I’m not sure whether this (admittedly selective) quote would be fair to your hypothetical collaborators:
On 4.8.2010 16:02 , "Fred Baker" <fred@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
[...] I would be truly disappointed if someone I was collaborating with on a draft or was working on a working group with me fundamentally changed their opinion as they changed employers; I would wonder if they were lying to me before the change or after.Assume there are two proposals on the table, both similar in their technical merits, but with different “owners”. The ongoing MPEG-2 preamble discussions in AVT would be a good example, but I could cite many others, both inside and outside the IETF. Now assume further that I would be one of the key speakers for one proposal, and would decide, for whatever reason, to join the other proponent company. Naturally, my expertise would be welcomed there.
[...]
Would you really expect me not to throw my weight (assuming there were one) behind the proposal I fought teeth and claws before—and damage my relationship with my new employer during the first days on the job?
Further, it could also be that the new employer can convince me that its proposal is better, even without pulling the loyalty argument, simply because I now have access to proprietary information from both sides. That can easily flip my technical evaluation. (Arguably something like this has happened to me in the not too distant past; unrelated to standardization, so I hope you can still talk to me without wondering whether I would be lying to you :-).
Note that in neither case I would be lying; I would simply set the emphasis of my arguments differently. Namely in support of the business requirements of the new employer, rather than the business requirements of the old one. Or, after careful evaluation of information that was previously not accessible to me.
There are professions where changing horses in mid-course is ethnically questionable. People working in those professions usually receive compensation that make it for them (more or less) easy to survive job changes. However, I firmly believe that standardization engineer is not one of these professions—certainly not from the typical benefits viewpoint. We should not place an expectation, or (worse) a moral obligation to this extent on the individuals that are—sometimes against their personal choice—affected by a change in affiliation.
Regards,
Stephan
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