"Some birds aren't meant to be caged, their feathers are just too bright"- Morgan Freeman, Shawshank Redemption. This blog is from one such bird who couldn't be caged by organizations who mandate scripted software testing. Pradeep Soundararajan welcomes you to this blog and wishes you a good time here and even otherwise.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Indian testers STEALING a testers creativity - STOP THEM

Hi Reader,

It is very disappointing to note that my article Technology that failed in India (Testing Bowl of the world) is under circulation among Indian testers through e-mails.

Now, why am I disappointed about my article being circulated all over India?

The people who are forwarding it are changing their own name and forwarding it. Now, if you are a Tester Tested reader and want to encourage me to share such learning I had, you should take this seriously and pass it on to all those who have got the mail and also to those who are about to get the mail.

If Indian testers play such a spoil sport, its going to hamper the growth of Indian Testing community.

Hey come on, its my brain child. I cant let you steal the credit!

I am writing this pretty strong as I cannot find and catch all those Indian testers who are displaying the act of plagiarism.

This blog of mine has been encouraging so many Indian testers and if you disappoint me by plagiarism, I am sure you are making me hesitant to share my future learning.

I am not sure how serious you are going to take this since you are not affected yet. I just hope Indian testers themselves do not become a barrier to other Indian testers to achieve something that India can be proud of.

This is what Michael Bolton had to say on hearing this - "A tester without integrity is a tester without credibility--and a tester without credibility won't have a career for long."

He also mentioned that such an incident happened to Cem Kaner and the community of testers there in US and Canada took it up strongly to the person who plagiarised and the author had to step down from the association and the online magazine was held.

This is India, I cannot expect an immediate revolution, yet I am hopeful.

Lets not kill each other, Lets build each other!

With tears (for fellow Indian testers behaving this way) and disappointment,

Pradeep Soundararajan
pradeep.srajan@gmail.com

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is really really bad! People need to understand that talent can not be acquired by copying someone's work.

Shrini Kulkarni said...

Encourage more and more people to create stuff like yours.
If I were you ... I would ask more and more people to copy my stuff so that my testing philosophy spreads like "virus" - that is what I want and that is why I blog ...

Coming to Name and fame - ultimately you will get it as people who copy can not sustain for long and world will know about the truth.

Remember - "knowledge and Wisdom are the worlds be guarded assets - NO one can steal them"

Shrini

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

@ Shrini,

I can show many blogs that have come up after this but encouraging someone to copy and key in their name in between is not good for the community. As you might have known by now such a thing happened to Dr Cem Kaner too.

I know that you encourage me and I myself have seen many a times you giving credits to the great minds whenever you use their quotes or link to them as needed.

As said, lets create a healthy environment so that other testers need not worry about posting their valuable learning on their blog.

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

@Ashish,

But is Indian community is so fragile that handiwork of few people will affect entire community. I doubt

Any community for that matter is fragile. My fear is, if one starts doing it others might follow. Had those people who display an act of plagiarism done it for a different country men, the views from them could have affected all of us.

We take things for granted and do not realize the value. I am not fighting because it happened to me but this is the second time that this such a thing is happening.

I recommend you to see the NDTV program "Avishkar India" or "India innovates". People invent stuff with so much passion and you can see some cry for not getting funding to make it big. I was supposed to be one among them for a project but someone stole it from me. Of course, I was naive and gave away the idea and project without knowing the intention of people who approached me but I am no longer naive and I fight for my own work.

You can hit the ball hard to the ground but it bounces back and crosses its previous height, so am I.

Lets not make it a habit to plagiarise. Any creativity stolen is a harm done to a persons future. I too would want to contribute to my country's future.

Jai Hind!

Anonymous said...

Pradeep dont worry if some one circulates your work as their own,cant you estimate how narrow minded he/she is.One thing is for sure that for a tester to excel it is the integrity and broad mindedness that makes a tester flourish by allowing to look at the things as they are(as James Bach says).I am sure that the one who plagiarized and the one who reads that after plagiarising and could not find that its plagiarized both are at menace with respect to growth in their career.
So dont become a hesitant to share your knowlege after all you cant disagree that you became a self certified and complacent tester only after you started giving your learnings.Dont think otherwise I warn you that if you hesitate to give your knowledge to someone you are trapped in to a well which keeps you away from the happenings.Beware..(Extremely Sorry If I hurt you).Pradeep I say all this things because I am afraid that I loose a source of learning if you stop sharing your learnings.

Joy Forever said...

This is really very very disappointing. But there are a lot of people who steal others' blogs and send them as their own e-mails. People have also stolen photos taken by me and posted them at various places as their own. It's time people became aware that this is ethically wrong and did something to prevent such things.

Anonymous said...

This is indeed very bad on the part of the readers who are reading your blogs and copying them.
No doubt the knowledge is to share but why to take the credit of it when you are not the creater. The good example is Tester Tested himself.
He too mentiones the name of other persons when the comments are made by them.
This should indeed be prohibited And whoever is doing it please stop this.

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

@Anonymous,

Thanks but I guess instead of this No doubt the knowledge is to share but why to take the credit of it when you are not the creater. The good example is Tester Tested himself.
He too mentiones the name of other persons when the comments are made by them.
This should indeed be prohibited And whoever is doing it please stop this.


you wanted to say Take Tester Tested as an example as he mentions the name of the person he is addressing to.

Thanks, even otherwise!

Anonymous said...

Don't stop sharing, you are good. But one thing I noticed, I have been reading this Camera story since long so it cannot be said that someone plagiarized your work but may be something available over the net to share. What you think? Should you take it so seriously that you stop sharing or you keep on sharing knowledge and make more testers aware of such things. Second option is better I think.. All the best dude!

Pradeep Soundararajan said...

I have blogged beyond this post and hence I haven't.

I should take it seriously, if you have been reading it for a long time without the original author's name (me) on it, its more disappointing.

However, the world is small and as long as the culprits remain in the software industry, I am going to meet them face to face.

Keep'em comin!

Karthik said...

Hi Pradeep,

I have sent a mail to my colleagues in my company after attending your session on Next Gen Tester. The Mail Subject is "Pradeep's Blogs - From Tester tested - Very Nice" , Hope this is OK .

Regds
Karthik