Re: [gentoo-project] Corporate affiliations of Council members

[Richard Yao <ryao@gentoo.org>]

> On Jun 22, 2020, at 12:18 PM, Michał Górny <mgorny@gentoo.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> Here's another question for the Council nominees.  I'd like to ask
> the Council members to disclose their corporate affiliations,
> in particular whether they are employed or in partnership with companies
> using Gentoo or Gentoo derivatives.
> 
> This is because I believe that the electorate deserves to know whether
> their elected Council member may end up being in conflict of interest
> between doing what's right by the wide community and what's requested by
> his employer.

I understand the motivation for having this information available, but I have full confidence that all council members will make decisions in the best interest the entire community regardless of conflicts of interest. I am not on the council, but I am receiving money from buurst inc for upstream work that is only superficially related to Gentoo. My statements are not influenced by third parties.

Also, acting in the best interest of the entire community requires considering everyone’s needs when making decisions. Corporate interests are a part of that and they therefore should be given some sort of weight in decisions. As a distribution, we generally do a good job of supporting various use cases, so conflicts are less of an issue for us than they are for others.

Lastly, I hope that in trying to avoid one extreme, we do not accidentally go into the opposite extreme. Becoming anti-corporation in the process of trying to avoid being anti-consumer helps no one, including consumers. Not that I think we are, but it is possible to go so far in the perceived direction of neutrality that we overshoot the point of neutrality and gain a bias that is the opposite of the bias that concerned us. Being aware of that is important .
> -- 
> Best regards,
> Michał Górny