Set them free: ITIL, PRINCE2, SFIA...
I'm concerned that there is a mindset that controlling the use of knowledge is a good thing, that somehow this protects the quality and integrity of that knowledge. I hope Axelos doesn't take ITIL and PRINCE2 any further down that path. In fact I hope they are more enlightened than the UK Government were.
There are two million certified ITIL users. There are hundreds of thousands of IT consultants. There are a couple of dozen content-producing firms who might conceivably want to rip off ITIL. For the vast majority of ITIL users, ITIL is a tool they use in passing as part of their day job. It isn't their world. It doesn't consume their waking hours. They don't think much about it and they certainly don't write or chatter about it. They just want to get the job done without some pompous prat in the UK getting in the way. As my recent post laid out, ISACA licenses COBIT with the end-user in mind. SFIA and ITIL and PRINCE2 don't.
SFIA and ITIL and PRINCE2 owners are fixated with the paranoid perception that someone might steal their IP. Or if we are kind, we accept that they are worried that someone might mis-quote it or mis-use it. Both of these are control-freak mindsets. The answer to both is "probably". What are your options?
a) Keep the IP locked down like state secrets and it'll get ripped off and mis-used anyway.
b) Foster an open community using it widely and freely. It'll get quoted which only increases awareness. People will develop value-add materials which make it more attractive. The bigger it gets, the harder it is for anyone to rip it off because its not about the content, it's about the momentum, the uptake.
I'm little. If somebody rips my stuff off I may not even know. But all of this blog site is released as Commercial Creative Commons. So is my Tipu methodology. Use it to your heart's content, just attribute the source. That's to everyone's mutual benefit.
I beseech the owners of these bodies of knowledge to keep them freely used, to stay out of the way of their community, to foster growth through dissemination.
Made in New Zealand 
