RE: Author disclosures and conflict of interest

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Hi Larry,
At 11:25 25-04-2014, Lawrence Rosen wrote:
We all expect bias in standards organizations -- indeed it is a irreducible
factor in science and engineering and all human endeavors (and particularly
so in my profession, law!). I don't think anyone here is naïve about that.

Please don't demand more than is possible out of an ethics policy. But also
please don't give up the moral high ground just because we all fall short of
moral perfection. There is a middle way: Disclosure of potential conflicts
of interest that allows each of us to judge those biases for ourselves.

I chose three companies from various parts of the world.

http://www.ntt.co.jp/csr_e/compliance.html
http://www.raytheon.com/ourcompany/ourculture/ethics/index.html
http://www.teliasonera.com/en/about-us/

They all mentioned ethics. I assume that companies which consider themselves as reputable would ensure that their employees and people under contract with them will follow their ethics policy. If the policy covers disclosure of potential conflicts of interest it can be assumed that the employees participating in the IETF will make the information publicly known. If there isn't such a policy it can be assumed that the company's reputation is based on some marketing trick.

The above does not try to find any moral high ground. It avoids the standards organization problem as the IETF does not have a membership. The IESG response at http://www.ietf.org/iesg/appeal/response-to-masotta-2013-11-14.html may be of interest as ethics and conflict of interest are mentioned.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy







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