Beneath the banter, there are serious issues at stake in the
exchange over
trademarking. I did not
mean to hijack that conversation into loyalty oaths, let alone phone-
sex
workers with tenure (she should never have dragged in a student).
The original issue DOES seems worth discussion. Everyone is
constrained in
what research they can do, what jobs they can hold, etc., for
reasons that
could be termed "political-economic." It would be a seriously
interesting
undertaking to find out how people manage to fund deviant research
in the
way in which one sometimes hears it said that CHAT scholars do. LCHC
has
played the artful dodger, but its not easy to remain nimble for many
decades. Lois and her colleagues have an unusual model for funding
their
work. I am not sure if "All Starts" can be a trademark, or if the
organization faces such pressures, but i can imagine it. As Finland
has
privatized, the initial problematics of the Change Lab (registered
trademark) have changed for researchers there. Etc.
The issue of a needing a trademark to keep from getting ripped off
by BIG
CAPITAL seems real, but somehow, to me, unfortunate. Its feels like it
reduces the public sphere.
Perhaps just my limited understanding, but I think that the
intersection of
ideas, careers, and the political economic conditions we work under,
and
their combined influence on what we can think and say, would be
worth trying
to inform each other about. A lot of us are in the same boat and the
aquatic
termites are pretty busy eating us into the water.
But maybe its silence that's golden?
mike
mike
On Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 10:01 AM, smago <smago@uga.edu> wrote:
Scroll to the bottom of http://www.busfin.uga.edu/forms/security_oath.pdfto
see the loyalty oath required of Georgia System employees. I also
had to
sign one at the U. of Oklahoma where I taught from 1990-8. I don't
violate
the constitutions of Georgia or the USA that I know of, but some
cases are
interesting. See e.g. http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/124369/
.
-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-
bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of mike cole
Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2010 12:55 PM
To: Yrjö Engeström
Cc: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] copy of Change Lab paper
Hi Yrjo-- Great that you had time to write.
I guess I just never noticed the trade mark before. It seemed to
speak to
the issue of commercialization that came up a couple of weeks ago.
As to what would happen if some consulting companies copied our
ideas, our
name, and went out to make money on them? Yes, its a problem. Like
Jean
Lave
developing the idea of community of practice and being told not to
use the
term because Xerox had the trade mark (or so the rumor goes).
The words, 5th Dimension, were not first employed by LCHC, although
we used
them in a somewhat unusual way. Remember the band? Probably their
name is
trademarked and we are infringing... except that we are too
insignificant
to
bother with.
My own position, having been raised in California, completed a public
university when it was a public university (now about 80 %
privatized), is
that I am bound by my contract as a faculty member to give away my
ideas.
The University makes me sign some document these days that says if
I invent
something, they get a cut. (Back when i attended UCLA professors
had to
sign
a loyalty oath... those times may be coming back in addition to
privatization, unfortunately).
I think a really productive discussion could focus on the differences
between what is possible in terms of research in different
socio-political-economic circumstances. The US has gone hyper
neoliberal
capitalist, as if everyone was reading Das Kapital. Finland has
moved in
the
same direction, but perhaps retains some of its past. Brazil has its
restrictions, etc. How does this affect the potentials for
developing CHAT
research as a public good? What public?
Meantime, we'll keep trying to give it away. Its all I know how to
do, or
care to do.
mike
2010/10/2 Yrjö Engeström <yrjo.engestrom@helsinki.fi>
Mike, for your information, we got a registered trade mark for the
Change
Lab already in the 1990s for the simple reason that some consulting
companies started to use the name and some elements of the method,
watered
down or mutilated in many ways, for their commercial purposes.
What if you saw your 5D being used like that?
Cheers,
Yrjö
mike cole kirjoitti 2.10.2010 kello 2.22:
Mine opened. Thanks very much for sending it, Sarah. I can forward
if
that
helps, Mary.
And guess what?
Its not the Change Lab any more. Its the change lab (registered
trade
mark!).
Quick, somone, register lchc before it too goes overseas!!
I am having the devil's own time keeping up with this modern
generation.
mike
On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 3:37 PM, Katerina Plakitsi <kplakits@gmail.com
wrote:
I CANNOT OPEN THE DOC FILE. DO YOU?
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Sarah Eagle" <s.eagle@bristol.ac.uk>
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 2:23 PM
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Subject: Re: [xmca] copy of Change Lab paper
Dear Mary
The paper is available online at
http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/INF5220/h04/undervisningsmateriale/EngestromEtAl_ChangeLab.doc
On 1 October 2010 10:01, Mary van der Riet
<vanderriet@ukzn.ac.za>
wrote:
Does anyone have a copy of
Engeström, Y., Virkkunen, J., Helle, M., Pihlaja, J. &
Poikela, R.
(1996). The Change laboratory as a tool for transforming work.
Lifelong
Learning in Europe, 1(2), 10-17.
thanks
Mary
Mary van der Riet; School of Psychology; University of KwaZulu-
Natal
Private Bag X01, Scottsville, 3209
email: vanderriet@ukzn.ac.za
tel: 033 260 6163; fax: 033 2605809
Please find our Email Disclaimer here:
http://www.ukzn.ac.za/disclaimer/
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