SQLServerPedia

If it's not your work, it's not your work.

I never paid much attention to the several articles out on the web about plagiarism with respect to SQL Server, blogs, etc., that is, until it happened to me. About a year ago I did a really cool blog on an interesting idea, and a month or so later, there it was in a national publication. Very nice, right?  You probably won’t notice this until a piece of work that you author gets either copied and pasted, or regurgitated by someone else.  Truth be told, in my estimation it’s not flattery.  Spending hours and hours on a concept to put out on a blog only to have it used by someone else, especially on a big national site or outlet, really sucks.  That’s why I always, always put links in the references section on my work where applicable when I get an idea from someone else. And, I challenge anyone to look at something that I did on my blog to tell me that it is either not original work, or work that has a link to give credit where credit is due.  It's the right thing to do.

The SQL Server community is strong, much stronger than others out there today. The involvement of many is huge, the MVP program is great, and the countless number of sites and blogs helping others in our field is unmatched.  Folks spend far more time than myself either travelling, speaking, writing, etc. for really nothing more than the satisfaction of lending a helping hand, learning, or assisting others to become better.  I appreciate this – after all, I had a mentor teach me the ropes back in the 1990’s who had fifty plus years of experience in computers.  You think I had an edge over the others because of this?  Oh yeah, so much that one year my salary doubled because of his great training.  And now that the older guys such as he have gone on to retirement, it’s this same community who include people like myself and the folks on the many sites (sqlserverpedia.com, sqlservercentral.com, sqlmag.com, others) that collectively share in training, mentoring, and researching for the new guys coming up, hopefully to give them assistance or an edge down the road.  And believe me, they need it.  I have been interviewing people at my current consulting gig, a global billion dollar company, the past month helping them find ETL folks, and 99% of the resumes that I read represent a candidate who does not have the necessary skills or competency to perform the job.

If you are unsure whether to reference someone or something (even Books Online), do it.  Not only will you lend credibility to your posting or article, but will show the professionalism and courtesy toward others. And that’s what it’s all about really. Professionalism.  Are you a hack, or are you someone that is a trained and educated writer who understands the very basic tenets and concepts of writing and authoring? When I got my master’s degree, this notion was deeply instilled into the student. We had to sign an agreement saying that we would go out of our way to do take the steps necessary to reference other’s work.  This is the difference that demonstrates a master’s level writer and competency to one with the skills of a high-schooler, or less actually. Finally, if others find out later that you did not cite someone else's work, you've just made yourself look like a complete idiot in the eyes of many.

Lee Everest