Jeff Longland

I’m a geek. I’m on a computer all day at work and I spend a good part of my evening (transitioning into early morning hours as I write) on a computer. As I’ve commented earlier, I’m grappling with the issue of intellectual property ownership in an environment where the typical nine-to-five day doesn’t exist. I’ve sent email at all hours of the day and I’m less and less surprised when I get a 5:03am response to my 4:59am email. There are simply people coming and going at all hours of the day and technology obviously facilitates such movements. A definition of ownership as work completed during a specified period is difficult for me to grasp. When I’m at home I may be puttering on one of my computers and answering a few emails or trying something I haven’t had a chance to play with. Does my physical location have any significance in defining ownership? The rising popularity of smartphones and PDAs would lead me to say no. That said, this isn’t my area of specialty… just an interest from someone who empathizes with those who enjoy their work and how they’re credited.

At Educause 2005 I attended a seminar by Veronica Diaz and Patricia McGee on “Developing and Implementing Successful Intellectual Property Policies for Distributed Learning Environments” http://ltc.eller.arizona.edu/news/ipseminar.aspx

While reviewing example IPO policies from various colleges and universities, many of the policies employed ‘use of institutional resources’ or ‘work completed during operational hours” as criteria for measuring whether content created by a faculty member falls under the institution’s ownership, be it partially or wholly. I’ve worked with many faculty members who live, eat, and breath their interests. I can empathize - I’m utterly obsessed with the work I do. I’m constantly pondering and puttering. My interests and my work are not separate, there’s overlap. In my case, I love technology, be it at home or at work. Defining IPO in black and white terms may work for some people, but for those who live their work - how do we define ownership of our intellectual property?

As emerging technology allows us to be more ‘connected’ to our work/lives on-demand, there will be increasing need for IPO policies that are beneficial to both the institution and the individual - regardless of when or where we’re working.

How we’ll get to that point… that’s for another day. For now is the time to sleep.