# Key Points from #hplusroadmap IRC Discussion

• Participants discussed creating an alternative to the patent system that would better document technology through source code, digital files, parseable schematics, and machine-readable metadata—essentially describing what would become SKDB (Software Knowledge Database).

• The current patent system was criticized as "technical debt" with over 29 million documents that often fail to adequately explain implementations, with a suggestion that patents should require white-box replication by technicians to verify functionality.

• The conversation explored challenges in creating universal data formats across different technologies, noting that electronics has achieved better formalization due to simpler, more linear laws, while mechanical designs face more complex 3D representation challenges.

• Technical resources were shared including PyBrain's integration with Open Dynamics Engine (ODE) for virtual simulation of rigid bodies, and Octopart's integration with Autodesk's PLM360 cloud-based solution.

• Participants discussed long-term data preservation challenges, referencing Project Gutenberg as an example of digital archiving that struggles to balance preserving original text with implementing corrections and modernization.

• A brief discussion touched on genomic data storage challenges, noting that the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) alone exceeds 1000 terabytes of data, highlighting the massive scale of scientific data preservation needs.