Week 18: Invention, Intellectual Property and Income

Individual Assignment: 1) Develop a plan for dissemination of your final project, 2) Complete your final project, tracking your progress

Creative Common Licensing

Creative Commons licenses are a free and easy to use copyright license that clearly delineate the rights of the creator and specify the fair use of the creative product / idea. There are a total of 6 types to chose from. The following table lists them in a scale of most to least open. Image credit.

This is slightly overwhelming at first glance, but the following table makes it clear by clearly labeling the different rights associated with each license. Image credit.

As I am not particularly concerned about someone using my project in a commercially viable manner, I have chosen not to add that restriction, and chose the "BY SA" license.

Project Dissemination

Dissemination relates to the sharing of the project. As I see there are two things that may be shared:

• idea & process development
• the physical product

As concerns the project idea and how it was produced - well, all of that is shared on this webpage. As concerns the physical product, this product has a minimal cost of about $20, so it may easily be produced and shared with others. This chocolate-dispensing friendly Robot face has already proven a hit at the Robotics Academy in Kazakhstan. Boys just use their bus card to take chocolate.

The plan now is to bring this project on a road trip for continued testing and durability. Subsequently after any final revisions, we will produce at least a half dozen to be given as gifts to dear and special people.

The initial prototype has actually proven surprisingly durable and professional-looking. The snap fit connections between the different parts give a very professional look and finishing touch, but at the same time can easily be taken apart for maintenance. However very little maintenance has been needed! One of the bigger concerns is that the chocolate would be jammed, but our method of restocking the robot with chocolates has proven reliable, and so has the mechanism. Therefore it can sit on the front desk and used:

This final project is actually relatively simple, but it therefore has the huge advantage that it can be maintained with ease, and others can be taught about the proper way to maintain it. Another advantage to its simplicity is that the initial iteration can be used as a basis for continued (spiral) development, adding additional features without being afraid that the core functionality will prove unreliable.