Monthly Archives: June 2007

I’m grateful for the replies to my disclosure statement and statement of principle. Some of these have led me to reform — in an important way — at least one part of the statement. I’ve reposted the statement in the extended entry below, but the key difference is in response to a great point made by Stuart Ballard. Doesn’t my rule, he asks, create perverse incentives? A simple way for an opponent to silence me — donate to, e.g., CC?
I plead humility as the only defense to this obvious omission: It never occurred to me that anyone would waste their money in that way. And while I believe the chance that an opponent would waste their money to silence me is tiny, I do hope that the NC principle becomes common, adopted by people for whom such an expenditure wouldn’t be a waste. I’ve therefore modified the principle as it applies to indirect donations — meaning donations to entities that indirectly benefit someone because they make him or her materially better off, or lessen a duty he or she has to those institutions: With respect to those donations, I will either not recommend a policy, or if I do, I will disclose the benefit.
This reformulation is in apparent tension with my rejection of disclosure generally. But as I see it now, this is the simplest way to avoid the (wholly unlikely) perverse incentive.
There were other useful comments, some of which I address here:
SethF: “not a disclosure statement.” Ok, how about a disclosure statement and a statement of principle.
redpop has a nice point about other influences which, s/he rightly observes, may also bend a policy recommendations. As s/he writes, “You seem to imply, for example, that you will, push someone else’s work if they push yours, regardless of whether you would otherwise do so.” If that is implied, I don’t mean the implication. We all have an obligation to be true to our principles. The general practice we adopt to police that obligation, however, is laissez faire. The NC principle is one compromise on that laissez faire approach — a rule that limits the potential for one kind of influence. But of course, one should avoid any inappropriate influence. In the list I spoke of in my original post, some influences I think are totally appropriate. Some are not. My only point is I’m not creating an additional rule to ferret the one from the other — beyond, again, money.
Jardinero1 thought his point not good enough without wrapping it in sarcasm. I disagree. He asks a very good question: “Which brings me to my point Professor: Who cares why you or anyone else shills?” First, my target is not me (alone). It is a profession(s). So why should we care “why … anyone else shills?” Great question, which goes the heart of what I see as the corruption here. We should avoid influences, in my view, that have nothing to do with the merits of the question at issue. For example: Imagine a doctor told you that you should try risky drug X for your life threatening condition. In my view, you should care whether your doctor is a stock holder in the company making the drug. Why? Because deciding what treatment is good for you is hard enough without the doctor weighing into the balance (or trying not to weigh into the balance) his own personal financial wellbeing. The same with professors. The same with politicians. All are called upon to make hard judgments. The extra-complexity of self-interest will not help them make those judgments well.
Which leads to the second point: In my view, if, e.g., a doctor recommends a drug, or even pushes the drug because he believes in it, so long as s/he has followed the NC principle, it is not “shilling.” In my view, a distinction must be drawn. Failing to draw such a distinction — by calling everything “shilling” — is a cover for more corruption.
Dan Collier asks about retirement benefits: “If so, statements about Google Books, for example, may directly impact Google share prices and indirectly effect your investments.” True enough. I don’t hold stock in individual companies. If I did, I would consider the same limitation to apply.
anon asks whether my list of board memberships was complete. It wasn’t, but now is. I’ve been a bad board member of MusicBrainz, and my guilt led me to forget it in the list. But the project is fantastic and shouldn’t be forgotten. My apologies.
I’ll think about this more as I read more. The disclosure and statement will be linked from my contact tab. Thanks again for the help.
extended entry Continue reading →