Citizen Engineer: A Handbook for Socially Responsible Engineering

“Engineers create many of the inventions that shape our society, and as such they play a vital role in determining how we live. This new book does an outstanding job of filling in the knowledge and perspective that engineers must have to be good citizens in areas ranging from the environment, to intellectual property, to ensuring the health of the innovation ecosystem that has done so much for modern society. This is exactly the sort of book that engineers and those who work with them should read and discuss over pizza, coffee, or some other suitable, discussion-provoking consumable.” —John L. Hennessy, president, Stanford University   “Citizen Engineer is the bible for the new era of socially responsible engineering. It’s an era where, as the authors show, engineers don’t just need to know more, they need to be more. The work is an inspiration, an exhortation, and a practical how-to guide. All engineers concerned with the impact of their work—and that should be all engineers—must read this book.” —Hal Abelson, professor of computer science and engineering, MIT   “Code is law. Finally, a map to responsible law making. This accessible and brilliant book should be required of every citizen, and especially, the new citizen lawmakers we call engineers.” —Lawrence Lessig, director, Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University, and cofounder, Creative Commons   Being an engineer today means being far more than an engineer. You need to consider not only the design requirements of your projects but the full impact of your work—from an ecological perspective, an intellectual property perspective, a business perspective, and a sociological perspective. And you must coordinate your efforts with many other engineers, sometimes hundreds of them. In short, we’ve entered an age that demands socially responsible engineering on a whole new scale: The era of the Citizen Engineer.   This engaging and thought-provoking book, written by computer industry luminaries David Douglas and Greg Papadopoulos, focuses on two topics that are becoming vitally important in the day-to-day work of engineers: eco engineering and intellectual property (IP). Citizen Engineer also examines how and why the world of engineering has changed, and provides practical advice to help engineers of all types master the new era and start thinking like Citizen Engineers.

Table of Contents:
Preface xv Acknowledgments xix About the Authors xxi Introduction: While You Were Busy Debugging… xxiii   Part I: Advent of the Citizen Engineer 1   Chapter 1: “Citizen Engineer” Defined 5 Responsibilities of the Citizen Engineer 7 Knowledge Base of the Citizen Engineer 8   Chapter 2: How Engineering Got Its Paradigm Shifted 13 Changes in the Nature of Engineering 13 Engineering on a Whole New Scale 13 Externally Driven Changes in Engineering 19 Perspectives on an Engineering Transformation 24 Part I Summary, and What’s Next 25   Part II: Environmental Responsibility 27   Chapter 3: Environmental Impact: The Big Picture 31 Eco-Responsible Engineering: An Enormous Opportunity 32 Core Challenges of Eco-Engineering 34   Chapter 4: Beyond the Black Cloud: Looking at Lifecycles 37 The “Cradle to Cradle” Vision 40   Chapter 5: A Pragmatic Approach to Lifecycle Analysis 45 A Basic Lifecycle Model 45 Additional Lifecycle Considerations 46 Embodied Energy and Embodied Carbon 52 Starting a Top-Level Assessment 56   Chapter 6: Setting Priorities, Requirements, and Goals 61 Knowing the Law 62 Business Requirements and Opportunities 64 Areas of Greatest Impact 65 Quick Wins and Low-Hanging Fruit 66   Chapter 7: Energy and Emissions 69 Common Sources of Energy 70 Calculating Energy and Power 73 Energy Impacts: Finding the Cleanest Source of Power 75 Energy and GHG Emissions 76 Putting a Value on Carbon (Dioxide!) 80 Heat, Noise, Light, and Radio Emissions 81 Process-Related GHG Emissions 82 Energy Efficiency in Product Design 83 An Example: Energy Efficiency in Data Centers 86   Chapter 8: Chemicals, Materials, and Waste 93 Chemistry and the Law 93 Packaging and Documentation 96 Waste and Renewal 98   Chapter 9: Water and Other Natural Resources 105 Social Considerations 105 Business Considerations 106 Calculating the Water Footprint 106 Trading Virtual Water 107 Other Natural Resources 108   Chapter 10: An Example of Eco-Engineering: Interface, Inc. 111 An Aggressive Initiative with Very Specific Goals 111 Chapter 11 Eco-Engineering: The Grass Is Always Greener 117 Carbon Neutrality: Good Start but Not Enough 117 Greenwashing and Green Noise 120 Measuring and Sharing with OpenEco 123 Part II Summary, and What’s Next 125   Part III: Intellectual Responsibility 127   Chapter 12 Intellectual Property Law Fundamentals 131 IP 101: Core Concepts 131 Patents 134 Copyright 141 Trademarks 147 Trade Secrets 148 Nondisclosure Agreements 150 Employment Contracts and IP Ownership 151 Tip Sheet: Inbound and Outbound IP 157 How to Protect Your IP in Emerging Markets 159 Back to Patent Protection: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 161   Chapter 13: Open Source Software: Licenses and Leverage 165 “Free” Software Licenses 166 Nonfree but Free-Sounding Software Licenses 169 A Closer Look at the GPL 169 Contributor Agreements 171 Software Indemnity 175   Chapter 14: Creativity and Control 179 Maximizing the Cycle of Innovation 179 How We Got Here 181 Control over Interfaces 184 Innovation Commons 186 The Economics of Open Source 187 Beyond Software 189 Building an Open Source Community: Practical Advice from a Pro 194   Chapter 15: Protecting Digital Rights 199 Digital Rights Management 199 Is “Open DRM” an Oxymoron? 201 Fair Use and Other Concepts for Reducing Restrictions 202 Part III Summary, and What’s Next 204   Part IV: Bringing It to Life 205   Chapter 16: Education of the Citizen Engineer 207 Updating Engineering Curricula 208 Advice for Engineering Students 211 Advice for Engineering New Hires 212   Chapter 17: Citizen Engineers in Action 215   Appendix 219 Lifecycle Phase Checklists 219 Required Reading for Citizen Engineers 223   Notes 225 Photo Credits 233 Index 235

About the Author :
David Douglas is senior vice president of cloud computing and chief sustainability officer at Sun Microsystems. He oversees the strategy and execution of environmental initiatives across the company, including enhancements to Sun’s products in the areas of energy efficiency, cooling technologies, product recycling, and clean manufacturing. In addition, Dave is responsible for Sun's cloud computing business, with a focus on creating reliable, scalable, and sustainable computing and storage. He has been in the high-tech industry for more than two decades, including more than a decade of experience leading organizations to build more innovative, efficient, and eco-responsible products, and he has a long-standing passion about environmental issues. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. Dave sits on the board of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and is a senior fellow at the Breakthrough Institute. He currently lives in Concord, Massachusetts, with his family. Dave’s blog can be found at http://blogs.sun.com/enviro.     With more than 20 years experience in the technology industry, Greg Papadopoulos has held several executive positions, most recently serving as Chief Technology Office and Executive Vice President — Research and Development at Sun Microsystems, Inc., responsible for managing Sun's technology decisions, global engineering architecture and advanced development programs.  Prior to Sun, Papadopoulos was Senior Architect at Thinking Machines and has also founded a number of his own companies. Papadopoulos was an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, where he conducted research in scalable systems, multi threaded/data flow processor architecture, functional and declarative languages, and fault-tolerant computing. He holds a bachelor's degree in systems science from the University of California at San Diego , as well as master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. Papadopoulos resides in Los Gatos , California with his wife Laurie and has passions for cooking, wine and eco-responsible living.      John Boutelle has been a freelance writer for more than twenty years. During that time, John has worked with and interviewed hundreds of engineers and executives from a diverse range of enterprises worldwide, including Adobe, Apple, Cisco, General Electric, Hitachi, Lam Research, Nokia, Novell, Oracle, Pacific Bell, Seiko, Sony, Sun Microsystems, VeriSign, and dozens of start-ups. Previously he was editor-in-chief of the Orange County Business Journal in Santa Ana, California. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan and a bachelor of arts degree from Pomona College. John resides with his family in Madison, Wisconsin.