Should Freelancers Share Their Knowledge?

I don’t agree with number 2. I guess most of us won’t and don’ want any lawsuit.
Copying or duplicating someone’s work is considered plagiarism – which is not accepted in the creative industry.

It’s better to be inspired and create an original that to be a copycat.

For freelance developers, it can also create a lot of credibility if they open source portions of their software. I’ve had numerous clients ask about open source projects I’ve contributed towards.

A successful businessman once told me “knowledge is power”. I do agree that sharing knowledge is important and can benefit the giver and receiver. But, here’s the question that I’ve been grappling with for some time — As a designer/creator in today’s e-world of OpenSource, what do I protect and what to I share and how does this affect my revenue model?

Hi, fun to read that today.
I’ve just lauch a website to share tips and ressources with make-up and hair trainee, and lots of people I talk to about this ask me why I do it, or that I shouldn’t lose time for people who do not put much energy to search for the info themselves.

but I just hope that helping each other is important in a field, you need to work as a team quite often in make-up (as other freelance jobs) and if it’s people you have lreay interact, even only online, it’s better.
I also think whatever helps get a global better quality in my industry is good for me : more challenging, more satisfying.
if you know people who can be interested by this website (make-up and hair trainee or wannabe make-up artist in the uk…), here’s the link : http://www.makeuptrainee.com

Its only recently that I’ve worked out I should be doing this. Not only for the sake of people who may read my blog or forum posts but also as a guide for myself.

Nothing helps knowledge sink in more than sitting down and writing about a specific subject.

I think copying is OK as long as you give the credit to the genuine creator and the genuine creator doesn’t find it objectionable (this implies that you should ask first). Ideally, yes, it is an acceptance of your mastery if people copy your work but if your work earns you a living and people pay you for your uniqueness then other people copying your work may cause you problem, especially when they promote the creation as their own work.

But I totally agree with the concept of sharing your knowledge and experience and I think this is what most of the bloggers do through their blog posts. And anyway, when you share your knowledge and experience on a regular basis it helps you establish your authority and this in turn brings you more work.

Hello guys, the key of the matter is not if copying is ok or not, anybody like being ripped and ideally it never should happen, but the fact is you cant do too much about it (I mean small rippers)… you would spend too time and you didnt get too much. My proposal is accept it like a sign of success, its good for you in some way.

LOGOMOTTO: Paraphrasing a famous sentence: “copying from one source is plagiarism, copying from lot of sources is research.” Anyway Im always talking from the perspective of the artist ripped, no from the ripper.

JOANN SONDAY: that is a good question, as DAN said some replies sooner, I would share some portions. I would share something valuable but not the core of the software.

Sharing information is good karma, and I can certainly attest to #3. Earlier this summer, a fellow writer asked for a contact at a certain website I contribute to. I gave it to her, because they update daily and I knew that there was plenty of work to go around (plus, she asked nicely so I had a hard time saying no). This week she posted on a forum looking for writers to contribute to a website that she now edits. I emailed her right away and landed the gig. Now, I met all the criteria she listed, but I also suspect that she remembered our email exchange from earlier this summer and that reflected favorably.

Even if someone doesn’t become an editor or hiring manager, they could refer you to a project or help you in other ways. Discount no one.

Unlike LogoMotto, I agree with the writer that copying is not a large problem But yes copying content should be credited to original writer. I know many people don’t do that and that’s where they invite copyright lawsuit. As far as I have seen on internet, that is very old and general practice. post my opinion on any post is ok. With a brief introduction about original writer.

This is sharing. Isnt it?

Great article Sergio. Thank you.

#2 is a tricky one. Web designs, by definition, are copywritten and as such can not be copied without permission. In this day and age, information = revenue, so it’s much harder to determine what you can and cannot share.

The information I see is good to share are contacts, maybe for that job you just don’t have time for, and information regarding a new technique in a software app common to your industry. I learn TONS from reading the code of other websites, but then it’s up to me to do it on my own, not copy it.

Don’t steal someone’s proprietary information. If you like their work, ask them to mentor you and then give something back to them. Keeps the cycle of positive kharma going.

Excellent post Sergio.

#2 is a interesting and a bit controversial. Funny if you look at this site, FS, how many times it’s been nearly duplicated by others. It certainly is a form of flattery, copyright issues aside. Also copying doesn’t need to mean exact copying. Every designer sees what’s being done around the web, and naturally takes what they think works well and incorporates that into a new design. I don’t want anyone actually copying a design to the pixel, but if they use some of my ideas, then great. That’s done everyday, it’s not a big deal.

Many of the same reasons I started teaching in a formal setting. However, teaching has the added benefit that it usually does make some money at the time. Its funny I always tell my students that I get as much or more out of teaching than they do.

Yeah, have to disagree in a big way on number 2. If we worked in the public eye to the extent that people could differentiate between the original and the derivative, I’d say maybe. But mostly, I’d be thinking of rounding up the lawyers! Very good post otherwise. Keep ‘em coming…

Most designers and freelance web developers learnt what they know, or at lease keep their knowledge up to date, freely via the internet thanks to people sharing their experiences and knowledge. I’m all for doing the same.

The most common question is “Why should I build myself rivals”. Face it – the more quniques skills you have, the more you are able to get for your services (said the freelancer who teaches his skills in a university… heh)
Reaonably speaking it might be best to separate the things. Part for the money, part for polishing your fame image and part free for the people to get gratefuful for.

This is a really great post with good ideas, but could we have copyedited it a little?

“The more people copies from you”

“who knows who is the next Steve Jobs, maybe is that guy who learn from your tutorials”

Not to be a hater, just thought I’d bring it to your attention

One of the most powerful labels you can have is that you are the master of the other masters. We’ve all seen it: the “guru’s guru”, the “writer’s writer”, the “guy who taught so-and-so the ropes”. You’re not creating your own competition, you’re establishing a doctrine. You’re building fame. Nobody is more expert than the expert the other experts turn to.

Good stuff, Sergio.

I absolutely agree and loe that fact that you are advocating sharing knowledge and teaching for the sake of teaching and helping veryone grow. The world has become so cut-throat and money hungry that many people don’t see the value of sharing anymore. I’ a teacher by naure and can’t help but pass on my information to my juniors and protege’s, I can’t help but share what I kow and wish more people had your outlook. Thanks a bunch for a great post.

Tera

FREYA: Of course, its welcome. Im spanish in my english is not too good, thanks a lot

MICHAEL: amazing, that is the sentence that summarize the whole article:
“You’re not creating your own competition, you’re establishing a doctrine. “

“Good artists copy, great artists steal” – pablo picasso

Joomla – I totally agree. Esp. when it comes to the business side of things. When I first got into this a lot of it wasn’t even a thought to me.

Author is completely wrong. Any knowledge that can lead to situation when you can be paid for it doesn’t deserve to be shared for those, who can use this idea and receive part of your potential income.

One thing I didn’t expect was to learn from my own tutorials for PSDTUTS. It’s true that once you consciously argument your technique, you find ways to improve it.

Though i had been following the tutorials on PSDTUTS almost since their beginning, i wasn’t involved at all. I looked at the “pretty pictures” and learned what I could from them. Once they started a contest that I eventually won, i was forced to try their tutorials, and transform them into something original. Now I’m actually the one writing tutorials…

And yes, it’s a lot of fun

I think this might be the most ridiculous article I’ve ever read on here. I don’t agree with # 2 at all and # 7 doesn’t even make sense.

@Sergio Ordoñez: Well said, “copying from one source is plagiarism, copying from lot of sources is research”.
And really, #7 doesn’t make much sense.

I’ve got to agree with many of the others posting comments – #2 isn’t necessarily something I would aspire too. Imitation is not always the most sincere form of flattery – sometimes it’s nothing more than a blatant ripoff and that annoys the hell out of me.

For many years, local “little round glasses and black turtleneck” designers were annoyed with me for sharing my knowledge with others – as if I was giving away trade secrets. Instead, from my point of view, sharing one’s knowledge is a great way to raise the education level, professionalism and general industry awareness of others. Everyone benefits from the exchange of knowledge and ideas.

Sharing one’s knowledge has also become a value portion of my business income. About 35-45% of my annual income now comes from writing magazine articles, speaking engagements and conference presentations, and writing books.

I agree, we should all share knowledge…to a point. I know that a few times, I’ve gotten stung by a person who’s learned my stuff and gone after a client or two. Shame on me – being a judge of character is essential in sharing knowledge for no profit.

I’ve become much more anonymous, with help, being general in nature – on message boards, but for the most part, have stopped being too detailed when sharing knowledge.

And just for the record, I don’t know how that person found out who two of my clients were – he had no privvy to information as to such.

Excellent article. Thanks for sharing.

A couple of things to consider:

(1) I’d say that whether or not you decide to share your know-how is a matter of perspective. It kinda’ goes back to that whole “abundance” or “scarcity” thing. But I’m not going to make this a law of attraction post.

(2) If someone has the knack for learning web design, graphic design, becoming a great writer or whatever else it is that we know, then teaching them (or not teaching them) really isn’t going to matter. They’ll eventually figure it out if they’re so inclined.

(3) There’s no better way to position yourself as an “expert” than to get up in front of the room and teach people something. It also forces you to take a chunk of what you know and actually make sense of it so that it can be taught to someone else. Depending on what you do, things like free seminars can also be a great way to generate leads and new business.

(4) For most of the skills that we have in this group, there will probably always be more people that just want us to do it for them rather than learn to do it themselves. And no matter how much time we have available to teach someone what we know, you probably can’t teach them EVERYTHING.

(5) Teaching what you know can be an additional profit center if you’re able to package and sell your know-how. A copywriter can create a course on how to write great copy. A web designer can create a tutorial on HTML/CSS. And the funny thing is that many people will buy the course to try to learn it, then decide they’d rather just have someone handle it for them. Who is the logical choice when it’s time to make that decision?

(6) If a competitor happens to be in the audience, reading your course, or whatever, at least they’ll know you’re competent (or just freakin’ awesome!). What if they get flooded with business and want to refer some of those leads rather than lose them? Again, who is the logical choice?

(7) It could be a good way to teach potential customers why they need whatever it is that you do and why they should buy from you vs. someone else.

(8) Whatever you do should never be so vanilla that it can be completely ripped off by someone else. Part of that is having a unique spin on whatever it is that you do and having a great relationship with your customers.

Kenton

I am a big believer in helping out other people. I have been on the receiving end of other people’s generosity with their knowledge and paying it forward just seems like the right thing to do.

Anyone who doesn’t understand #7 has never taught anyone anything. It makes perfect sense to me.

I think #2 is vague. I think people look at those designers inspired by Chuck Anderson and go “Hey, looks like Chuck Anderson’s work!”, which is all fine and dandy in a very general, oversimplified way for Chuck Anderson. But who wants to be the designer ripping off Chuck Anderson? Also, if I were Chuck Anderson I’d be pissed. Potential clients would eagerly line up for cheaper, just good enough versions of Chuck Anderson’s work, so there is lost income for Chuckie.

Its always better develop your own style. Its totally normal to be inspired by other designers. We all have our influences that we are copying subconciously, it’s just that so much gets mixed in that we end up giving it our own style and unique perspective in the end. Anyone who says they don’t draw inspiration from the things they see in life and design is lying- either on purpose or to themselves. It’s impossible for you to shut down your subconcious to the level where you are not unintentionally copying someone through inspiration. Plus, what could anyone possibly create that’s truly original these days? Not to mention, it would be awful if there was never an Impressionist movement, or Surrealist movement, or other movements where artists all created similar but individually unique work.

Regardless, don’t directly copy someone elses work. It’s not good for you or the original and it can be copyright infringement, you could be facing legal reprocussions. I hope that is not what the author is implying you should do.

Planet Earth nowadays isn’t a good place for altruism, Jodee. Only those, who aren’t harassed by life and income level love to talk about sharing knowledge and helping people

re #2: I am assuming that by “copy” you mean technique, process or element rather than actual plagiarism. I think that we all learn from copying on some level. Be it the knowledge taken from the masters of old or from the brilliance of half of the people here on this board. We see something we like, it sticks with us. And like Picasso said “Good artists copy, great artists steal”.

I am sure that he didn’t mean to literally replicate every element of a piece and call it your own, but the things within a piece that just sing to you. An artist that copies is only as good as the original and an artist who steals can be greater, can take the element and make it better, make it their own. So you share your knowledge and there are two possible outcomes, a person follows each step and never dares to take it further on their own or they take far beyond.

#7 does make sense to me. The author is saying that by taking the time to make a tutorial of a piece allows you to break it down and really register all the methods you used. Because sometimes things are a beautiful mistake and that would allow you to figure out what went “so right”.

Though I will have to say that this is a poorly written article and lacks editing. Good concept though.

Try and Copy Me….

We have launched a freeliancer website.registration is free to webmaster and programmer.
Only 4% charge after u have got payment.
Please take a look and leave u r valuable feedback.
http://www.lancerglobal.com/index.php

Although I think this article was a bit high level, it’s overall message rings true with me. As one who spent a lot of time on the “researching & get ready” (vs. the “action & implementation”) phase of freelancing, I realized one day that I’ve amassed a nice collection of references, resources and an overall industry perspective that many of my colleagues haven’t had the luxury, time, knowledge (of where to look), or desire (social/interactive media is part of their bigger business model – not their main focus) to achieve on their own.

Professionally speaking, coming from one of the “final four” public accounting firms my initial mindset was focused on holding my cards close. To the contrary, working with the greater online community, with it’s culture of open source, information sharing & collaboration, I’ve found more opportunities by freely offering assistance, time or information to someone than from any advertising/self-promotion efforts. The most satisfying projects I’ve worked on (and some of the best free lunches!) have come my way as results of people who’ve said they’ve appreciated my suggestions and ideas, and would like to engage me more formally for assistance with specific strategies.

From a karma perspective, I’ve learned more online in one year through people’s generosity of time & knowledge via blogs/tutorials/forums than I did during my 4 years at college. I consider any opportunity to contribute/give back a bit of a privilege and rite of passage from “newbie” to “consultant”

Interesting to see other’s perspectives on this as well.

I have but one comment. If we, as creatives, share our ideas, it forces us to go out and search our minds for new innovative ones. Coveting your ideas and not sharing, will make you stale and always working off those “reserves”. So as for me, as a visual web designer, it only pushes me harder to always keep my self on the top of my game and learn create learn create through the sharing of ideas. We are a community, and should be pushing each other to always create.

I think that creatives should form communities online and share knowledge, etc.

HOWEVER, when you’re a contract freelancer for a company, and that company wants you to, for instance, train their print designers to do what you are contracted out for their company to do (ie: web design), then how much sense does it make to train yourself out of a job?

Thanks for the article Sergio. Well, to answer the post question, I definitely think it’s best to share the knowledge we all have. It makes the learning experience that much easier. Resources like the Adobe Forums and tutorial based sites help us all. Plus it’s just good karma to help others out. If we all give a little, then there’s that much more for all of us to receive in return.

I have how-to articles and tutorials on my new blog as a way to help others. Check out my “Tools To Make You A Better Graphic Designer” post…and “How to Create Your Own Digital Portriat Painting” posts.

If I accidentally posted this twice, its because the first time it took me to a blank white page; no submit comment verification message?