I agree that we should discuss assisting a major for-profit company, but think that we should also discuss the ethics of associating with Monsanto. I am as pro-GMO as they come, but Monsanto has a questionable history when it comes to squashing scientific publications that cast them in a bad light and suing small farmers out of existence.
http://www.boulderweekly.com/article-12640-muzzled-by-monsanto.html http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/05/monsanto200805 -- Christopher Hamm Postdoctoral Researcher Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Kansas 5032 Haworth Hall 1200 Sunnyside Avenue Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7566 USA email: [email protected] phone: (785) 864-3848 butterflyology.net pizzabeerandscience.blogspot.com @butterflyology On March 4, 2015 at 12:13:57, [email protected] ([email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>) wrote: Send Discuss mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [email protected] You can reach the person managing the list at [email protected] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Discuss digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: [Instructors] workshop at Monsanto in St Louis in April (Jason Moore) 2. Re: [Instructors] workshop at Monsanto in St Louis in April (Turner, Stephen D. (sdt5z)) 3. Re: [Instructors] workshop at Monsanto in St Louis in April (Daniel Chen) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 09:25:49 -0800 From: Jason Moore <[email protected]> To: Software Carpentry Discussion <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Discuss] [Instructors] workshop at Monsanto in St Louis in April Message-ID: <CAP7f1Aj6=k-hBTRWxuPVponnnnyGGk=74s2QhKuHMEZb=ss...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" This is the first time I've noticed one of the workshops for a billion dollar corporation. What is SWC's policy on providing volunteer labor for corporations? I can get behind helping grad students at universities for free, but this seems very different. Corporate training is big money. For example, my girlfriend's place of business just paid $20k for a lousy two day workshop a couple weeks ago. Seems like this kind of thing would be ideal to do to fund SWC's more altruistic goals, but I'm not sure that having volunteers teaching it is necessarily what everyone has in mind. Not to mention, Monsanto isn't the most liked of companies. I'd potentially feel ok volunteering for corporate training if I knew it meant a strong pay off to our non-profit. That's just a thought. Sounds like something worthy of a board discussion if it hasn't happened yet. At the last non-profit I worked at, these topics certainly kept us at the meeting longer than we'd wished. Jason moorepants.info +01 530-601-9791 On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 6:43 AM, Greg Wilson <[email protected] > wrote: > Hi everyone, > > We've been approached by Monsanto to run two or even three workshops side > by side on April 20-21 in St Louis. They're looking for instructors with > backgrounds in stats, genomics/bioinformatics, or both - if you're > interested and available, please add yourself to > https://swcarpentry.etherpad.mozilla.org/instructors-US. They have a lot > of scientists who need our skills, so I'm hopeful that a good first showing > will lead to repeat business... > > Thanks, > Greg > > -- > Dr. Greg Wilson | [email protected] > Software Carpentry | http://software-carpentry.org > > > _______________________________________________ > Instructors mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/instructors_lists. > software-carpentry.org > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.software-carpentry.org/pipermail/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org/attachments/20150304/ee625697/attachment-0001.html> ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 18:05:49 +0000 From: "Turner, Stephen D. (sdt5z)" <[email protected]> To: Jason Moore <[email protected]> Cc: Software Carpentry Discussion <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Discuss] [Instructors] workshop at Monsanto in St Louis in April Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I'll second the apprehension about providing free labor to corporations who can very easily pay for it. And I wouldn't blow this off as a one-off thing, a "let's just do it this time and figure it out later if it becomes a problem" -kind of thing. When word gets out that we're providing training worth big money for free to any corporation who asks for it, I'd imagine we'll have lots more Monsantos knocking at our door (and not just global multibillion dollar corps). I'd suggest some serious discussion amongst the steering committee and everyone else on this list about what a policy should look like. Stephen ----------------------------------------- Stephen D. Turner, Ph.D. Bioinformatics Core Director University of Virginia School of Medicine bioinformatics.virginia.edu<http://bioinformatics.virginia.edu> On Mar 4, 2015, at 12:25 PM, Jason Moore <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: This is the first time I've noticed one of the workshops for a billion dollar corporation. What is SWC's policy on providing volunteer labor for corporations? I can get behind helping grad students at universities for free, but this seems very different. Corporate training is big money. For example, my girlfriend's place of business just paid $20k for a lousy two day workshop a couple weeks ago. Seems like this kind of thing would be ideal to do to fund SWC's more altruistic goals, but I'm not sure that having volunteers teaching it is necessarily what everyone has in mind. Not to mention, Monsanto isn't the most liked of companies. I'd potentially feel ok volunteering for corporate training if I knew it meant a strong pay off to our non-profit. That's just a thought. Sounds like something worthy of a board discussion if it hasn't happened yet. At the last non-profit I worked at, these topics certainly kept us at the meeting longer than we'd wished. Jason moorepants.info<http://moorepants.info/> +01 530-601-9791 On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 6:43 AM, Greg Wilson <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Hi everyone, We've been approached by Monsanto to run two or even three workshops side by side on April 20-21 in St Louis. They're looking for instructors with backgrounds in stats, genomics/bioinformatics, or both - if you're interested and available, please add yourself to https://swcarpentry.etherpad.mozilla.org/instructors-US. They have a lot of scientists who need our skills, so I'm hopeful that a good first showing will lead to repeat business... Thanks, Greg -- Dr. Greg Wilson | [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Software Carpentry | http://software-carpentry.org<http://software-carpentry.org/> _______________________________________________ Instructors mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/instructors_lists.software-carpentry.org _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.software-carpentry.org/pipermail/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org/attachments/20150304/258074c4/attachment-0001.html> ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 13:12:49 -0500 From: Daniel Chen <[email protected]> To: "Turner, Stephen D. (sdt5z)" <[email protected]> Cc: Software Carpentry Discussion <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Discuss] [Instructors] workshop at Monsanto in St Louis in April Message-ID: <CAG=b6ynnj61z7_n0hmbuanjdqgqfs42uqntehrdbgxmhyss...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" I agree, a discussion is definitely warranted. Iterating off of Jason's e-mail: many services offer academic and corporate pricing tiers. This could be something we do? On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 1:05 PM, Turner, Stephen D. (sdt5z) < [email protected]> wrote: > I'll second the apprehension about providing free labor to corporations > who can very easily pay for it. And I wouldn't blow this off as a one-off > thing, a "let's just do it this time and figure it out later if it becomes > a problem" -kind of thing. When word gets out that we're providing training > worth big money for free to any corporation who asks for it, I'd imagine > we'll have lots more Monsantos knocking at our door (and not just global > multibillion dollar corps). I'd suggest some serious discussion amongst the > steering committee and everyone else on this list about what a policy > should look like. > > Stephen > > ----------------------------------------- > Stephen D. Turner, Ph.D. > Bioinformatics Core Director > University of Virginia School of Medicine > bioinformatics.virginia.edu > > > > On Mar 4, 2015, at 12:25 PM, Jason Moore <[email protected]> wrote: > > This is the first time I've noticed one of the workshops for a billion > dollar corporation. What is SWC's policy on providing volunteer labor for > corporations? I can get behind helping grad students at universities for > free, but this seems very different. Corporate training is big money. For > example, my girlfriend's place of business just paid $20k for a lousy two > day workshop a couple weeks ago. Seems like this kind of thing would be > ideal to do to fund SWC's more altruistic goals, but I'm not sure that > having volunteers teaching it is necessarily what everyone has in mind. Not > to mention, Monsanto isn't the most liked of companies. I'd potentially > feel ok volunteering for corporate training if I knew it meant a strong pay > off to our non-profit. > > That's just a thought. Sounds like something worthy of a board discussion > if it hasn't happened yet. At the last non-profit I worked at, these topics > certainly kept us at the meeting longer than we'd wished. > > > Jason > moorepants.info > +01 530-601-9791 > > On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 6:43 AM, Greg Wilson < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi everyone, >> >> We've been approached by Monsanto to run two or even three workshops side >> by side on April 20-21 in St Louis. They're looking for instructors with >> backgrounds in stats, genomics/bioinformatics, or both - if you're >> interested and available, please add yourself to >> https://swcarpentry.etherpad.mozilla.org/instructors-US. They have a >> lot of scientists who need our skills, so I'm hopeful that a good first >> showing will lead to repeat business... >> >> Thanks, >> Greg >> >> -- >> Dr. Greg Wilson | [email protected] >> Software Carpentry | http://software-carpentry.org >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Instructors mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/instructors_lists. >> software-carpentry.org >> > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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