Whose work?

Where do you draw the line? Perhaps, like a lot of similar phenomena, a gradient of some type applies? And what modulates that gradient? For one, it appears 'credentials' and peer pressure do. For another, a formula that uses content as input and dispassionately decides whether a legal threshold has been passed.

In this environment it was more important to know the source for elucidation than attribution for the purpose of honoring initial ownership. To those that mattered who were on deadline or with limited resources or both the connection between an originating entity and the work was mission critical.

Contrasting the several academically oriented contributors, he noted that one was especially adept at using a variety of means to acknowledge sources. It helped that this person understood media better than most and had the experience of this aspect of disclosure. Another, many of the same things could be said. But here, the gradient was more like a threshold and based on an entitlement of sorts. Good ideas only came from the formally educated who had an academic administration mentality. Yet a third, recently receiving credentials looking to apply his new found training in a down market had a healthy view, or so he thought.

The most successful in the group at finding financial support up until now had apparently accepted that purse strings behavior was worth influencing with a modification of personal ethics. All the better that denial helped detachment from inconvenient … thoughts. A track record with baggage. The other two, fascinating skills and personalities. Less experienced in the rough and tumble world of economic competition, less cynical and less realistic. Hopefully there would be a better adjective to replace that last one. Frankly, there had to be for this all to work.

Three people, three skill sets. All potential contributors. All could be interested. The need to fill the slot was not immediate but the mind experiment for the selection process was a good use of his current time. Working on the tools when they are idle, a craftsman's trick.