Technology improvements have really changed the way we live over the past decade. Google is making us stupid, retailing will never be the same again, and the price of real estate will never go down. Well, maybe not the last one.
I often get the impression from people that all of this is new. We are in uncharted territory. I’m not convinced. I suspect that like Greek tragedy, the basic themes of human nature are pretty universal.
At D2 Creative I spend most of my time working with open source software. Most people think open source is a new concept. After all, it’s designed specifically for developing software, right? It turns out that’s not entirely true. In 1895 a guy named George Seldon bought the rights to a patent for a kind of automobile engine. He didn’t make cars; he just sued everyone else for patent infringement. Soon all car manufacturers were paying him to get off their back. Today, people like that are still around. They are called patent trolls. It’s pretty much the same business model as the mafia, only with lawyers instead of guys with pinky rings.
Henry Ford fought back against this patent troll and won. To make sure it never happened again, he set up the Motor Vehicle Manufacturer’s Association, where members could share their patented innovations for the good of the industry. Like a lot of things we think are new, open source is a lot older than we think.
Things move faster, not necessarily different.
