Sunday, January 18, 2015

How to refer to mapping?

I often get asked what IP exists around the mapping technique that I talk about? Well, it is IP protected under Creative Commons 3.0 Share Alike. This means you are free to use it, free to modify it and free to distribute it as long as you use the same license. I'm not in the business of trying to extract rent from people for drawing maps, I'm in the business of helping others run their organisations more effectively.

This does leave a question of attribution. There are numerous forms that I'm happy with. As long as its similar to this in spirit then I don't grumble.

1) Wardley Mapping
If you call the technique "Wardley Mapping" then this is fine and there's no need to attribute further in presentations and talks. I happen to quite like this term these days to avoid confusion with other 'value chain / stream' mapping techniques that are not equivalent. 

If you want to add a more explicit attribution line (e.g. you're writing an article) then "courtesy of Simon Wardley, CC3.0 by SA" or "courtesy of Simon Wardley (LEF) CC3.0 by SA"  or even a simple "courtesy of Simon Wardley" is appreciated. 

2) Wardley - Duncan Mapping
If you call the technique "Wardley - Duncan Mapping" then this is fine as it pays homage to James A. Duncan who was instrumental in the early stages of mapping. If you want to add a more explicit attribution line then any of the above are fine.

3) Value Chain Mapping 
This is an alternative name of the technique and if you're going to call it this, then ADD an attribution line. Since the LEF does provide me time to promote and teach others how to map, I have a preference for the attribution "courtesy of Simon Wardley (LEF) CC3.0 by SA".

The only thing that will actually annoy me is seeing the technique without any reference to my name. Since, I've put the hard work in over the last decade then I'd be grateful if you could at least mention me when using it.