Delirium wrote:
William Pietri wrote:
Right. And although the questions are endlessly
complicated, I think the
solution is simple. Interests are fine, especially when declared.
Conflicts of interest, real or apparent, are forbidden. In practice,
this means that if anybody raises a reasonable conflict-of-interest
concern, especially one with a pecuniary motivation, the editor steps
back and makes their suggestions on the talk page. And that we rule out
obvious conflicts from the beginning, in exactly the same way the
various journalistic codes of ethics I linked to do now.
My point, though, is that there are *almost always* conflicts of
interest, especially with the sort of qualified editors we would most
like to attract. Someone who does extensive work in CS and holds an
academic job in that position has a conflict of interest when it comes
to editing CS-related articles, especially any related to his area of
research... but we hardly want to ban experts in CS from editing
CS-related articles!
Someone who does extensive work in CS can edit the 99% of CS articles
where the do not have a strong conflict of interest. I have absolutely
asked passionate topic experts, no matter how qualified, to not edit on
their personal pet projects. There are areas where I have strong
expertise that I don't touch for the same reason: I'm a partisan.
I don't see monetary influence as being a worse
sort of conflict (except for PR reasons).
Having worked both in publishing, where these conflicts of interest play
out regularly, and in Silicon Valley startups, where PR is a necessary
fact of life, I believe it is a much stronger conflict. Academics and
journalists both have reputations to lose. PR people and other
commercial writers don't, not like academics.
Journalistic and academic reputations are built on the factual quality
and accuracy of one's work. There are extensive vetting and enforcement
mechanisms in both industries. People in PR and advertising build
reputation on their ability to work without regard to factual accuracy,
or in spite of it. They are professional POV warriors. We adopt their
funding models at our peril.
William
--
William Pietri <william(a)scissor.com>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:William_Pietri