Precursor: A note on the value of personal networks

Anatole Krattiger is a self-defined “vege-quarian” and a firm believer in GM-organics.  We first met at an IP workshop that he led at Cornell in 2001 (an excellent opportunity for a wide-eyed, idealistic, burgeoning academic).  The following year, Anatole served as a Keynote at the ABIC conference held in Saskatoon. Anatole is a great scholar, passionate activist, kind man and a good friend… I regret that our connections have weakened over the past few years. But we both have busy lives. Anatole travels extensively and he is involved in many activities (editor-in-chief of Innovation Strategy Today and a member of the editorial boards of the International Journal of Biotechnology and the International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialization to name a few). One of Anatole’s many distractions was the compilation and editing of the Intellectual Property Management Handbook of Best  Practices.  http://www.iphandbook.org/index.html 

The IP Handbook (made possible with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Kauffman Foundation) is a massive piece of work – two volumes and 2000+ pages with contributions from over 200 academics, practitioners and experts worldwide.  This IP Handbook is an editorial feat.  The editors invite – no, ENCOURAGE – you to access the book; use it, copy it, share it, to reproduce it freely! (one review of the  book can be found here: http://www.iphandbook.org/bookreview/LESHandbookReview.pdf).  It was through my personal / professional connection with Anatole that I was given the opportunity to contribute to this massive work (details and shameless self-promotion below).

“Wiki-Rogue” (my term)

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Now for some  shameless self-promotion

Another colleague and good friend of mine, Dr. Peter Phillips, and I collaborated on two Chapters in this IP ‘tome’ that revolve around the (nebulous, yet fascinating) notion of ‘clusters’ as tools for economic development, in particular those with an agriculture focus.  I pull a couple of key observations/excerpts from these two chapters:

The Role of Clusters in Driving Innovation http://www.iphandbook.org/handbook/ch03/p11/

“…the increasing complexity and fragmentation of knowledge and IP rights in the biotechnology sector suggests there likely is no single center that can effectively develop new biotechnologies or applications. Networking and partnerships are going to be the order of the day.”

Ryan & Phillips. The Role of Clusters in Driving Innovation http://www.iphandbook.org/handbook/ch03/p11/

Ryan & Phillips.  Building Research Clusters: Exploring Public Policy Options for Supporting Regional Innovation http://www.iphandbook.org/handbook/ch03/p14/