A month ago, I became the official owner of an ’89 Ford Taurus. The transaction took place at a local car dealer which also serves as a public notary. A few days later, I received the title in the mail.

Ownership Society

In his forthcoming State of the Union address, President Bush is expected to describe his vision of an “Ownership Society”. He’ll use Social Security, HealthCare, and Education accounts as examples of individual ownership. I’d like to use the occassion to focus on Intellectual Property Ownership.

“Royalty Compliance” vs “IP Participation”

Currently, most IP Policy focuses on enforcing “Royalty Compliance“. A better approach would emphasize “IP Participation“.

Technology standards like the “broadcast flag” (distribution flag) and copy prevention technologies make negative assertions about distribution.

But imagine instead, a positive standard. One that allows me to prove that I own what I paid for. One that allows me to transfer ownership to someone else.

What do we really believe about “Federation”?

It’s not a word we use anymore except on Star Trek.

There’s “federalism” — a philosophy grounded in deep thinking about who we are and what we should fear.

But what are the practical consequences of a “federalist doctrine” if the deep thinking hasn’t been done in a while?

Related

• compare with “unilateralism”

The cell phone industry is starting to incorporate GPS chips into cell phones.

So far most people have focused on the privacy and security angles:

Kanwar Chadha: “The U.S. market today is driven primarily by safety and security”

Sales of location-enabling chipsets for cell  phones in the United States are racing ahead, driven largely by mandatory deadlines set last November by the Federal Communications Commission to enhance public safety responses.

I’m more interested in the application: transforming the cell phone into a referencing tool.

“Bookmark this location”

We’re so submurged in the print world that we still use the term “bookmark” to refer to electronic notations. We’ll come up with better shorthand later, but for now, the term serves the purpose.

“Send this location to a friend”

Imagine you’ve lost contact with your friend at Yankee stadium or you got a flat tireon a country road 2 miles outside Womelsdorf.

You could dictate directions, or you could send them them the co-ordinates. I’m sure the texting people could develop a convention for this and the mapping people could release a cell phone version of their app (If they haven’t already).

Tour de France imitators like me, could tag their area’s biggest hills

Related:

• uLocate: a Java GPS app for several Motorolla models
• Fast Company: GPS: The Sky’s the Limit — GPS applications in trucking and farming