When I looked through this year's CCCC program and saw some of the panels on plagiarism, I remarked to a couple of friends that it looked as if Turnitin were paying some people to talk them up. I was told during the conference that they were once again on watch at the IP Caucus, even though this year (for the first time in awhile) they didn't have a booth in the exhibit hall.
Regardless of whether my conjecture was true about this year's program, it looks as if it will be for next year's. Turnitin is paying people to attend CCCC and promote their product. Pretty cheap of them, actually; over in the UK they pay for whole conferences, and then John Barrie, the CEO of the corporation gets to deliver the "keynote."
It's not just the degrees we grant that are for sale; our scholarship is, too.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Line up to line your pockets
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
A thunderstorm got me up at 5:30 this morning and one of the first things I read was the Higher Ed article (I blogged too). I wonder, did anyone in rhet/comp get the email, or have they given up on the people who actually research and teach writing?
I'm thinking a protest is in order. We could attend the panels and sit facing the back of the room, for example. (rather uncollegial, but as long as we made it clear what we were turning our backs on--maybe some T shirts are in order?) And I'll probably be proposing on something about ancient school exercises. It's not irrelevant to point out that the ancients would have laughed themselves silly at such a notion as turnitin. In other words, we all ought to think of a way to incorporate a response to turnitin into our own papers.
I have two thoughts:
1. Is Barrie really this stupid? To sacrifice efforts toward long-term acceptance for short-term sales? (That answer, apparently, is a resounding "yes")
2. This makes his company sound like a pharmaceutical manufacturer. Which suggests an interesting connection with Plato and the Phaedrus and all that stuff about writing as poison...hmmm...
The problem is, who will know if Turnitin is sponsoring a panel or not? Without disclosure, we won't know. This really makes me feel ill.
The idea of protest is appealing. As K8 points out, it will be hard to be sure who's being paid to shill. But then again, maybe not. How many people would, unpaid, hie themselves to CCCC to testify on behalf of Turnitin? Precious few, I think. So I can think of several forms of protest: t-shirts? buttons? Showing up at pro-Turnitin events and facing away from the presenters? Turning around in the Q&A and asking, "Who paid for you to make this presentation?" A question is, how would a protest best be organized? On the blogs is fine, but of course Turnitin monitors this blog and no doubt many others on a regular basis. They're always on the prowl, protecting their product.
given the last line of the article, it might be interesting to encourage people to submit proposals making solid arguments against the use of the software to Turnitin for potential funding ...
Word. I keep envisioning us becoming attired in corporate labels, like Nascar drivers. Seriously, I think all forms of protest are called for--including an ethics-in , where we gather together to be ethical. The problem as you all have said, is that this Turnitin proposal will really change the trust we should expect to have with and from our colleagues.
Post a Comment