A plea for help

I have a simple rule about posting email, I don't unless the other people are cool with it. However Heinz just reminded me that sometimes you need to break your rules. Though I didn't follow his advice in the way it was intended, I'm breaking it now by posting yet another email from someone whose gotten themselves into a pickle and it now asking for a way out of the brine. The posting has been edited to protect the guilty.

> Hi Kirk ,
> 
> I am XXXX from India .
> 
> I am a java developer , currently working as a Performance Engineer in XXXXX.
> I have only 18 months Experience in IT industry .
> 
> I always use to read your articles , I use to search them from google .
> 
> I saw one of your abstract which you published on Qcon joint conference.
> 
> Recently I too gave an article on Performance improvement in java picking some good points from your article.
> 
> And I was so surprised when I was informed that my article is selected for the conference.
> 
> XXXX conference is on xxrd July , Audience will be all senior and experienced people like you .
> 
> Kirk I need your help to prepare my presentation , as I am the only one selected from XXXXX out of (large number) resources in India.
> 
> Kirk it will be great help if you can provide some material on which I can prepare my presentation .
> 
> As no one is there to guide me. I thought of approaching you.
> 
> This is the first time I will be going to give presentation in such a big conference at the age of 22.
> 
> This was the link from where I referred your article http://jaoo.dk/london-2008/presentation/Java+Performance+Tuning
> 
> Please reply me back I need your help.
> 
> Thanks XXXXX

I found the persons abstract and discovered that it was a stripped down version of what was on the JAOO site. Though most of my talks are not under creative commons, this particular talk isn't. It would be so easy to be mean or rude to this person but I just don't feel the need to.

It wouldn't be the first time that people have borrowed liberally from me (not that I'm alone here). There is one APress book that has borrowed quite a bit from my (and Jack Shirazi's) work, at least in the first edition anyways. The book is true to form in that when someone borrows liberally, it shows as they are rarely able to do the subject justice. For if they were, they wouldn't need to borrow so much material.

Not wanting to ignore the message, I crafted this response.

Hi XXXX,

I did a quick check and noticed that you did indeed borrowed a wee bit from my abstract. To be honest, we all borrow from each other but generally we do two things. First we acknowledge to others what we've borrowed and from whom we borrowed it from. The second thing we do is we add something that makes it ours and allows us to take or claim ownership so that others may borrow from us in the future.

Just doing someone else's presentation rarely works so my advice to you is to use what you've read from myself and others. Give us attribution in your work and then add something that takes it beyond where it is now. Mix in your own experiences so that we may all learn from you. The audience will feel that this is your story and they will respond to it accordingly.

Best of luck with your presentation.

Kind regards,
Kirk Pepperdine