Talk:Ethical behaviour
jsSolutions 18:01, 24 October 2007 (EDT) The following information was posted as a request for the development of some ethical guidelines. The underlying questions are worthy of consideration, but they have been moved here, as they are more discussional than a proposed policy:
Original Posting
Ethical Behaviour or How the Community should treat bad apples
- The ADempiere community needs to have a policy on how to deal with the situation where it becomes clear that members of the community are not the "nicest" people.
- Say, for instance, that one of the ADempiere Business Development Committee (BDC) was involved in multiple disputes and had law suits against them. What policy does the community have for rooting out the bad apple?
The community needs a policy, otherwise it risks falling into disrepute.
- Questions:
- How can a supplier or customer complain about the actions of the BDC? Can they complain about actions only regarding ADempiere, or regarding all other matters?
- Should a member of the BDC have legal action, either civil or criminal taken against them, what should the community do?
- If a complaint is made, what protection would exist (as there is no single corporate body of whom the BDC are members) to protect those who complain against legal action
Response
- Firstly the law concerning civil disputes has a precedence in cyber history itself as regard to the advice on applying ethics to email and hacking which is to use the Law of Tort.
- Law of Tort basically says that if you injure or cause a loss against a party you are liable for the claim against you as allowed by common law, even though it is done via cyberspace. Thus if you 'enter' a home and 'steal' some files, you can be charged for theft. Likewise if you engage in a contract by way of misrepresentation and failure to perform a said duty, then you are liable for professional incompetence that is applicable in the country you operate from.
- Thus the parties engaging the professional should check with the country in which that professional hails from.
- Nevertheless, in the bazaar sense, if there are open remarks against a party here, the ensuing debate or follow up information exchange can allow all to make their own judgement as to the suitability of that consultant. There may be noise for or against anyone. That is the risk for been online and doing business online. Isn't that the same risk for been in business and doing business in the real world? - Red1 02:06, 24 October 2007 (EDT)
Response 2
Since neither myself nor my company has ever been involved in legal action, I have freeness of speech to moderate this issue. I've moved it appropriately to the discussion tab, because it makes vague inferences and accusations that by their generic nature are harmful to many valuable community members. There may be value in standards of ethical behavior and code of professional conduct, so the debate may be worthwhile, especially if someone is interested in actually preparing and providing a draft of the type of standards that are requested. Here are a couple of suggestions:
- it is unethical for an anonymous person to attack the reputation of a community member.
- it is unethical for a person to make vague and sweeping accusations that could apply to many persons or organizations. The author knows to whom they refer, the reader does not, and is left to draw their conclusions, which are most likely to be wrong.
BDC
As an observation about the BDC. It is a welcome mat. Designed to help newcomers find their way in the unending wiki and forums, so that newly interested persons can find the help they need. There is no place for legal action, since no commitments are engaged in by the BDC.
Community Management
Regarding community censorship, this has already been quite active in such a young group. Communities tend to monitor themselves so that undesirables feel unwelcome and generally leave of their own accord. The laws of human interaction work quite effectively without guidelines in this case.
jsSolutions 18:01, 24 October 2007 (EDT)
