Living in a Creative Ecology
John HowkinsBali December 2008
global competitionin a creative economy
is not$ vs RMB
butideas vs ideas�
© vs ©
orideas ~ ideas
© ~ ©
in creative economies
decisions on ideas and IPare more important than
decisions on interest rates
copyright is a currency,and
national IPOs are Central Banks and WIPO is the world’s new World Bank
the creative ecology
people are creative
creativity needs freedom
freedom needs markets
the creative ecology
“creativity needs freedom”
diversitychangelearning
adaptation
the creative ecology
input: ideasoutput: ideas
the creative ecology
we continually…look use
re-useborrowchangeadapt
make better (or worse)
the creative ecology
and often…we copy
the choice
Bill Gates, 1975Tim Berners-Lee, 1989
the choice
John Sulston, 2000Craig Venter, 2000
“the objective of a country’s IP policyis to
maximise national welfare”
Zhang Qin, SIPO, China, 2008
Adelphi Charter
copyright should regulate theownership of ideasin the public interest
creative ecologies
strategies
1. diversity2. change3. learning
4. adaptation(adaptive efficiency)
creative ecologies
strategies
1. ambitionscalescope
the challenge
2. research3. action
‘There seems to be a growing disparity between what we know about our human predicament and our
ability to act on that knowledge.” Soedjatmoko, 1978
