19. Invention, intellectual property and business models⚓︎

This week will be almost entirely dedicated to the prototyping of the project, but I will make some time to review the licenses of rights and intellectual property, and consider how to make the draft slide and video needed to present the project, which are the objectives of this assignment. Although much of the attention is about the project, I wanted to stress how important it is to accompany it with a good presentation. Knowing how to communicate assertively all that work is perhaps the most important part of the course, even though it is not manufacturable. In the end, it all comes down to how the other person perceives and understands what has taken you so much time and effort to create. A good presentation can make a simple idea shine, just as a bad one can ruin a great project.

I want to note that there are just 2 weeks left for the final presentation and this is the last assignment on it’s own. FabAcademy it’s coming to an end. All I can say it’s: “What a ride it has been and what is yet to come!”. These are the Assesment Criteria related to the Invention, Intellectual Property and Business Models week:

Individual assignment
- Develop a plan for dissemination of your final project.
- Prepare drafts of your summary slide and video clip and put them in your root directory.
Learning outcomes
- Formulate future opportunities
Have you answered these questions?
- Outlined future possibilities and described how to make them probabilities?
- Prepared a draft summary slide and video?

Intellectual property⚓︎

Strictly speaking, we could define intellectual property as the set of rights that authors have over their original creations, but we can find different visions of Intellectual Property depending on the country we are in. Personally, it is a subject that I have never dealt with. Maybe because law has never been one of my passions and maybe also because in the internet era it seems that everything is available to everyone. That is why I would like to make the following reflection and judgement of conscience. I want to highlight the fact that I have rarely realised that a project I was using, quoting or basing an idea on (something very basic in architecture, everybody uses references), could have a sharing licence or rights to be respected. It seems that if it’s on the internet, it belongs to everyone, and it’s not true. I will try from now on to always check this detail, because I think I would also like to respect the rights I decide about my project (and because I don’t want legal problems too ).

Intention⚓︎

All my architectural works belong to the university where I studied and it was not up to me to establish what their licence to share is. Now that I am asked to look at it from the other side, that of the creator who has to establish rights over his project, the perspective changes. Do I want my project to belong to everyone? Yes and no. I will try to set out the rights I would like to see respected, and then look for the most appropriate licence:

As part of FabAcademy, it should be available to all students on the course, just as I have been able to draw from previous projects. All our work is backed by the MIT License, which is an Open Source initiative. Anyone who enters my website can use, copy, modify, merge, publish and distribute my documentation without restrictions.
As a project made in a FabLab that belongs to this great global community, the FabLab Network, I would like it to be replicable by anyone who wants to enjoy the project and feel free to upgrade it.
As a creator, I would like attribution for work done when it is used in these or other media without any financial cost, but I would not like it to be used for external profit, without prior consensus with me.

Based on these values and with some resources provided by my instructors, I am going to choose an intellectual property licence for my project. Some of these resources are Choose A License which offers a guide through which to choose the licence that best suits your possibilities, or the Creative Commons chooser utility, which offers you the most appropriate licence according to the answers to a questionnaire. If you want a hole comparative view of licenses you can also check this licenses appendix.

License⚓︎

Finally after all that research, I will use a type of Creative Commons license. Creative Commons is a licensing system that provides tools for creators to give permission for others to use their work. CC licenses tell users how they can attribute, share, and/or use the materials. This are some of their CC Licenses and Compatibility Chart:

I decided to use CC because its usefulness has allowed me to better understand the sharing choices I was making, and the use that the project was going to have. I also found the process to be simple and straightforward. The photo below shows the completed process of the different points through which the questionnaire and the licence guide you, and the choices made.

There you go, this is my license!:

Time The Time by Sergio Herranz is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Business models⚓︎

At no time did I decide to enroll in Fab Academy with the intention of marketing a product. The project is more of a personal approach than a product itself.

Proposal⚓︎

If I had to develop a business plan to market it, I would first try to have the help of a member of the course who can guide me through the process based on previous examples, since there have been cases in which some students have converted your projects in business plans. This is how mine sounds in my head:

First, the model should enter an exhaustive testing phase for optimal performance, and get to a proprietary integration of a factory product.
Subsequently, a process of outsourcing production and quality control would be required, since manufacturing in the lab has a prototyping purpose and not serial production.
Finally, the distribution and purchase platform should be ensured. Depending on the volume, one platform or another would be needed.

To achieve these objectives, there are platforms such as Kickstarter that allow you to launch a product as an idea and ensure the financing of the process through the pre-purchase of the product. You can even establish viable minimums of financing to be achieved to make it viable or not.

Personal goals⚓︎

As a personal desire, I would like to see my project become a usefull tool for people who struggles with time management as I do. It could became part of the FabAcademy life. For students, to track their time during the week, and also a tool for Neil to represent class time during the course, or presentations!

Also I have seen that Prusa has a contest for time management objects that include 3D printing so I will submit mine to see if I can win. The prize is a Prusa Mini + like the one we have at the lab and which I’m in love with, so it would be cool to win it!

Finally I want to remeber that this is a project made for me. My best business plan is that it helps me achieve my personal goals as a human being and in my career. So let’s hope it has good impact on that.

Presentation drafts⚓︎

Since I’m a little tight on time, possibly the slide and the test video end up being the ones I use in the presentation although not the final ones, so I will try to leave them with the best possible finish.

Slide⚓︎

Draft slide. Donde with Canva

Things to update:

Include more images about each fabrication process.
Make a dual image with both front panel finishes.
Include a personal photo and FabAcademy logo.
Thiner lines and attached extra info for the photos.
Reference: Lorena

Video⚓︎

Draft video. Done with Windows video editor.

Things to update:

Include the final look of the object and other watch faces at the end.
Divide the screen into the part of manufacturing processes to shorten the time.
Better define the purpose of the project in the narrative part.

Last update: June 26, 2021