How does that old saying go? The best compliment or flattery often comes in the form of imitation?

I had an interesting experience tonight. I approved a comment on this blog from a certain email address that eventually took me to a web site called Greenficiency. Sounds fantastic, as they are on that same soap box and preaching the same message that I have been attempting to preach these past several years.

Only one problem: in perusing that web site’s content, I noticed that they literally ARE preaching the same message as I have on our main GraphicsOptimization.com web site! The EXACT same message, in many instances. Sentences/Paragraphs of word-for-word write-ups that I spent hours/days trying to research and write, not to mention other striking similarities in information and content.

I guess I was surprised that someone would be bold enough to lift that much content off another person’s site with open disregard for US Copyright Law. That said, it doesn’t bother me TOO much…although it did irk me a bit to lift a lot of my content and then make sure to set price points just below the ones I have used in the “let us do it for you” section of my site.

That does lead me to want to crawl up on my soap box again though to mention two quick things:

1. The more I’ve gotten into image optimization, the more I’ve come to the mindset of needing to give it away (educate and broadcast) versus trying to monetize the service. That is one main section of content from our GraphicsOptimization site that is strangely missing from the Greenficiency site. The (main) part which we inform people how to do electronic image optimization themselves. The part which will have 100-times the positive impact on effecting change as keeping secrets and then charging people for that expertise might. Which leads me to my second point:

2. Ownership of the expertise. When I present workshops at conferences or guest lecture at a handful of educational institutions, I try and be very transparent in letting people know that I am not “the” image optimization expert. Rather, I am just a person who has made it a mission to create a clearinghouse and blog for everything I know about what the actual experts are doing out there. Andrew Dent…Conrad Chu…Stoyan Stefanov…Ken Silverman…and many others are the true experts in this field! Where the hard, dirty work is being done in the trenches squeezing every last bit or byte out of every electronic image format out there. I am just a “preacher” or apostle who is out there spreading the good news about their efforts…sharing what I know with as many people who will listen.

Since most of those experts freely share much of their expertise, ideas and feedback with us, I feel a strong sense of obligation to “pay it forward” and share my own expertise, ideas and feedback with others who request it. I do charge for performing optimization services on other people’s behalf from time to time…as my time IS money, and if they don’t want to learn how to do it themselves but still want/need it done, I do need to put food on the table for my family of four! However, image optimization services isn’t really a commercially sustainable business model IMHO…as the only way to make a decent living at it would be to take the tools and information others have freely shared with us, turn around and keep them secret. That just doesn’t feel right to me.

This isn’t a knock at Greenficiency! Heck, the more people out there spreading the image optimization message, the better! All the best to them in their efforts going forward. I just want people to do this for the right reasons. If Andrew Dent gives us PNGSlim for free, then we (the collective “we”) turn around and charge others thousands of dollars to access PNGSlimmed files when they might have been just as happy and empowered to optimize those files themselves, pretty soon, if Andrew is smart (and I know he is VERY smart), he’ll start thinking/saying “why am I giving this tool away and letting others make a lot of money while all I have is a couple thank yous and handshakes for my effort?” And then the wonderful “open source” style community we have really pushing new boundaries and reaching new “converts” out there will become tainted and/or will lose its responsiveness and core mission/values in pursuit of financial reward.

Sorry for the LONG posting tonight! Just wanted to say a few things that were on my mind.

Posted by datonn on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 10:34 pm.