tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post4512692140579848845..comments2024-03-28T00:36:13.790-07:00Comments on Volatile and Decentralized: Your Field Guide to Industrial Research LabsMatt Welshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04255792550910131960noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-25921081223523816982014-02-12T10:19:48.692-08:002014-02-12T10:19:48.692-08:00Huh. I posted about this in 2005, and complimented...Huh. I posted about this in 2005, and complimented Google on making "Labs" a web site instead of a division: http://radar.oreilly.com/2005/10/yahoo-research-berkeley-launch.html<br /><br />Is that no longer true? Marc Hedlundhttp://radar.oreilly.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-40722510911361026992014-02-11T05:20:07.708-08:002014-02-11T05:20:07.708-08:00'hard to maintain in a non-monopoly business e...'hard to maintain in a non-monopoly business environment'<br /><br />- I'd say there is some poetic justice assisting with this: research results close to product development are both more excludable [as the production process you get entangled with] and obvious prone to competitive poaching; the abstract research may well contain an entire new industry, yet so difficult to interpret and execute, one can pave the streets [or free access journals] with it and find nobody understanding what it is good for, willing to pick it up. <br /><br />Odd job this... <br />A Vhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11834178946196527205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-77909687651350976052014-01-24T16:03:01.558-08:002014-01-24T16:03:01.558-08:00IBM Research used to fall in category 2, now it is...IBM Research used to fall in category 2, now it is squarely in category 1. As regards Microsoft Research, isn't this sufficiently large a hint? "It feels just like grad school, except everyone gets their own office, and there are a lot more Windows desktops than you would normally expect to see."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-35144231441104492402014-01-24T09:27:44.307-08:002014-01-24T09:27:44.307-08:00so where is IBM Research and Microsoft Research in...so where is IBM Research and Microsoft Research in the category? what do you guys think?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-4601463414900773442014-01-24T07:42:49.936-08:002014-01-24T07:42:49.936-08:00To Anonymous 6:32AM: I'd like to think of Goog...To Anonymous 6:32AM: I'd like to think of Google Research as a bit more sophisticated than the 'Hoodies with the word "Research" on them' model.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-68479877597612324842014-01-24T06:32:22.643-08:002014-01-24T06:32:22.643-08:00Hint: which research lab has free food?Hint: which research lab has free food?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-71848129966857628932014-01-23T13:40:49.370-08:002014-01-23T13:40:49.370-08:00This is a great post. You might say that this whol...This is a great post. You might say that this whole post is meant as a joke, but I believe in Freudian slips :-) In fact, for each category of lab that you mentioned, I could relate directly to a lab that exists today. What I didn't quite get was in which category to place Google Research. Maybe you can shed some light on this?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-66756090875801467982014-01-22T22:33:25.567-08:002014-01-22T22:33:25.567-08:00The missing variety:
* cool-ideas-from-cool-place...The missing variety:<br /><br />* cool-ideas-from-cool-places research lab, where a company opens a research lab outpost in a far-away place that's known to be "innovative" in hopes they can bring some of that culture back to their main office. Xerox, of course, and perhaps IBM's San Jose lab back in the 1950's. Olivetti's Cupertino research lab back in the 1980's always struck me as an odd move. Fujitsu's research lab in California. Walmart Labs and the Bay Area auto manufacturer labs might be examples these days. These differ from the patent factory because they really do seem to be trying to bring culture as much as ideas into the parent company.<br /><br />The "Academic Department inside a Company Research Lab" seems less a function of the researchers being standoff-ish than trouble getting ideas out into product groups. One former researcher at Apple's Advanced Technology Group said he fought for years to get his technology into the OS; each time, he was rebuffed because the product group wasn't interested. When ATG folded, he got moved into the OS group. In his first meeting with his new manager, he was asked, "so can you get your stuff into the upcoming version of the OS?"<br /><br />Would you classify 1990's Interval Research as a "patent factory"? Although they turned into a patent factory, their initial vision was research for five years and productization for another five. Maybe it's an example of "We have a research lab too" without the surrounding company.<br /><br />Personally, my pet peeve has been engineers working in a product group who act as if they're doing research (and shun the group's practical work) while being unable to justify why their research-y longer-term work deserves to be done. There's always someone writing the paychecks, and you always need to do something to convince them to keep writing those checks.<br />Robert Bowdidgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14155962656525181088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-76781546424932930042014-01-22T10:35:15.737-08:002014-01-22T10:35:15.737-08:00I loved this, thought it was hilarious. It remind...I loved this, thought it was hilarious. It reminded me of that Simpsons episode where Bart joins the mafia, shows them Itchy & Scratchy, and the mobster says "its funny because it's true".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-54415363003067059372014-01-22T08:56:11.936-08:002014-01-22T08:56:11.936-08:00I admit, I'm often out there arguing against M...I admit, I'm often out there arguing against Matt for things he says, but I found this funny (and clearly intentionally so). <br /><br />Labs are hard. There's a tension in that a company would -- I would think -- like to have smart people around who, on occasion, will save the company millions of dollars, and even more rarely, will come up with new ideas that are worth even more than that. The downside is that many of these people want to work on more abstract or pie-in-the-sky things much of the time (we call that "research" here in academia), and aren't necessarily good at or even interested in products and productizing. <br /><br />There are various approaches (as Matt points out), ranging from limiting what the people you hire work on (we'll call you research, but you'll be working on this product with this product team), limiting the types of people you hire (to avoid people who are too "research-y"), to letting your researchers run wild (and then having to explain how to justify their budget). I admit, I'm VERY biased toward the last model, and think its payoff is generally underestimated, though I acknowledge it's hard to maintain in a non-monopoly business environment. Michael Mitzenmacherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02161161032642563814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-86392173387360297062014-01-22T07:23:22.818-08:002014-01-22T07:23:22.818-08:00In case it's wasn't clear, this whole post...In case it's wasn't clear, this whole post is meant as a joke, and you might recognize that I'm making fun of everyone, including my current employer. Don't always take me so seriously :-) Matt Welshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07077674014671176946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-50489999176428009032014-01-22T06:27:38.022-08:002014-01-22T06:27:38.022-08:00So where are the research labs that work on cuttin...So where are the research labs that work on cutting edge problems that end up making a significant impact in practice/products? Are you getting a little cynical about your academia-to-industry transition? (And dare I ask where your current lab fits in your taxonomy?)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-77852885512838749002014-01-22T04:08:52.670-08:002014-01-22T04:08:52.670-08:00Gee Matt, crank much? :)Gee Matt, crank much? :)nobodyhttp://www.nowhere.com/noreply@blogger.com