Duplication of programs as it relates to Chairman's

[Billfred]

Jason Rees made an interesting post here:

Originally Posted by rees2001

This is what is wrong with the CA! It shouldn't be about trying to do stuff to win the award. It should be just doing what you can and what is right. But that is a discussion for another day.

I'll be honest, I have never been particularly involved with a Chairman's Award submission over the four seasons I've been in FRC. It did, however, raise a few questions in my head (enough to warrant making a new thread).

Now, obviously, teams aiming for the Chairman's Award are undertaking significant efforts to try to inspire folks. If Redateam puts out a program similar to that of Bluateam, odds are that Redateam is going to yield some further results beyond those of Bluateam even if the two are in the same community. Assuming that Bluateam has been documenting their work, any judge with good sense could tell which program was the original and which one has had the bigger impact. (The two are not necessarily synonymous, mind you.)

What are your thoughts on the topic? Is mimicking another team's program in bad taste, or is it smart for a team to focus its resources on programs known to be effective?