Learning Conversations

Dear Sir,

I have recently discovered that your website (trainingspotting.com) is using my RSS feed to make it look as if I'm writing for you. The statement on the site gives the impression that I have contributed freely to your blog:

This blog exists so trainers, coaches and other learning and development professionals can share their thoughts, experiences and knowledge with others. It’s also a platform to show a little bit about who each of us are, what we add to the community, what value we bring to the table.

All members of TrainingSpotting.com are able to contribute to the blog, whether it’s articles, just random thoughts or some pertinent information about an upcoming event or class that they think others would want to know about – it’s all welcome.

Please be aware that I have never been approached by any member of the trainingspotting.com team and I have not given permission for my posts to be used in this way.

The way you work is diametrically opposed to http://www.elearninglearning.com/, who use RSS to collect posts from the elearning community, but only display a small part of the post, with direct links back to the originator's site to read more and to comment.

I notice that some of your posts do not even attribute the original author. For example, the post on "Taking Coaching to the Ivy League: The Institute of Coaching" was posted on CoachingCommons: http://coachingcommons.org/featured/taking-coaching-to-the-ivy-league-the-institute-of-coaching/

I wonder if those authors are aware of your behaviour?

Please could you either:

1. Remove my posts from your website
   
   Or
   
   
2. Make it clear that these are copies of my posts, remove the ability to make comments against them, and provide a link back to the original post

Yours,

Mark Berthelemy

[UPDATE]

Following an email conversation with Tom Vinkler, who runs the TrainingSpotting.com site, he has implemented a number of changes which alleviate my concerns. I've posted a follow-up to explain what has happened.