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Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests

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]] Didier 'OdyX' Raboud 

> Assuming a hypothetical Debian contributor with financial interests in
> a hotel business, part-time software engineer and affiliated to a
> political party: not all three connections matter in all Debian work,
> or discussions. The first might matter though iff people start
> considering paying for accomodation in hir hotel; the second might
> matter in a discussion about a piece of software they are paid to work
> on, and the latter might matter when discussing the Debian project's
> eventual reaction to a complicate situation somewhere in the
> world. But these only matter in specific discussions, not constantly.

Indeed.  I also think there's a hang-up about financial conflicts of
interest in the discussion, but for at least me (and I suspect others),
money is a pretty weak motivator.  I generally have enough that it's
something I don't need to spend much mental energy on.  An example of
what I do think could cause conflicts of interest is where I'm part of
some community (free software or not) and my interest is in ensuring I
have a good standing or status in that community and this colours
judgements I make in Debian.  I object to collecting all that
information, though.  It would feel entirely too intrusive.

There's a question of what is a legitimate interest and what is not, and
this might be worth exploring, but I suspect it all comes down to «it
depends» and reasonableness tests.

> Where I'm going to is that I feel we're much better in a situation
> where we don't load all our conversations with references to _all_ our
> "real-life" interests. It opens the floodgates to interpret any
> position under the light of these interests, neglecting the mere idea
> that for plenty (if not all) of Debian interactions, we are genuinely
> acting as independent individuals.

I think «geniunely acting as independent individuals» is a meaningless
concept, since everything we do is coloured by the context we're in and
that includes social relations.

> That said, I still think that there are situations in which declaring
> one's conflicts of interest _does_ matter, but I do expect the
> affected individual to either explcitly retract (or stay away) from
> the discussion, or declare the conflict of interest at that point.

I agree with this, if you do see a possible and reasonable conflict of
interest, declare it and discuss it.

-- 
Tollef Fog Heen
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are

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Debian contributor Register of Interests Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> - 2017-05-09 11:00 +0200
  Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2017-05-09 14:10 +0200
    Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Luca Filipozzi <lfilipoz@debian.org> - 2017-05-09 17:10 +0200
    Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Scott Kitterman <debian@kitterman.com> - 2017-05-10 02:10 +0200
      Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Julien Cristau <jcristau@debian.org> - 2017-05-10 09:50 +0200
        Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Scott Kitterman <debian@kitterman.com> - 2017-05-10 18:00 +0200
          Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org> - 2017-05-10 18:50 +0200
          Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> - 2017-05-10 21:30 +0200
            Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Scott Kitterman <debian@kitterman.com> - 2017-05-11 02:40 +0200
      Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests "Dr. Bas Wijnen" <wijnen@debian.org> - 2017-05-10 12:50 +0200
        Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> - 2017-05-10 21:50 +0200
          Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> - 2017-05-11 19:10 +0200
            Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> - 2017-05-11 21:40 +0200
              Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> - 2017-05-11 22:20 +0200
                Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org> - 2017-05-12 01:20 +0200
                Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> - 2017-05-12 12:10 +0200
              Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Nikolaus Rath <Nikolaus@rath.org> - 2017-05-13 02:00 +0200
    Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> - 2017-05-10 17:30 +0200
      Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2017-05-11 14:10 +0200
        Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Steve McIntyre <steve@einval.com> - 2017-05-11 14:50 +0200
  Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Didier 'OdyX' Raboud <odyx@debian.org> - 2017-05-12 10:50 +0200
    Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2017-05-12 15:20 +0200
    Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no> - 2017-05-14 08:10 +0200
      Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Holger Levsen <holger@layer-acht.org> - 2017-05-14 10:40 +0200
      Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Didier 'OdyX' Raboud <odyx@debian.org> - 2017-05-15 09:00 +0200
      Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2017-05-15 19:20 +0200
        Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no> - 2017-05-15 22:00 +0200
          Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2017-05-16 14:00 +0200
  Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Paul Wise <pabs@debian.org> - 2017-05-16 05:10 +0200
    Re: Debian contributor Register of Interests Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2017-05-16 14:10 +0200

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