esjewett.com

Knowledge isn't worth anything if you don't use it. Similarly, intellectual property, the crystalized product of knowledge, isn't worth anything if it isn't consumed. Compounding this is the fact that knowledge products age fast. Screencams and whitepapers are old news in a few months. Blog-style analysis is out of date in a matter of weeks or even days. There is some content that stands the test of time, but most of the output of knowledge workers experiences a very fast decay in value.

Over the last few weeks I've found myself making the same point several times, so when I saw this image, it struck a chord.

(Image courtesy of Tom Matrullo and the FASTForward blog.)

When evaluating how to handle knowledge products, businesses tend to focus on how best to defend the value of their investment by keeping it out of the hands of their competitors. This approach is especially prevalent in knowledge- and skill-focused industries like professional services and it is usually misguided.

Since most intellectual property loses value so quickly, it is imperative to extract as much value as possible as quickly as possible. Protecting the investment should be a consideration, but value extraction should be the focus. Value extraction is often enhanced by sharing these types of quickly diminishing IP.

The exception is when a firm has developed a considerable ability to quickly extract value from intellectual property in a closed system. Companies like Gartner and Forrester have this type of ability in place, but even some analyst firms like Redmonk have gone the open source analysis route and found it to be a solid business model.

The bottom line: If it's not your business to sell IP, I'd second guess the impulse to act protectively towards your IP. Instead, think about extracting the maximum value as quickly as possible. Then get back to work generating more of the good stuff.