I just finished presenting a webinar with NewsGator. Before the Q&A was done I had several e-mails from attendees and several new Twitter followers. I thought about blogging about the content, but one of the new Twitter followers has already done that on his blog.

This leaves me to ponder the speed with which everything happens and the lack of control over intellectual capital. For example, Michael (see link to his blog post above) probably didn’t notice the copyright on the slides being presented. Never asked permission to post nearly every word of the presentation.

I have colleagues who do public speaking who would be incensed by this. They would call Michael (who’s in New Zealand) and request that he remove the content. Many of them don’t allow their presentation to be provided electronically in anyway. Some won’t even provide a paper handout during live conferences. Some won’t do webinars because of the ability to screen capture.

There’s no accounting for the webinar attendee’s ability to capture the content and share it without even having the handout. Hey, at least he included a link to me and my Twitter handle. But, as an independent consultant and published book author, Michael should know better. Intellectual capital is all the consultant has to give and sell.

When we work with clients on their intranet/portal and social technology policy and code of conduct, we counsel them to teach employees to be mindful of trademark and copyright law. But the technology is really shifting this expectation. I’ve come to accept that my content will become more dispersed and that I’ll likely lose some assignments as a result of giving so much away. But our clients know that the customized, collaborative and educational experience they get from engaging us directly is far more valuable than flat content without the deeper insight and experience.

So, like a proud parent, I birth the ideas and the content and then I let it go. Into the wild to hopefully take root in smart, strategic minds that want to make a difference.