week 17

• invention, intellettual property, and income
  Assignment: develope a plan for dissemination for final project



Invention:
My project, a Thermoelectric Generator, is made of hardware and software. The project will be available for everyone on Fab Academy website and it expected that manufacturing will be done by anyone with access to the site.




Intellectual property:

The project is Open Source Hardware and Software licensed under MIT license. This license consists of 3 parts:

-the project is delivered without any warranty or responsibility.

-“Do whatever you want” with the code.

-give attribution.

Personally I have had experience trying to patent a project and since that I decided that open source is the only serious way to disseminate a product. Patents involve a bounch of subjects that cost a lot and there is no security that it is not going to be replicated.

With open source people can contribute to develop the project and you get visibility. Then I can offer my time to build it if the client is not equipped to build it.

 

Income:

motivation: I think this project can be very useful in particular in outdoor situations and can be also a safety device as it may happen that there is not ather way to charge communication devices or simply lights. Peltier’s module technology is becoming important in the market and this application is simple to build. My idea is to put in contact Digital Fabrication and Permaculture. I want to build environmental tools and permacultores usually have no skills with electronics. As it is in USA, the maker is part of a community as the thecnical reference for everybody. Environmental movements are growing and are very serious on products. My Generator fits perfectly this kind of demand.

 

Company:
I will create a company so to gain money and pay taxes without problems. This company, as the Lab I’ like to create, will be made of more people as I’m not able to take care of all the aspects alone. I’d love to make a Cooperative because it is an asset where all the persons are at an equal level and it is also easier in Italy to access to founds.

Sources:
The income will come from selling the entire product or just components. If someone has not chances to build it, I would make it showing clearly the materials and components cost, the usage of the machines and my work expressed in euro/time. This product can also open oportunities to be more visible and sell other products.

 

Funding:
My first step once the Academy will finish is to look for other people to join in a Lab or try for European funds for innovation startup companies. I espect that the activity of the Lab will allow me to develop the Generator, which is very cheap to make, and enlarge the visibility.

 

What I have learnt:
When I watch my poor board I think that on the market it is easy to find much more efficient products, so I think my Generator will be a good application with a low profile. I wil never try to put it at the same level of a commercial alternative. I’ll have to rely on the wish of those who, same as me, desire a different and local way of production. This will be the headline of my activity.