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In another message, Cindy Bailey is quoted as saying:
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING to keep in mind if you find yourself in either
>of these two situations is to be careful NOT TO DIVULGE ANY PROPRIETARY
>INFORMATION to any other clients. And that's really what any client is
>concerned about. This means that you can bring your newly learned
>skills and knowledge on documentation process with you, but you CANNOT
>share with the client such information as: "Well, my last client decided
>not to have a section on Blah-Blah because they did market research that
>revealed it was counter-productive." That market research may have
>given your last client an edge in the marketplace and this information
>should absolutely not be shared with another client.
I don't know for sure if she said this, but I'll let her correct me if it
isn't.
The major point here, for me, is that her example is a terribly gray area.
If a client has actually done such research (and none of ours do any such
research, and won't let us do it, either) then the facts they've uncovered
may have proprietary stamps on them both literally and figuratively, but
since the revelation is about the process of making manuals, it can't be
forgotten and left behind no matter how much both the contractor and the
client want it to be. A professional can't unlearn something that will
affect every project from here on. If a client finds out that Esperanto
increases readership by forty percent, that fact can't be kept under wraps.
Manuals, by their very natures, have to be disseminated.
Other information, such as test data, service secrets, and microcode can't
be revealed at all, of course. But what about the nether-regions? Say that a
client's high-power ad agency comes up with a killer layout. Your next
client wants you to use the same layout. Layouts aren't copyrightable.
They're free for the taking. But is it ethical? Is it unethical to just
reuse an old template that you've developed? Is it even ethical for one of
us to point out a mistake in a document if we're only able to spot it
because we've worked with a prior client's data? Gray, gray, gray. Is there
a way to draw a general line around the subject of proprietary knowledge at
all?
Tim Altom
Vice President, Simply Written, Inc.
317.899.5882 (voice) 317.899.5987 (fax)
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