20 - 005 How we named ourselves ZigZag.

The name ZigZag was derived as our business name after many discussions between David Bannister (Zig) and George Szubinski (Zag). Importantly we did not want to be a normal business. We did not want to take on employees. We did not want offices. We did not want overheads. But we wanted to work with other like-minded people. People wanting to be creative. People wanting to invent. People wanting to impress others with the work they do and wanting praise more than money. People looking to act quickly working through day and night to meet an objective. People wanting the buzz of working in a creative setting. So we decided to have these people called “associates”. We also like the so called “gig economy” where people work on many different things. Maybe some of their own projects whilst contributing to ours. We also wanted to be truly international with no boundaries in terms of what we do and where our associates work.

Another part of the thinking was Google had just created Alphabet as their holding company for all their digital brands. We had visions of one day becoming a similar sized operation owning digital brands. So with Alphabet occupying the early alphabetically ordered slots in any search we thought only fair to go to the other end of the alphabet so we focussed on Z. Out came the dictionary with us reviewing all the words beginning with Z. Zen was a popular since it represented our relaxed approach, since we were retirees, to undertaking creative work. But ZigZag, indicating many sharp turns, seemed to represent the way our thoughts kept zigzagging all over the place. One thought triggering another and so forth often just zigzagging along and achieving nothing rather than just generating the warm glow of creativity. It was not long before we broke zigzag into its two components of Zig and Zag these becoming our nicknames. So Zig (David) and Zag (George).

So the name ZigZag sort of resonated with our sort of semi digital bohemian philosophy. Not surprising really since Zig and Zag are children of the 1960’s. Only those that were fans of Bert Fegg’s Nasty Book for Boys and Girls by Michael Palin and Terry Jones could truly engage with our thought processes. Working in digital creativity had to be fun. Locking yourself down into systems with multiple variations in digital transactions was never fun. Fortunately the go to computer of choice, the smartphone, with its tiny visual interface soon demolished designers desire to fill screens with multiple functions. Keep it simple became the mantra. So ZigZag Associates is simple and only does “simple” things.

But the name ZigZag also held an important place in computer history. Our hero Ted Nelson had developed a database called ZigZag along his Xanadu documents.

Ted described as “a bit crabby but what a clear thinker” had challenged the whole way the computer and software industry had developed by randomly jumping from one technology to another. Ted argued it was essentially commercially driven without adopting the purest principals he believed so firmly should have been the adopted development path. He is sometimes called the principal dissenter in the computer field. He was the maverick. Just read this below from the introduction to one of his papers.

“The computing world is based on one principal system of conventions -- the simulation of hierarchy and the simulation of paper. The article introduces an entirely different system of conventions for data and computing. zzstructure is a generalized representation for all data and a new set of mechanisms for all computing. The article provides a reference description of zzstructure and what we hope to build on it. From orthogonally connected data items (zzcells) and untyped connections (zzlinks), we build a cross-connected fabric of data (zzstructure) that is visualizable, interactive, and programmable.”

Yes Ted thought about things differently. This is extracted from a paper that goes on and on conveying his enlightened wisdom. You cannot appreciate Ted Nelson until you have read his book “Geeks Bearing Gifts” with a classic mugshot of a young Bill Gates in Police custody on the cover. So the essence of ZigZag is we think about things differently in homage to both Ted Nelson and Bert Fegg’s.

20 - 004 US Patent No. 5960411

To any business operating in the field of digital solutions and the protection of the intellectual property (IP) rights around these solutions then US Patent No 5960411 represents a significant landmark in the evolution of the application of patents to digital solutions.

Amazon.com was granted Patent No. 5,960,411 in 1999 for a “Method and System for Placing a Purchase Order via a Communications Network. “. The patent claims a method by which a web site, having previously stored information about a customer, can allow the customer to make a purchase with a single “click” of a mouse. Amazon then sued barnesandnoble.com (B&N) claiming that B&N’s “Express Lane” purchasing method infringed the patent. Legally Amazon secured a preliminary injunction against B&N on the grounds that that it would eventually go to trial where it would claim damages for the loss of business due to B&N breaking their patent. As a result B&N’s Express Lane service offering had to be shut down before B&N even had an opportunity to try to prove that the Amazon patent was invalid.

Many observers believed that the Amazon patent should never have been granted, either because others had already implemented similar systems, meaning the Amazon’s one was not novel, or it could have been very easily implemented by anyone meaning the invention falls the test of non-obviousness. If “one click” could be patented then virtually any approach on the internet could be patented. The Amazon patent cause a mad rush of patents to be filed covering everything in respect of eCommerce and every other internet solution type.

It took over a year but the Amazon preliminary injunction to protect its patent was overturned. Upon an appeal the Appeals Court did not address directly whether or not B&N infringed the Amazon patent but they ruled that there was sufficient doubt about the validity of the patent and that Amazon should not have been granted a preliminary injunction. This should have only be granted if it was thought likely that Amazon would have won the subsequent trial had it taken place relating to the infringement. In the end Amazon and B&N settled the case out of court.

The effect of all of this was to make patents relating to business methods extremely difficult to obtain. But that has not stopped businesses continuing to apply for these types of patent. In fact for any type of internet activity that a business wants to protect from the use of competitors or to support a licensing model these patent applications are still made and in many cases accepted. But the duty of the patent system is to both encourage and reward innovation whilst not constraining the evolution and development of internet solutions by locking down into patents very obvious easily invented methods and processes.

In many cases the use of Copyright covering interface designs, user manuals and procedures can be a more cost effective way of protecting a business’s ideas and creations. Copyright can be used as a legal basis to protect, for the creating business, new and unique innovations. But copyright historically has been very visually based (eg pictures, words) but its application to methods and processes makes it very ineffective as a legal instrument. Although its application to the music industry has been particularly effective especially now music can be easily digitally profiled. If processes can be digitally documented as precisely as music then copyright could become a viable legal instrument although unlike music processes lack a coherent digitised structure. Although processes have been defined in different languages these are far from being standardised to the  degree necessary to meet some legalistic verification. It is also most likely that processes will remain very difficult, if not impossible, to copyright due to the fact they are never fully novel and are often too easily invented.    

After patents and copyrights the other legal instrument that should not be ignored when looking to protect digital solutions is the Trademark. The Trademark is a particular type of intellectual property (IP) consisting of a recognisable sign, design or expression which identifies the digital solution. Unlike patents and copyrights a registered Trademark can, theoretically, last for ever.  

20 - 003 How do ZigZag Digital Associates protect their IP?

ZigZag Digital Associates spends large amounts of time, effort and money researching, designing and building new digital products and services. Many of these investments lead to nothing and the project is often abandoned. This is the nature of our business. In fact this is what drives and continues to drive the founders of the business. The successfully created digital solutions then become Intellectual Properties (IP) owned by ZigZag. ZigZag is essentially a creator, owner and trader in these Digital Intellectual Properties (IP).

ZigZag operating in the digital world and looking to create new digital deliverables has to constantly evaluate different digital methodologies, architectures, frameworks and tool sets. Many attempts to build a new product or approach fail due to the supporting solutions investigated not meeting the criteria that has been set. Considerable effort goes into investigation and evaluation. The very nature of ZigZag means it is highly dependent on solutions not owned by itself or where the standards are not owned or set by ZigZag. This inevitably makes for a very precarious process of research and development. Often the final solutions adopted do not reflect the amount of effort that has gone into putting them together. Like many success stories they look, with hindsight, easily achievable but the final solution was in fact impossible to foresee as you proceeded along an often random development path. To say that serendipity does not play a large part in the successes at ZigZag would be an understatement. The slightly fanciful name of serendipity covers chance, fate, destiny, luck, coincidence, accident and possibly a little bit of actual design. But instinctively we move down the pathways of creativity falling off at each turn to only resurrect ourselves on to new and different pathways. But how does ZigZag market such creations when they are completed?

The digital deliverables produced by ZigZag maybe sometimes be suitable for copyright but they would certainly not these days be patentable. The patent system in the UK or that matter the USA or anywhere is not suited to support what are essentially digital frameworks for producing digital products or services. The costs to define a patent and then to legally support it should anyone use it unauthorised are, unless you are a rich powerful multi-national, prohibitive. So how does ZigZag protect its designs and creations? It is straightforward. It uses secrecy. We operate just like Coca Cola because their drink is a mixture of complex natural substances it is not possible to duplicate it by just analysing the end product. It is the same with the ZigZag Digital Products which are when created usually complex pieces of coded processes and data. So although you can read this code you cannot determine how it was generated. What ZigZag keeps secret, like Coca Cola, is how we made it.

So who do we share these secrets with and under what circumstances? The nature of what we do means those becoming party to the secrets will have to be digital technologists. Without digital experience and understanding you will not be able take on the responsibility of these digital solutions. Although the users of these solutions do not have to be digital experts those operating them at the “core” have to be experts. So within businesses it will be the Information Technology units that will take on the ownership. In the case of individuals or small businesses you need to be information technologically capable.

We share our secrets under three commercial relationships. Firstly you could become an Associate of ZigZag Digital Associates usually because you intend to commercially operate one of our digital deliverables. This becomes a relationship based upon a Franchise Contract. This usually applies to individuals or small businesses. The second relationship is intended for large organisations where you Licence the use of the digital product. This forms a Licencing Agreement. The third relationship is where the digital product is sold to another business for their exclusive use with ZigZag normally retaining a nominal percentage shareholding in the new purchaser’s business entity.

20 - 002 Who are ZigZag Digital Associates ?

ZigZag Digital Associates is built on the lines of an association of like-minded individuals who share a common ethos, culture and purpose. It is more about the challenges and satisfaction of achieving different digital objectives. It is not profit motivated operating more like an art collective where digital artists share and appraise each other works and the skills to produce them. Producing digital artifacts of various types can be the subject of both appraisal and criticism by fellow digital associates. Inevitably in some cases the revenue and profits generated can become a measure of the market success of a particular digital product. But this from a ZigZag perspective it is only one measure. Anyone appraising the design of the current digital landscape can see what a mess it is due to its commercially driven evolution. ZigZag although inevitably required to operate within this digital framework does look to achieve where possible a more logical approach.
There are two key Partners running ZigZag Digital Associates. David Bannister known as Zig and George Szubinski known as Zag. They are both very experienced digital developers having both had long careers within the digital industry. David is more systems orientated whilst George is the true digital technician. Both are very creative and very critical of each other’s creations.  ZigZag has a huge list of potential projects in the pipeline with ideas evolving by the hour if not by the minute. These are held on the backburner with projects moved forward to be worked upon depending almost on the whim of David and George. Some are worked upon and parked whilst others are moved forward into a market ready state. The approach is deliberately non-commercial being more based upon looking for the satisfaction to be gained from progressing a project. If commercial success occurs that is a bonus able to fund more project activities. The whole approach is long term rather than short term.
So why have we termed it ZigZag Digital Associates? We have developed this based on the Intellectual Property (IP) industry particularly the way IP experts operate on an associate basis. Really ZigZag Digital Associates is a creator of new intellectual property. If we sell on one of our creations we are selling an intellectual property. It may be a real product made up of coded objects or it may be unique frameworks, processes and techniques. It is more often than not a hybrid combining all these aspects in one packaged solution. Selling the product IP is often more focussed upon consultancy and training in the processes and techniques used to create and operate the deliverable. It is a difficult area so making it aligned with the Intellectual Property (IP) industry makes the most sense. ZigZag makes use of a huge variety of architectures, frameworks, solutions, techniques and processes. The leaning is towards an “open systems” architecture where the software used is free of charge. But where required purchased or more commonly licensed software will be used if it better meets the needs of the ZigZag final solution.
ZigZag works with a variety of other Associates both nationally and internationally on a free of charge or paid for basis as necessary. These Associates usually offer very specific skill sets needed to develop our products. We also use ZigZag Associates skilled in our own products to support our customers.

20 - 001 Background to ZigZag Digital Associates

With the tagline “we breed ideas and grow solutions” ZigZag Digital Associates is an informal group of digital experts who focus upon digital creativity and digital solution delivery. Importantly there are no boundaries to the types of digital solutions that are developed. Many only make it to a prototype stage before being abandoned whilst others may be made operational as revenue sources. Some solutions may need to be sold off because the capital and professional investment required exceeds the capabilities or scope of ZigZag Digital Associates. ZigZag Digital Associates will always look to retain a percentage of the ownership of all sold solutions. So from now on let us just call ourselves ZigZag. So ZigZag is a digital ideas incubator really focussed on the latest digital technologies supporting both digital business solutions and digital life solutions. We are a proactive think tank able to quickly turn ideas into digital solutions. We are experts in the digital technologies in all their various incarnations. We can write code but pride ourselves on the use of productivity accelerators to quickly generate our digital solutions. Whilst being experts in so called back office technologies we are particularly keen on the human to computer interfaces. You cannot operate in the digital technologies arena without understanding and acknowledging the power of both cloud computing and social media platforms. Much of our creativity is focused upon the exploitation of these particular digital architectures. Yes both cloud computing and social media have their own distinct designs and therefore they are underpinned by specific digital architectures. Inevitably both video and audio outputs are becoming key components in the digital world as is artificial intelligence and the so called “internet of things” now set to explode with the arrival of the 5G mobile network. So is ZigZag a disruptor? We like to think we disrupt by simplicity. If any theme runs through our thinking processes it is about “keeping it simple”. Keeping it intuitive. Acknowledging paradigms or creating new paradigms. Making it fun. Making it a worthwhile experience. Adding real value. Making it enjoyable. Looking for re-engagement. Acknowledging humanity. Whilst we have a business focus, within ZigZag, as the name suggests, we like to zig and zag towards the more human emotional use of digital technologies. So some of our projects look to capture the incorporation of human emotions and memories into digital solutions. It is about sharing and legacy. It is about evoking thoughts and feelings. It is about generating satisfaction and wellbeing. One aspect of ZigZag is the constant focus upon zigzagging across platforms making use of the whole digital landscape. Integration is a key element in this type of approach. Moving the user around the internet meeting their objectives whilst streamlining the whole process of movement. We have a particular fascination for the creation of interconnecting nodes to move users through different digital landscapes. ZigZag has always had a focus on the subject of digital workflows. Or more genetically life flows. The step by step linear or non-linear movement through complex business or digital processes or life processes. The acknowledgement of the productivity gains and the communication gains to be made by the adoption of a digital workflow approach. The need to store and record life flows for your emotional satisfaction and reflection. So welcome to the world of ZigZag. You are not entering a normal world.