Alles Normales

In short: Case study “How I was hunting down information on a Russian reusable manned winged spacecraft” - point by point breakdown of how information service of one kind might generate leads to related services which bring much more money than original inquiry implied.
The story:OK, if you happened to follow my blog for a while you already know what scope of this blog is misc. profit generating ideas which emerge on a edge of ONLINE and OFFLINE worlds. OFFLINE world is mostly populated by masses of Internet illiterate people who do not speak/understand English - which are plenty in so called Third World countries (*provincial* Russia included - that’s where I’m from).

You may also know that my favorite profit generating niche is Info Digging - as a rule, I dig information in foreign language for customers who does not speak that foreign language, and most often it’s for customers from Russia who seek to obtain information in English (which they do not speak).

But every so often foreign customers (that is, ones from abroad of Russia) turn to my assistance regarding certain information in Russian they need to hunt down. I love hunting information down, so I’m always eager to participate in another Internet adventure (as I often call these endeavors of mine…).

Also, this particular story I’m going to share with you vividly illustrates that information service of one kind might generate leads to related services which often bring more money than original inquiry for main service implied - I’ll try to break it down to points.

This February I received following message:

–
Hi,

I am doing some independent research on various elements of the private space industry. I recently encountered an article on the LKS Chelomei space plane which mentioned a USSR patent #188442. I would like to discover if the patent is available, if it could be translated into English, and the cost for this service. Obviously price is an issue for me since I am self funded, but if it is reasonable then I would like to pursue this project further.

In addition, the article makes reference to a 25 volume technical specification and 15 volume construction plan as below. I would be interested in your comments or suggestions about the availability of such volumes, and your fees for translation services of the same.

Best Regards,
John M.
–

For my reference, John M. provided links to related materials - you can see it here http://www.astronautix.com/craft/lks.htm.

I’m very good at locating Russian patents and old Soviet Union/USSR authors’ certificates (the closest things USSR had for patents) - often it costs me nothing to obtain an electronic copy of a patent, and even if I cant get it for nothing it still costs me considerably less than I charge for it ($15 for easy ones and up to $50 for tough ones). If interest arises I may tell more about patent delivery service.

But profit I generate from patent copy delivery pales in comparison with related services - that’s exactly what I was talking above. What kind of services might be related to patent copy delivery?

1) Translation service (usually from Russian to English) - this kind of service has its own small secrets I plan on revealing in my future postings, coz it’s real exciting and I’d love to see comments from likeminded folks for whom English is not mother tongue.
Translation can bring considerably more money than plain patent copy delivery.

2) Prior art search in the database of Russian patents (that is, in a database of non-English literature). In a word, prior art search comes handy when an interested party seeks to destroy other party’s priority in certain area secured by a patent what that other party filed.

Say, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos patented “1-click shopping” business model and Tim O’Reilly (the O’Reilly guy) promised to pay $10 000 (ten thousand dollars) to whomever finds a prior art to that 1-click thingy. I’m going to ramble on this in a near future, too - for now I just tell you that prior art search in non-English literature can bring much more money than plain patent copy delivery.

3) Research service - research on a various matters related to patent’s subject. Research field may include many areas touched in a patent - e.g. there might be a need to locate an inventor, something mentioned in patent or practical use of technology described. I charge an hourly fee - usually $40/hour (and $100 being my minimal charge). Besides, customer would often require translation of found materials - that’ll add to my income on that kind of project, too - so now you know that research service may bring much more money than plain patent copy delivery.

Ok, I’m getting back to John M.’s inquiry. I immediately saw that I can probably apply all 3 kinds of services mentioned above - I can 1) deliver a copy of USSR patent #188442, 2) translate it into English and 3) do some research on 25 volume technical specification and 15 volume construction plan - so I replied back and we started communication.

Here is a copy of my message:

JM> a USSR patent #188442. I would like to discover if the patent is available

I retrieved SU188442 patent - please find it attached for your reference.
It is provided at no cost to you - because obviously your source cited wrong patent number, the patent I’m sending along deals not with LKS (Legkiy Kosmicheski Samolet) Chelomei but with method to fight methanol in coalmine industry.

I tried to browse the database by the author’s name but “Chelomei”
brought out just a single result totally unrelated to space flights
industry.

JM> if it could be translated into English, and the cost for this service.

We charge $0.12 per word (English). Job will be carried out by a seasoned translator (his mother tongue is American English) who’s got extensive scientific background and professional experience - many years at DuPont, CB Research & Development, Beard Research Inc and Polytechnic University, Brooklyn.

JM> In addition, the article makes reference to a 25 volume
JM> technical specification and 15 volume construction plan as below.
JM> I would be interested in your comments or suggestions about the
JM> availability of such volumes

To my mind, your only choice would be to contact Chelomei’s design
bureau or it’s current reincarnation - I doubt that such a materials
are available to public at scientific libraries.
–

You see, I failed to earn money on patent copy delivery and it’s translation, but - as it often happens - simple inquiry for document delivery service led to better paid job (FYI, exactly 6 times better)- namely, research service.

John M. wrote back:
–
You are probably correct about the design bureau, could I retain your service for a fee since I am here in the USA and no realistic chance of communication with them? Please give me an estimate for locating the design bureau with the materials, and I will decide quickly.

Best Regards,
John
–

I replied back and told him that I will gladly help him, that I charge US$40 per hour and my minimum sum for the service would be $100.

His reply read:

–
Ok, the idea of working together to find this sounds good to me, as does
the initial retainer of $100 for the research. I would like to keep my
budget for finding this LKS information to something around this initial
amount.

I will find the likely places for your research to begin by going
through my materials and locating the design bureau, the time frame and
the other references from the initial source. Based on this we will
have a pretty good idea if this is even possible or just a wild chase.
Either way it should be fun.

Let me know where to send the payment.
–

First off, I asked him to forward to me all his online references and John sent me two bibliography references and results of googling for 1st reference.

Later he provided some more links:
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/lks.html (#1)
http://www.astronautix.com/craftfam/ruslanes.htm (#2)
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/okm2.htm (#3)
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/makbiter.htm (#4)

As it often turns out, the very first link (#1) led to document which contained the key information to fulfill the search.

Here is what my search report looked like:

–
I gathered from the references you’d provided that “…Within OKB-52, B. N. Natarov was appointed as head of the group responsible for the LKS project”.

I went to look for B. N. Natarov in Russian Internet sources and found that back in 2003 he attended “Models and methods in aerodynamics” conference which was held in Eupatoria (Russia), June 6-13th. Along with two colleagues of his, he presented a paper titled “A primer of positive implementation of TsAGI recommendations applied to practical integration of power supply and planer part of a prototype supersonic unmanned aircraft”. B. N. Natarov was cited as representative of NPO Mashinostroenie from the town of Reutov.
(Source: http://www.amgd.ru/3_2003/past_conf.html)

Then I went to look for NPO Mashinostroenie and found out that NPO Mashinostroenie from the town of Reutov was formerly known as TsKBM design bureau headed by Vladimir N. Chelomei. NPO Mashinostroenie is one of Russia’s major aerospace design and research institutions.
(Source: http://www.reutovo.ru/catalog.asp?action=item&business_id=359)

Here is contact details for NPO Mashinostroenie:
(compiled from two sources -
http://www.reutovo.ru/catalog.asp?action=item&business_id=359
http://npomit.ru/

which provided different phone numbers, so I’m including all found)

NPO MASHINOSTROYENIA

Director: G.A. Efremov

33 Gagarin St., Reutov, Moscow Region, 143966 Russia
Phone: +7 (495) 528 5012, 302 0584, 528 6141
fax: +7 (495) 302 2001, 300-84-00
E-mail: vvs@npomit.ru (Viktor V. Skorobatuk, Chief of IT department)
WWW: http://npomit.ru/

In fact, I’m somewhat reluctant to approach them with request to
reveal LKS documentation - they are the top military design center and
a person seeking to obtain copies of 25 volumes of LKS papers might
look suspicious in KGB’s eyes. What exactly could I tell them to make
them feel comfortable with me? How to word the request and what exactly ask
for? Please advise.
—

And John M. replied:

–
Thanks for all your work. I understand about your reluctance, caution
is a good idea.

I am thinking that I will contact one of the technical universities here
in the USA and see if I can interest one of the professors in my
project. In this way it will be a college professor working on a space
history research project, which is in fact the truth.

I think I owe you a fee for this research now, please send me payment
details for the work so far.

Regards,
John
–

That’s basically all. The last thing I shall tell you is how much time I spent on this project:
- I wrote 7 letters to John M., guess I spent no more than 5 minutes on each.
- I spent no more than 20-25 minutes online checking the 1st reference address sent to me by John, fishing out the key information on B. N. Natarov, doing search on Russian Internet sources for B. N. Natarov and summarizing address details of NPO Mashinostroenie.

So, overall I spent about 1 hour of my time in total and earned $100 for the job done. Not bad at all, don’t you think so?

Filed under: Success stories - Offline meets Online