Limor Fried (@ladyada) joining President Obama in a Fireside Hangout this Thursday at 4:50pm EST on Google+!
This is big news! Our Ladyada, Limor Fried, was selected to join President Obama in a Fireside Hangout this Thursday 2/14 at 4:50pm EST on Google+! We’ll discuss issues that are top of mind for citizens, and we’d love you all to help shape this conversation. Submit your questions to youtube.com/whitehouse and the President will answer questions that are voted to the top.
Limor will be talking to the President LIVE about manufacturing and education!
Don’t forget to RSVP here for a reminder to tune in on Thursday- http://goo.gl/7pxfM.
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When you start talking about STEM, use STEAAMM instead..
I’m adding (or overloading) the A for Art and Architecture (design)
and overloading M for Math and Manufacturing
STEAM is way cooler than STEM
I sincerely hope Ms. Fried brings up NDAA and drone warfare technology. Why? Because I can see a day in the not too distant future when businesses like Adafruit could be targeted for selling electronic devices that could be used to commit acts of terror. Yeah, to us it sounds silly but to some power-hungry, tech-ignorant politician it would be a viable target.
Aaaannnnd my comment was deleted. Nice to know what you stand for Adafruit. Most people do not get the opportunity to ask the real questions of the president, you have this chance and will throw it away. You just lost my business.
President Obama is now in position to appoint a new head of the US Patent Office. His former appointee, who just resigned and joined an IP law firm, had many conflicts of interest and actually thinks that patent trolls protect innovation. If this Google Hangout has JUST ONE message to give to the President, I hope it can drive home the negative effect that patent litigation currently has on small business innovation, and the billions of dollars it costs companies who support innovation. If the newly appointed head shares Kappos’ indulgent attitude to parasitical IP firms and submarine patents, then innovation will continue to struggle under this crushing weight while trying to step into the future.
I second macegr. In a patent regime that leads major corporations like Apple to spend more on patent lawyers than on R&D, makers and small businesses work under constant fear of bankruptcy from overbroad IP.
This is an ideal time, and Ladyada is an ideal person to explain why IP reform, like EFF’s Defend Innovation campaign, is needed. https://defendinnovation.org/
And, rebuild the broken patent office. This present one really stifles innovation.
But don’t break it further by extending patent coverage beyond a sane number of years.
Keep it at 14 years, and any mods start over not extend.
No Mickey Mouse like the 75 years after authors death junk.
We need our innovations to go public to be built upon, these giants to stand upon like Limor, not locked away forever.
Guys, at least know what you’re talking about. Kappos has been an excellent and very progressive USPTO director, the best in a long time. His resignation is a big loss. Most of the patents in litigation now were granted a decade before he got there.
Massive thumbs up to Limor! Well deserved after the help and encouragement you’ve given so many to learn and grow. I’m tempted to post extraneous comments as an excuse to fool around with the resistor color slider.
Jim, you’re confusing patents and copyrights. Patents expire 20 years after filing. Endless copyrights are the big problem.
With either patents or copyrights, the rights holder is the one who decides (until expiration) how the thing can be used, and just as there is the GPL in the domain of copyright, there are patent holders who allow their designs to be freely used. Look for "open patent" on Wikipedia.
in the SOTU Obama brought up that he wants better preschools, better high schools and a public education where students can go into a particular field’s job right after high school. You will probably bring up arduino and raspberry pi at this point, but also, you could suggest a nation wide curriculum for getting students interested and teaching them the basics to programming and computers (also STE(A)M subjects). I’m not sure if a European education model would work but it would probably be better than what we’re doing now.
my education on programming was a 30minute lesson in middle school (90s) on the “hello world” program in BASIC, they asked if I was interested in learning more programming at the time but I felt it took too long to do a simple thing and the teachers decided they wouldn’t teach it because “no one wanted to do it”… looking back, I think I should have been taught more about it.
Adafruit is a great resource for homeschooling. It would be nice if homechoolers could get tax breaks on educational materials, the way other educators can.
When you start talking about STEM, use STEAAMM instead..
I’m adding (or overloading) the A for Art and Architecture (design)
and overloading M for Math and Manufacturing
STEAM is way cooler than STEM
I sincerely hope Ms. Fried brings up NDAA and drone warfare technology. Why? Because I can see a day in the not too distant future when businesses like Adafruit could be targeted for selling electronic devices that could be used to commit acts of terror. Yeah, to us it sounds silly but to some power-hungry, tech-ignorant politician it would be a viable target.
I can’t think of anyone who I would want to represent our community more than I want you too. Congrats!
Wow! I’m excited
Aaaannnnd my comment was deleted. Nice to know what you stand for Adafruit. Most people do not get the opportunity to ask the real questions of the president, you have this chance and will throw it away. You just lost my business.
@alex, your comment was always there, please hit refresh on the page.
President Obama is now in position to appoint a new head of the US Patent Office. His former appointee, who just resigned and joined an IP law firm, had many conflicts of interest and actually thinks that patent trolls protect innovation. If this Google Hangout has JUST ONE message to give to the President, I hope it can drive home the negative effect that patent litigation currently has on small business innovation, and the billions of dollars it costs companies who support innovation. If the newly appointed head shares Kappos’ indulgent attitude to parasitical IP firms and submarine patents, then innovation will continue to struggle under this crushing weight while trying to step into the future.
I second macegr. In a patent regime that leads major corporations like Apple to spend more on patent lawyers than on R&D, makers and small businesses work under constant fear of bankruptcy from overbroad IP.
This is an ideal time, and Ladyada is an ideal person to explain why IP reform, like EFF’s Defend Innovation campaign, is needed. https://defendinnovation.org/
And, rebuild the broken patent office. This present one really stifles innovation.
But don’t break it further by extending patent coverage beyond a sane number of years.
Keep it at 14 years, and any mods start over not extend.
No Mickey Mouse like the 75 years after authors death junk.
We need our innovations to go public to be built upon, these giants to stand upon like Limor, not locked away forever.
Congrats, Limor! Very excited and proud to have you representing the maker community, just as you have for years.
My comment was deleted also Alex.
Free speech is great as long as the person witht he delete key agrees with you.
Guys, at least know what you’re talking about. Kappos has been an excellent and very progressive USPTO director, the best in a long time. His resignation is a big loss. Most of the patents in litigation now were granted a decade before he got there.
Massive thumbs up to Limor! Well deserved after the help and encouragement you’ve given so many to learn and grow. I’m tempted to post extraneous comments as an excuse to fool around with the resistor color slider.
Jim, you’re confusing patents and copyrights. Patents expire 20 years after filing. Endless copyrights are the big problem.
With either patents or copyrights, the rights holder is the one who decides (until expiration) how the thing can be used, and just as there is the GPL in the domain of copyright, there are patent holders who allow their designs to be freely used. Look for "open patent" on Wikipedia.
hi bill, we emailed you privately to discuss your comment that is in moderation. alex’s comments are here as you can see.
I too would like to hear the President’s thoughts on the current patent law. As I’ll be applying for a utility patent soon and they’re not cheap.
@Jim, I think your confusing Copyright law, with Patent law as far as protection after death.
in the SOTU Obama brought up that he wants better preschools, better high schools and a public education where students can go into a particular field’s job right after high school. You will probably bring up arduino and raspberry pi at this point, but also, you could suggest a nation wide curriculum for getting students interested and teaching them the basics to programming and computers (also STE(A)M subjects). I’m not sure if a European education model would work but it would probably be better than what we’re doing now.
my education on programming was a 30minute lesson in middle school (90s) on the “hello world” program in BASIC, they asked if I was interested in learning more programming at the time but I felt it took too long to do a simple thing and the teachers decided they wouldn’t teach it because “no one wanted to do it”… looking back, I think I should have been taught more about it.
Hot!
I don’t suppose you could bring up homeschooling?
Adafruit is a great resource for homeschooling. It would be nice if homechoolers could get tax breaks on educational materials, the way other educators can.
1) Copyright / patent issues as described above.
2) The current (poor) state of education.
a) The alarming trend of “privatizing” public schools. The for-profit charter schools are killing education and sucking the public coffers dry.
b) The inability to hire the “best of the best” into the education field due to the lack of fair pay and benefits.
whoo limor fried!