Alfred Deakin Innovation Lecture

Science, business and the law: Locking up innovation or sharing and harvesting it - which way to go?

Speakers: John Wilbanks, Prof Brian Fitzgerald, Richard Jefferson and Robyn Williams (moderator)

Time: Monday 16 July, 6.30-8pm
Venue: Village Roadshow Theatrette (Entry 3, La Trobe Street)
Bookings: See advertisements in the Saturday Age (Review section)
Free

Are we missing out on the full benefits of science and technology because of outdated ideas about copyright and patenting? Could the key to feeding the world be locked up in a company fridge somewhere? Open-source software has transformed the internet, underpinning the phenomenal growth of Google, Ebay and YouTube. What can science learn from this revolution? In our rush to protect intellectual property, have we damaged our capacity to deliver solutions for the critical issues of the 21st century?

In this lecture, John Wilbanks, Executive Director of Science Commons at Harvard Law School, will describe how existing social and legal infrastructures are choking science, and how we can create new ways to share research. Brian Fitzgerald, Head of the Law School at Queensland University of Technology, will discuss the success of open source in the information technology world, and the lessons for other fields of science. They will be joined by a range of other experts for a panel discussion.

This event is one of five lectures in the 2007 Alfred Deakin Innovation Lectures series, to be held from 25 June to 20 July. Designed to inspire, challenge and lead public debate, the series also highlights the crucial role innovation plays in the modern global economy. This year’s lectures are themed around different aspects of science and innovation.

The Alfred Deakin Innovation Lectures are an initiative of Victorian Government’s Innovation Economy Advisory Board and are supported by Melbourne Conversations, the City of Melbourne's free public talks program, the University of Melbourne, the State Library of Victoria, Science In Public, and Future Leaders.

For further information on the lectures, including speaker’s biographies, please visit the official Alfred Deakin Innovation Lectures website.