Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools, products, and practices that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks in a business environment.
Cool Tool Review: FairShare
A Review by Todd Hoskins
This is a good time to emphasize that tools in themselves are neither good nor valuable. It all depends on how you use them.
FairShare is a product from Attributor, a company that has been very important within the online publishing industry. Attributor works with publishers to help protect licensing rights across the web. They index the web and compare billions of content bytes with the content you publish to find the plagiarizers, copycats, and seedy content (re-)generators that proliferate across the web. This is a wonderful and valuable service to diminish the number of splogs and opportunists that are seeking clicks for cash.
If you blog or regularly produce valuable content (Bravo!, no matter what business you are in!), FairShare will find where your content is being reproduced and whether the correct attributions are being made. Simply state what license exists with your content (or no license at all), set up a feed, and let FairShare feed back to you the other places where complete or partial content matches are occurring.
It’s a tricky question what, if any, license to pursue. If you get a FairShare account for your copyright attorney, I must ask the question, “Are you making the Internet a more democratic and free space?” I favor defaulting to the Commons – allowing your content to be reused with limited, chosen restrictions. We looked at Creative Commons months ago. Also, I recommend this book that gives you a historical perspective.
FairShare also offers a WordPress plugin and widget that are great ways to let it be known that you encourage people to use your content (perhaps with a link).
What if you find your content elsewhere (and you likely will)? The digital tap on the shoulder is recommended: “Hey, I see you liked what I had written. Tell me why you saw it as valuable? Would you mind linking back to me?”
You may make some friends, find some customers or partners. Even if you don’t, you’ll be contributing to a more civil and self-policed web.
Summing Up â Is it worth it?
Enterprise Value: 4/5 â Please make friends, not enemies
Entrepreneur Value: 4/5 â Did I mention it is free?
Personal Value: 3/5 – Don’t publish your poetry without it
Let me know what you think!
Todd Hoskins helps small and medium sized businesses plan for the future, and execute in the present. With a background in sales, marketing, leadership, psychology, coaching, and technology, he works with executives to help create thriving individuals and organizations through developing and clarifying values, strategies, and tactics. You can learn more at VisualCV, or contact him on Twitter.
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