John, you post some intelligent stuff I have to say. Yes, there is an order of magnitude argument to be had in all of this and you argue it well. I base my position on a couple of premises, but the main argument is:
Titles are absolutely priceless and have the potential to be much, much more corrupting than any monetary gift. For proof, I will simply point to this entire discussion now 8 years old. At the mere mention that there *might* be a conflict of interest problem with the MVP title, which is what I posted 8 years ago, it has generated thousands upon thousands of hateful emails, dragged on over 8 YEARS and people STILL cannot let it go. That, in and of itself, proves how corrupting an influence it is. People are SO covetous of it that they cannot abide even the mere SUGGESTION that there might be an ethical conflict. > Very true. > > But surely the greater motivational force in these cases would be "If they > don't go for product X in which I am an expert they will not employ me." > rather than "If they don't go for product X in which I am an MVP then there > will be a slightly smaller online user community for me to help and so my > chances of retaining my MVP status will be diminished." > > There is a much more powerful conflict of interests at work with any paid > consultancy than the MVP programme could ever produce. If I had a million > dollars (cue Barenakedladies tunes lodged in heads) to spend on upgrading my > mail system to Exchange 2003 but was worried it would be a more troublesome > process than it appears and so had decided to hire Ed as a consultant to > advise me on whether or not to proceed would it be the MVP award, even if it > meant a lot to him, or the chance of getting his hands on (part of) the > million dollars that I should be concerned might make him recommend the > upgrade even if it was not in my interests? > > The MVP is orders of magnitude smaller than the greats vats of cash sloshing > round this industry and is trivial in comparison as are any conflicts of > interest it might otherwise be able to produce. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Greg Deckler [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 22 December 2003 18:58 > To: Exchange Discussions > Subject: RE: Greg's Utterly Fascinating Views on Ethics > > > The second scenario still presents the potential for a conflict of > interest. If you are accepting gifts from vendors then you may not be > forthcoming with all information about problems or issues with the system > that might cause the client to choose NOT to migrate, hold off on > migration, etc. Still the potential for conflict of interest. > > > The information contained in this e-mail is intended for the recipient or > entity to whom it is addressed. It may contain confidential information that > is exempt from disclosure by law and if you are not the intended recipient, > you must not copy, distribute or take any act in reliance on it. If you have > received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and > delete from your system. _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Web Interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=exchange&text_mode=&lang=english To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
