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September/October 2005

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THE CASE FOR OPEN SOURCE KNOWLEDGE SHARING GROWS......
by Paul Giammalvo

“Intellectual property rights have swung so far towards protectionism, that innovation is being stifled”. So stated Mr. Kelly, head of IBM’s IP Division explained when asked why IBM, in October of 2004, released 500 of their Intellectual Property (IP) rights to the open source community under “copyleft” (GNU licensing) agreements.

This statement came from the an article in the October 28th issue of the Economist, which features a special section on patents and technology. Of particular interest, on page 12, the article “An Open Secret-Sharing Intellectual Property Can Be More Profitable Than Keeping it to Yourself” struck me as being particularly relevant to the world of project management.

Many of the companies who are claim Project Management as a core competency, and play active roles in those organizations advocating the professionalization of project management (IBM, Nokia, Sun, Microsoft et al) were quoted frequently in the article.

At issue, is whether sharing intellectual property (IP) renders it more valuable (profitable) than keeping it to yourself. The trend towards open software code portends a changing approach in the perception of IP and how collaboration is adding value. James Surowiecki, writing in his best selling book- “The Wisdom of Crowds” points up the value of collective intelligence.

So what does all this have to do with Project Management? The PMBOK Guide© was originally intended to be a “labor of love” - a way for successful project managers to “give something back” to the occupation which had been so good to them, by collaborating and combining their collective knowledge with the intent to share it amongst their peers and colleagues. Somewhere along the way, this altruistic vision got sacrificed on the altar of commerce, resulting in higher costs of products to the end users, products of questionable quality and value and in lawsuits against leading contributors to this effort.

As the Economist article points out, the need for sharing of IP is a paradox. Why give away rights in order to enhance the value of the existing portfolio of products/services? The answer to this question lies in answering the question whether value lies in the tool or value lies in the capabilities of the craftsperson who wields the tool to produce value. Up to now, too much focus has been made on the value of the tool itself (PMBOK Guide©) and not enough on how the tool has been or should be used by the true craftsperson to manage their projects better.

So what’s the solution? The PMBOK Guide was a collective work donated by practitioners for no compensation. As a collaborative work, it properly and appropriately belongs in the open source community under Copyleft or GNU licensing agreement, for use by everyone as originally envisioned. It should not be used as a “cash cow” to finance the “commercialization” of a not-for-profit organization. For a professional organization to benefit financially from selling the collective knowledge of the member/owners of the organization donated for free, raises uncomfortable ethical issues.

I ask the member/owners of the professional organizations who are benefiting financially from selling our collective knowledge back to us to think through the long term implications of this in the context of existing IP constraints. Perhaps given the progressive thinking of IBM, Nokia, Sun et al, its time to consider putting the Project Management Body of Knowledge into the Public Domain under Copyleft (GNU) Licensing?

Paul GiammalvoPaul D. Giammalvo, CDT, PMP, CCE, MScPM, is Director of the ASEAN Project Manager’s Center of Excellence, Inc. (APMX) For over 12 years, he has been provided Project Management training and consulting throughout SE Asia. He is active in the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International, (AACE); Construction Specifications Institute (CSI); Construction Management Association of America, (CMAA) and serves on the Global Project Management Forum Steering Committee. Email Paul G. Giammalvo or visit Paul's Website

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