Microsoft has recently launched a Thought Thieves competition in the UK which asks children ages 14-17 to develop a short film “about people stealing and profiting from your creation or innovation”. Hmmmm … this is interesting coming from a company who basically stole the entire GUI from Apple back in 80′s (which Apple stole from Xerox). It’s interesting how creative culture works.
I would love to see a similar competition focusing on how children could learn to use copyleft (e.g., GPL, Creative Commons license) to share, distribute and collaboratively develop their own work. To me (and certainly many others), this is the future shape of intellectual “property” … collaboratively developed, shared and networked.
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Absolutely mind boggling. As a teacher myself I’m rather saddened that Microsoft is targeting youngsters in this way.
Unbelievable – next thing you know, Microsoft will ask people to pay a subscription to fix up the holes in their cruddy OS! Oh wait – they already announced that – http://news.com.com/Security+gripes+Microsoft+feels+your+pain/2100-7355_3-5705430.html?tag=nefd.top
Sometimes its almost impossible to be ironic :^)