Week 18 : Invention, Intellectual Property & Income

For this week's assignment, we had to choose a license for our final projects, and share our plan of dissemination.

After the lecture, I knew that I had absolutely no interest in patents or trademarks. The fact is, as much as I believe that I am the "originator" of the Holdable Heart, the technology itself - the use of a pulse sensor to control LED lights and a servo motor - are absolutely not unique. In fact, as you would have read in Week 17, there are many other projects using the same system to different effects. I'm using a pulse sensor that I purchased on Sparkfun, and the Babeduino is just a fab version of the Arduino. As Edward Norton once said in Fight Club, "everything is a copy of a copy of a copy."

I decided to pursue a creative commons license for the Holdable Heart to give it as wide an appeal as possible. I used the License Chooser Tool to help me decide. I chose to:

  • Allow adaptations of my work to be shared, as long as others share alike
  • Not allow commercial uses of my work
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The tool warned me that this is not a "free culture license" because I'm not allowing commercial uses. For me, this is a strategic decision to protect the community I would like to form around the Holdable Heart.

Plan of Dissemination

My plan for dissemination is to put the Holdable Heart in the hands of meditation and mental health professionals and start to research the benefits. I plan to hold workshops, conduct and publish a year-long study, and build a community of Holdable Heart makers and users. I want the Holdable Heart to be accessible to more people, to be used by many and improved upon as we discover new ways it can improve our personal and social wellbeing.

This was when I decided to allow commercial use. The fact is, I would love to see the Holdable Heart as an affordable, easily accessible consumer product. One that anyone around the world can make, buy or sell - and ultimately incorporate into their lives in a positive way.

Do I want credit? Absolutely! But I would only be fooling myself to believe that not allowing commercial use would someone preserve the "purity" of my idea. If someone out there wants to make and sell the Holdable Heart and an affordable price, make it happen!

Creative Commons License
The Holdable Heart by Jasmin Cheng is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://fabacademy.org/archives/2015/as/students/cheng.jasmin/final-project.html.

Marketing Plan

My strategy is to build a community that crosses over making and meditation. Our mission is to create devices, experiences and tools that introduces new levels of mindful awareness in everyday life.

  • Build a website sharing the story and design files for Holdable Heart on HoldableHeart.org
  • Create a portable maker kit to run workshops on how to make Holdable Hearts at maker labs and fab labs around the world
  • Host group meditation events