We live in an era of duplicity. There’s little doubt information is repeated, but ethically and professionally – should systems and organisations RIP OFF work that other people who they used to call ‘colleague’ did? I don’t think so. Copyright is automatic in this country – and you’d hope so would ‘being a professional’ or at least having a code.
And yet, some organisations and individuals are actively cloning the work of other people. They do this to save money, make money and to advance their own perceived insight and value to the broader audience. We know that brands make ‘knock offs’ and are keen to clone products they can make money from. We know school and universities are super keen to teach about ethics and plagiarism and yet systems routinely attempt to RIP OFF work of former worker – and current workers – without permission or conscience.
Let say I’m an expert in ‘digital health’ and have been researching and working on it for say a decade. Let’s say I’ve given my time to colleagues and set them on their own journey. That’s called being a professional. Not lets say I discover that my ideas, my work and all that foundational intellectual property is cloned and I start to read about people actively trying to commercialize ‘their version’. Not only is it an unprofessional dick-move, it reduces my interest in bothering with the current culture of scraping Twitter and blogs for ideas which can be cloned. But they can’t be cloned – there are insights, data and layers of knowledge and experience that can’t be repeated (even it you scraped their slidedeck of Slideshare). Being a professional means not stealing IP and work from others.
So don’t be a dick. If someone have worked (for you and others) on a topic, is local, is available and justifiably get’s pissed when they see a clone of their work, their workshop and thier ideas being put on by someone else – with added Doc Martin’s and pity anecdotes – it isn’t okay – it’s a dick move and you and your office full of Twitter sucking vampires need to take a look at yourselves. Add something to the pool of knowledge and keep your hands off things that you didn’t create – just go buy into some Sloganware – they love it when you copy their media messages and crafted bylines.
Be professional, be a scholar and have some respect.
Yeah, you know who I’m talking about.
Playable 