Open Innovation, entrepreneurship, and our digital future

Open Innovation has lead to the creation of priceless resources like Wikipedia, and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) that form the foundations of our digital society. The freedoms enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of young people around the world, hacking on laptops, hacking on servers, hacking on general purpose hardware is the primary source of the innovation which drove much of the world’s great economic expansion in the past ten years. This freedom to hack has enabled innovation and entrepreneurship, and made it possible for innovation to occur where it can occur without friction, which is at the bottom of the pyramid of capital.

As India witnesses one of the greatest entrepreneurial spurts in its history, much of it based on technologies built through collaboration and openness, it is important to understand the forces that drive the Open Innovation ecosystem. In this session, some of the brightest minds in the Open Innovation ecosystem, and the world of FOSS, will discuss:

• 1) Why Open Innovation is important for India’s digital future
• 2) Why Open Innovation and entrepreneurship are deeply interconnected
• 3) How India can become one the leaders of this entrepreneurship
• 4) What India needs to do to protect and nurture Open Innovation

Click here to register for the event.

The speakers are:

Prof. Eben Moglen: Prof. Eben Moglen is Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University Law School. Professor Moglen is the founder of the Software Freedom Law Center, which has represented many of the world’s leading free software developers. Professor Moglen earned his PhD in History and law degree at Yale University. He has taught at Columbia Law School since 1987 and has held visiting appointments at Harvard University, Tel Aviv University and the University of Virginia. In 2003 he was given the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Award for efforts on behalf of freedom in the electronic society.

Keith Bergelt: Keith Bergelt is the chief executive officer of Open Invention Network (OIN), a collaborative enterprise that enables innovation in open source and an increasingly vibrant ecosystem around Linux. In this capacity he is directly responsible for enabling, influencing and defending the integrity of the Linux ecosystem. Central to the achievement of his goals is the acquisition and transfer of patent rights designed to permit members of the Linux ecosystem to operate free of the threat of assertion and litigation from those whose business models are antithetical to innovation and global economic growth in information technology and computing.

Mishi Choudhary: Mishi Choudhary is a technology lawyer and an online civil liberties activist. She is the Legal Director of Software Freedom Law Center, New York and the founding Executive Director of SFLC.in, a pro-bono legal services organization based in New Delhi, India. At SFLC, New York she represents the world’s leading free and open-source software projects and advises technology companies. SFLC counsels clients on the big picture, beyond today’s specific problems, helping projects reach their long-term goals safely and efficiently. SFLC.in is widely regarded as the leading organization for extensive work on free speech and expression, privacy, software patents, corporate surveillance, network neutrality, internet governance, free and open-source software, and access to knowledge. For her work on these issues, she has been chosen to be amongst Asia Society’s 21 Young Leaders Initiative that identifies dynamic young leaders under the age of forty, bringing them together and supporting them as they build the critical mass to impact global affairs for decades to come.

Venkatesh Hariharan: Venkatesh Hariharan is Director of Alchemy Business Solutions LLP, and Outreach Lead (India) for the Open Invention Network (OIN). Alchemy is an organization that focuses on leveraging technology for development, while OIN is a defensive patent pool and community of patent non-aggression which enables freedom of action in Linux. He is also a member of the Governing Board of the Software Freedom Law Center.

Hariharan has served as Head of Public Policy and Government Affairs with Google, and as Corporate Affairs Director for Red Hat in the Asia-Pacific region. He has worked on key policy issues like Internet regulations, open standards, software patents, open source in government, and Indian language computing.