Week | 19
Invention, Intellectual Property, and Income
7 June 2018 09:48:
This week’s class was really useful to understand the possibilities for monetisation of FabLab-like initiatives by proposing and selling research, for an instance. Another highlight from the class was to discuss other ways of measuring success, rather than just being profit-drive, like Triple Bottomline, a concept which seeks to broaden the focus from mere financial results to include social and environmental responsibilities.
It was also really mind-opening to look at products from different perspectives and see opportunities, around the same product, in different ways.
If you fabricate a guitar, for example, you can:
- Sell the guitar;
- Sell guitar parts;
- Sell the guitar-making lesson;
- Sell the hour usage of the guitar;
- Sell the eventual repair of the guitar;
- Sell the “audition” of the music played by it, etc.
Regarding my final project, this is a first prototype and there are many things that should and will be evolved, before it becomes an actual product to use in my business and, eventually, be sold as a solution to other businesses.
But, in terms of future opportunities, I believe this project has many potential uses.
Automated machines like this can be used for distributing many things, with almost none adaptation. The fact that it is based on a tube, tubes of different sizes could be used, adapting mostly the shelf and enclosure sizes, without interfering much in the electronics and mechanical parts. FabLabs could use it to sell or distribute electronic components or tools that are recurrently used by students.
This week’s task is mostly to prepare the final files for the Final Project presentation, so, all good!