Social Media Learning (Class)

Social Media Learning 

I feel that this method of learning is invaluable; it’s important that we understand how to use technology to our advantages and build skills that will better engage us with the future. 

Initially, I was very apprehensive about making videos; often, I would mess up in the beginning, stop the video and restart it. It was frustrating to say the least. 

This method - while seemingly unconventional helped me to develop soft skills.

• Articulate my words clearly 
• Greater means of organizing 
• Collaborative learning 

Rather than simply memorizing information, I was interacting with topics from my own research and then learning about more explanations and other means of interpretation from my peer’s blog posts and videos. 

I think that for some departments, especially for topics that stimulate a lot of discussion and have a lot of information, this is a good way to teach:

• Soft Skills 
• Understanding the digital world 
• Solidify concepts that are taught in class 

For some departments, such as classes with formulas, labs or numbers, perhaps this would not be the most effective way.

I feel that professors should implement some form of this - may it be tweeting during lectures for collaborative learning or other means, I think this is an invaluable way of teaching. 

Bubble Market

Something that stood out from our guest speaker's lecture was the idea of a "Bubble Market". Ms. Efrat defined it as a market with "a peak, then it ultimately tanked."

To get a better look at this phenomena (or maybe psychology?), I added a graph below.

This led me to research a little bit more as to add further clarification as to what a "Bubble Market" was and what are some industries that could be approaching this phenomena.

DEFINITION (as defined by Investopedia)

1. An economic cycle characterized by rapid expansion followed by contraction. 
2. A surge in equity prices, often more than warranted by the fundamentals and usually in a particular sector, followed by a drastic drop in prices as a massive selloff occurs. 
3. A theory that security prices rise above their true value and will continue to do so until prices go into free fall and the bubble bursts. 

What do these all have in common? They all stem from the idea of great rise, then fall (or pop)

BUBBLE MARKET INDUSTRIES: 

• Japanese Bubble Economy 80s 
• Stock market fueled by corporate intervention 
• Investors purchasing stock
• Dotcom Boom in the late 90s/early 2000s
• Individuals buying tech items/believing they could greater profit; crash 

(MY) PREDICTIONS?  

• Bitcoin? Other forms of online money? 
• Value falling? 
• Print industry? 
• Its been decreasing 

"White Space Analysis"

Re-iterating what was said about Emerging v. Mature Markets, you look at the "white space" in the industries to see what you still can or cannot patent. 

In Emerging Markets, there is still more space in which everything can be patented. 

In Mature Markets, many more things have been established and there is less "white space", although it still exists. 

With further research: 

White Space is a prerequisite to identify an area where an invention may be generated, or to design an appropriate strategy and identify a market that may be exploited or even in identifying a 'niche' product. White space is the gap where further R&D can be done or competitive advantage gained may also be done to block other competitors - Patint 

One ultimately understands: 

• The White Space is a valuable tool in IP for competitive advantage or to even strengthen one's own product. 
• In newer markets/emerging markets that aren't as established, there is more space for R&D to find the what to patent/what to do 

DISCLAIMER: This may be a simple topic to understand, but I found it necessary and interesting as a visual learner to see this into images. 

Embrace the Remix

Remix: Copy, Transform & Combine

• Take existing, transform, combine; new song is clearly comprised of old songs 
• Basic elements of all creativity 

Song Comparisons: 

• Basic melodies 
• 2/3 of Bob Dylan's melodies were borrowed 
• Similar lyrics 

"Build on the Work of Others v. Property"

• Examples: Music, Steve Job's multi-touch ("And boy have we patented it") 
• Multi-touch isn't completely new 
• 80s didn't have software patents 

Loss Aversion: 

• Protecting what we feel is our's 
• No aversion to what others have 

Relatable? 

• Improvements on new things, ex: we kept looking at different coffee sleeves 

Lessons from Fashion's Free Culture

*I apologize for how dark the video is!

Things to Note:

• Only thing there really is, trademark protection; you can't knock-off the logo 
• Very little intellectual property protection 
• "Apparel is too utilitarian to qualify for copyright protection" 

"Without ownership there is no incentive to innovate" 

• True in cases, such as medicine (i.e. brand name v. generic pills) 
• Fashion designers take "samples" from other designers, other ideas 
• Those benefitting most: knocking off high end designs, selling them for cheaper

"Fast Fashion" Benefits: 

• Quick trends, move product 
• Fashionistas can stay ahead of the curve; moving onto the next trend 
• Forcing innovation; others won't be able to replicate
• Signature look

Who owns a look? 

• Expensive, difficult to do 

Other industries without copyright (utilitarian): 

Utilitarian: designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive 

• Food 
• Automobiles 
• Furniture 
• Magic Tricks 
• Hairdos 
• Open-Source Software 
• Tattoo Artists 
• Jokes 
• Fireworks 
• Rules of Games 
• Smell of Perfume 

My Commentary: 

• I wonder if this would work for pharmaceuticals; is fashion and other utilitarian industries a good indicator for innovation? 
• For tattoo artists, what if you tattoo a patented character (i.e. some Disney characters), is it utilitarian? 

Beerbrella

Worried your beer might get warm and/or not to your temperature liking because of the sun? Have no fear, the Beerbrella is here.

Patent: US 20030075208

Claim #1: 

An apparatus for use with a beverage container, comprising: 

a means for removably attaching the apparatus to the beverage container; 

a share, coupled to the means for removably attaching the apparatus, and extending vertically with respect to the beverage container; 

an umbrella, coupled to the shaft at a point above the means for removably attaching, so as to shade the beverages container 

What did I understand the claim to be? 

• An apparatus, that you can attach to your container 
• You can adjust the height of apparatus 
• Your'e able to remove the attachment to the container 

ANALYSIS: 

Novel? 

• I've seen nothing of it's kind; focusing on something like this would allow it to get patented. There are thermoses and other things, but nothing of this caliber for your beverage containers. 

Prior Art? 

• Difficult to find prior art. 

Non-Obvious? 

• Umbrella manufacturers would not have thought to use their design specifically for beer or beverages (Umbrellas in alcoholic drinks are usually decorative elements)
• There are methods to keep drinks cold/hot - aka thermos 

Overall Impressions? 

• ...Why?? 
• Is this necessary? 

Life Expectancy

Can you imagine knowing the exact moment your life would expire? Imagine there being a system to approximate how long you would live.

Is that possible? Maybe.
Is that system patentable? Definitely. US 20070118398 A1

Claim #1 states:
A computer-implemented method comprising:
(A) providing health-related questions to a user;
(B) receiving answers to the questions from the user;
(C) identifying an estimate of a life expectancy of the user based on the received answers without charing the user a fee; and
(D) providing advice to the user for increasing the life expectancy based on the received answers in exchange for a fee paid by the user

While straight forward, my quick understanding is that:

• The user takes a survey - answering health questions 
• The system receives these questions 
• User gets life expectancy estimate for free 
• User pays to find out how to increase life expectancy 

ANALYSIS: 

Is there prior art? 

• Likely, I don't think you'd find a service specifically targeting health-related questions + life expectancy (focusing on only this) 

Is it non-obvious? 

• I believe other individuals in the field come up with a life expectancy, especially those in health career fields with a greater understanding of health-related questions (genetics, family history, ect.). *NOTE: I'm acting on the assumption that these are questions for the doctor. 
• In business field or programming field, I don't think they would have put this connection together. 

Is there potential infringement? 

• Since this is a service, I don't think so because the only place I can think of is the doctor's and you aren't paying for tips to increase life expectancy 

Overall? 

• I just thought it was silly because you could go to a health care provider, there never really is an accurate estimate health wise and there's more factors to the individual level than what could possibly be provided by a simple service system. 
• There are other factors to consider beyond genetics (i.e. demographic, what resources you have access to)