users are free to modify the current design or upload their own ideas, using any combination of comments, sketches, pictures, mood-boards, movies, prototypes or total redesigns. In exchange, they are rewarded with RDMs—RedesignMe’s online currency, which is convertible into products in the online RDM Shop such as mp3-players, game consoles and gift cards. RDM Challenges can be open to all users or only a select few. Ideas generated on the site are then used as input by the manufacturer’s R&D team or professional designers, who decide on the final concept.