[ovs-dev] Does OPEN mean open affiliation too?

Elzur, Uri uri.elzur at intel.com
Mon Feb 1 21:18:12 UTC 2016


Hi Chris

Thank you for the clarification. You have some valuable arguments! 

I think that when a person's involvement in a project is indeed based on someone's work assignment, that it should be properly and openly disclosed to the OPEN community in one way or another. Sounds, to me, like part of the OPEN conduct and as a better way of building that precious TRUST in the community.

Thx

Uri (“Oo-Ree”)
C: 949-378-7568

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Wright [mailto:chrisw at sous-sol.org] 
Sent: Monday, February 1, 2016 10:04 AM
To: Elzur, Uri
Cc: dev at openvswitch.org
Subject: Re: [ovs-dev] Does OPEN mean open affiliation too?

Hey Uri,

* Elzur, Uri (uri.elzur at intel.com) wrote:
> I find it strange and misleading for full time employees to use aliases on OPEN SOURCE mailing lists. Is the code OPEN but affiliation is not? Does anyone work pro bono?

This is actually a pretty normal practice for open source developers.
Here are some common reasons why:

- personally invested in project, representing own views not employer's
- want continuity of reputation, accessibility (questions and bug reports
  well after code is merged), and mailing list subscriptions across jobs
- employer has lousy mailer setup for managing list volume and proper
  workflow (patch attachments)
- working on project in spare time (despite any professional affiliation)
- employer unwilling to disclose they are using or working on project

> The community will be better off if we all clearly identify our 
> affiliations

It's fair to wonder if, despite a variety of email addresses, the community you are working in is dominated by a single company and you are fighting an uphill battle that is not about technical merit.  Some communities maintain this (opt-in) mapping for statistics gathering.

Healthy communities operate on trust built between individuals.

thanks,
-chris

P.S. I know you know, but full disclosure -- I work for Red Hat.

> Sorry if you find this comment disturbing. My affiliation is clearly 
> listed in my email address. But this is my private opinion
> 
> Thx
> 
> Uri (“Oo-Ree”)
> C: 949-378-7568


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