Living in a
Creative Ecology
John Howkins
Bali December 2008

global competition
in a creative economy
is not
$ vs RMB
but
ideas vs ideas
 © vs ©

or
ideas ~ ideas
©~©

in creative economies
decisions on ideas and IP
are 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”
diversity
change
learning
adaptation

the creative ecology
input: ideas
output: ideas

the creative ecology
we continually…
look
use
re-use
borrow
change
adapt
make better (or worse)

the creative ecology
and often…
we copy

the choice
Bill Gates, 1975
Tim Berners-Lee, 1989

the choice
John Sulston, 2000
Craig Venter, 2000

“the objective of a country’s IP policy
is to
maximise
national welfare”
Zhang Qin, SIPO, China, 2008

Adelphi Charter
copyright should regulate the
ownership of ideas
in the public interest

creative ecologies
strategies
1. diversity
2. change
3. learning
4. adaptation
(adaptive efficiency)

creative ecologies
strategies
1. ambition
scale
scope
the challenge
2. research
3. 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

Thank you.
john@creativeeconomy.com
www.bop.co.uk