+100 on what Ross said. Couldn't said it better (read his blog). -- Nikita Ivanov
On Sun, Oct 11, 2015 at 1:29 PM, Ross Gardler <ross.gard...@microsoft.com> wrote: > I blogged on this topic some time ago - basically it is my opinion that if > I am a good employee I would never try to contribute code to an Apache > project that is not beneficial to the broader community. Such an action > would be detrimental to her employers business. Consequently, there is no > conflict between employer needs and community needs an ASF project. > > Here's a relevant excerpt: > > "Jane is paid to deliver results for her employer. If Jane finds that the > best route to delivery is through community led open source she ought to > fight for the survival of that community at all costs. It is in her > interests to do so, both for her community reputation (employability beyond > her current role) and for her employers satisfaction (employability in her > current role). If Jane blows her community reputation she loses her ability > to deliver for her employer as well as her ability to seek alternative > employment relating to that community’s activities. A double whammy." > > Full blog at > http://www.computerworlduk.com/blogs/apache-asserts/apache-openoffice-can-i-depend-on-software-built-by-volunteers--3570412/ > > -----Original Message----- > From: Reto Gmür [mailto:r...@apache.org] > Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2015 9:53 AM > To: general <general@incubator.apache.org> > Subject: Re: [DISCUSS] Mentor neutrality policy > > On Sat, Oct 10, 2015 at 11:40 AM, Roman Shaposhnik <ro...@shaposhnik.org> > wrote: > > > On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 6:07 PM, Daniel Gruno <humbed...@apache.org> > wrote: > > > Hi Incubator folks, > > > > > > I would like to propose we adopt a mentor neutrality policy for > > > incubating podlings: > > > > > > - A mentor must not be financially tied to the project or its > > > incubation status. > > > > I'm very strongly -1 on this for two reasons. One fundamental and one > > operational. Fundamentally, this goes against a core ASF principle > > that we all collaborate here as individuals by checking our corporate > > affiliation at the door. > > > I think it's naive to think that just because the members are individual > and corporate affiliations don't formally play a role there is no influence > by the employer. When I'm paid by a company or government agency to work on > an apache project I don't have an effective protection against the > directives of my employer. Maybe if I refuse to follow an employer's > instruction to write some code for an Apache project of which I'm committer > I could not be fired without notice, maybe I could write the patch and say > on the list that I wrote this patch for my employer but that as an > individual PMC member I vote against it (did something like this ever > happen?), whichever way I'm likely to act against my financial interest. > > In medical journals the author's are also writing in their own name, yet > they must declare all competing interests. Following your logic such as > declaration would be unnecessary if the journal says somewhere that authors > leave their affiliation at the door. > > > > > IOW, we are explicitly granting our members and committers the trust > > required to make sure they do the right thing while they themselves > > (or their employees) can significantly benefit (financially and > > otherwise) from the projects. > > > > Even if we trust our commiters that they do not commit a hidden back door > on behalf of the spy agency they work for, the conflict of interest can be > much more subtle. The company has a deadline and a release of an apache > project before that deadline would come in very handy, will you scrutinize > the notice files at the risk of finding something that delays the release? > > If a main customer of my consulting firm is the main promoter of the XY > file format, will I by neutral in choosing the best file format for the > Apache Project I'm involved in? I probably really believe that XY is the > way to go, but is should be an Apache rule that I declare that I have some > financial ties to it. > > > > > > This is what makes ASF unique and anything that goes even slightly in > > the direction of reducing this level of trust will have me up in arms > > (regardless of whether it is related to Incubator or not). > > > > Operationally, this is extremely tricky to enforce. I speak here from > > experience of somebody who has to be appreciative of the same set of > > issues while consulting for companies and yet working for my current > > employer. Even in a corporate world (where stakes are much higher from > > legal perspective) this typically gets handled by trusting the > > individual to do the right thing and disclose any potential conflict > > of interest (financial or otherwise). > > > > We would not have to ask people for their tax declaration, a self > declaration of any potentially competing interest would do. > > Cheers, > Reto >
