Comment What's really sweet about this is... (Score 5, Interesting) 287
that it bears out everything Slashdot, the Million Book Project, Kahle and so on have been saying about the benefits of freeing IP, how this does *not* hurt large companies, and how it lets everybody do more.
The Auto-ID Centre, who developed the standard and technology are 'a not-for-profit group established by MIT to develop a system for using the Internet to identify goods anywhere in the world...It is funded by large companies who want to use RFID to track goods and who believe an open standard is critical..just as the world uses one network to share information -- the Internet -- it may be possible to use that same network to share information stored initially on an RFID tag...Strictly speaking, the intellectual property belongs to the universities where the research is being conducted. However, the intellectual property will be freely available to any company that wants to use it...the Auto-ID Center may be the first time in history that companies from different industries and different regions of the world have come together to develop technology they feel would benefit their businesses - and their competitors' businesses.' (quotes from http://www.rfidjournal.com/FAQ2.html)
These guys get it, and as they've convinced companies of the size of Gillette, Cocoa-Cola, Pepsi, P&G, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Wal-Mart and others to sponsor this, maybe that's a sign that these companies are, or will, getting it too. There's hope yet.
The Auto-ID Centre, who developed the standard and technology are 'a not-for-profit group established by MIT to develop a system for using the Internet to identify goods anywhere in the world...It is funded by large companies who want to use RFID to track goods and who believe an open standard is critical..just as the world uses one network to share information -- the Internet -- it may be possible to use that same network to share information stored initially on an RFID tag...Strictly speaking, the intellectual property belongs to the universities where the research is being conducted. However, the intellectual property will be freely available to any company that wants to use it...the Auto-ID Center may be the first time in history that companies from different industries and different regions of the world have come together to develop technology they feel would benefit their businesses - and their competitors' businesses.' (quotes from http://www.rfidjournal.com/FAQ2.html)
These guys get it, and as they've convinced companies of the size of Gillette, Cocoa-Cola, Pepsi, P&G, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Wal-Mart and others to sponsor this, maybe that's a sign that these companies are, or will, getting it too. There's hope yet.
