TOP 10 RULES (continued)
SUMMARY: Here’s a screaming recap of the top 10 rules:
1. USE APPROPRIATE PROFESSIONAL LANGUAGE
2. USE PROPER GRAMMAR AND SPELLING
3. BE HONEST AND TRUTHFUL
4. RESPECT COPYRIGHTS
5. USE APPROPRIATE SIGNATURE LINES
6. RESPOND TO SPECIFIC REQUESTS IN A TIMELY FASHION
7. do not type in all caps
8. AVOID FLAMING
9. AVOID MULTIPOSTING, CROSSPOSTING, OFF-TOPIC POSTING, AND HIJACKING A DISCUSSION THREAD
10. DO NOT FORWARD INAPPROPRIATE JOKES, ANY CHAIN LETTERS, ETC.
OTHER RULES: Have you had enough rules yet? No one likes to be Mirandized with all of these rules, but it couldn’t be helped. I needed filler for my blogs.
Guess what? I’m almost done, but you’re just beginning. This generic top 10 for academicians is a starter list. Your institution may have additional guidelines for Intranet and Internet communications. Further, if you teach or are a student in online courses, a separate set of rules may be required for all virtual classroom communication (for examples, Google “Stefany Smith or Sheila Chase, netiquette”). Check out these other rules. At least you have a Netiquette foundation on which to build, unless you skipped some of the blogs.
EPILOGUE: Please consider the importance of these rules and how they can affect what you say online and, especially, HOW you say it. After you write anything, review it and be sensitive to the consequences of its reading before you hit “send” or “post.” Your professional reputation and credibility and career trajectory will depend on it.
As Phil Esterhaus of Hill St. Blues used to say, “Hey, let’s be careful out there!”
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
TOP 10 RULES (continued)
Here are the last 3
NETIQUETTE DO’S:
4. RESPECT COPYRIGHTS: Unscrupulous ninnies are stealing information off of every imaginable cyber-source without permission or credit. Even several of these ninnies stole one of my blogs and parts of others. Plagiarism is out of control. As academicians, you’re trained APA style-wise or, heaven forbid, in Chicago or AMA style to cite and acknowledge sources in ALL of your writing. Do the same online.
Make sure to get permissions and/or acknowledge sources when appropriate, even Wikipedia. DO NOT swipe any material—print or nonprint media. As a contributor to the Internet, you also need to protect your intellectual property. For the consequences of violations and guidelines on how to protect your work, check out my October 2009 blogs on “Copyright Infringement” and “Intellectual Property.”
5. USE APPROPRIATE SIGNATURE LINES: Do you have a signature line? If not, get one soon. They’re on sale at COSTCO®. Haha. You need to identify who you are. If you are commenting on professional issues on listservs or in group discussions, your credentials are important to colleagues so they can evaluate the weight of your contributions. Your position and expertise provide a context for your messages. For example, if you are Director of the Alligator Rehabilitation Institute at Everglades University, your suggestions on how to capture an alligator with asthma in your hot-tub are noteworthy.
Also, a signature line with title, institution, address, e-mail, phone, and fax makes it possible for colleagues to contact you easily. If you have a business Website, blog, publishing company, and/or other professional sites, you should include links to them. If the list appears too unwieldy, create different signature lines for different target readerships. (SIGNATURE ALERT: Of course, if you’re a spy, recently involved in the Espionage Exchange Program, or work for Homeland Security with a code fuchsia clearance or above, none of these contact rules apply. Stay undercover; see if we care.)
6. RESPOND TO SPECIFIC REQUESTS IN A TIMELY FASHION: If colleagues, known or unknown, or students request information from you, try to respond in a timely fashion, within 24 hours. If you don’t have time to fill the request, respond that you will get back to them by a certain date. That’s just professional courtesy. Be empathetic.
You may receive inquiries from all over the world. It may be a copyright permission, article, research evidence, teaching request, or resource request. Respond appropriately and quickly. Everyone appreciates a rapid response. Again, it’s your professional reputation on the line. "Just do it!"
My next blog will continue with 3 don’ts related to caps, flaming, and crossposting. Hope this info is helpful.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
How do you know whether someone has stolen your material? Do you have to hire Monk in his final season? Better hurry. If an infringement is detected, what do you do to get it removed or hurt the infringer, figuratively speaking?
Prevention-wise, experts on this topic, like lawyer Jay Hollander, Esq., recommend copyrighting your books, conference presentations, Websites, blogs, etc. as literary works within 3 months of publication ($45 copyright registration fee) and before any infringement occurs. This maximizes your legal claims and compensation should a lawsuit be necessary. (Note: For blogs which change daily, the copyright would have to be filed every 3 months.)
Post WARNINGS on your works. On your professional Websites, blog sites, etc., post the copyscape warning you see at the top of each of my blogs and a copyright line of your corporation at the end.
Now, how do you proceed?
Here are MY TOP 10 SUGGESTED STEPS TO RESOLUTION:
1. Search the Internet for stolen material. Use www.copyscape.com or another company who can track down whether any of your work is stolen. They also report the link for the site containing your work. For $5. a year, they will run 100 scans of cyberspace for you. Can’t beat that! They scanned all of my blogs to date and the culprit was immediately identified. They can scan your manuscripts, Websites, and everything else you write lickety split. For an extra nominal fee, they can scan your sites and send you a report weekly.
2. Track down the perp (that’s Law & Order lingo for "perpetrator") with the link provided by Copyscape.
3. Assess the extent of the damage---2 lines, paragraghs, or the whole article, blog, or Web page.
4. Contact the perp online or by phone. Online is more practical, though less intimidating, for perps in UK, India, and elsewhere outside of the U.S.
5. Mirandize the perp. Request in writing that the stolen material be immediately removed from his or her document or site.
6. Wait a couple of days for a response. If there is no response, send another e-mail.
7. Submit a “takedown notice.” If the perp doesn’t respond or challenges the legitimacy of your claim, send 1 more communication indicating you will be submitting a “takedown notice” to the search engine or other source carrying the infringed material which will request removal. If the material still isn’t removed, go to step 8 and collect more than $200.
8. Get a lawyer. There are specific legal requirements for the “takedown notice.” A competent lawyer can advise you.
9. Search engine should remove material. This should resolve the problem unless there is a challenge to the rights of the copyrighted material.
10. File a lawsuit as a last resort. Hopefully, the perp will have seen the error of his or her plagiarized ways before legal action is required. You can also file suit if you have been damaged in some way by his or hers actions with your work.
I hope these suggestions might help a little. The legal issues are a lot more complicated and beyond my meager knowledge of this process. Step 6 was sufficient to resolve my recent blog theft. Fortunately, legal action wasn’t required.
Let me know of any experiences you have had or reactions to the above suggestions.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
