Blimey, Greg, I can't believe people aren't making puerile jokes involving the transposition of a vowel in your surname.
This is how I see the two sides: Greg: Mine horse is higher than thine. I am as important as anyone, my job is as important as any job. I want to be able to boast of the ethical standards I attain for I am considerably holier than thou. You see how accepting massive sums of money from the oil industry and having tankers named after you and so forth might be perceived as producing a conflict of interest if you are a politician responsible for developing foreign policy regarding the Middle East? Well the MVP programme is just like that because people who provide Microsoft consultancy are given pens. By Microsoft. With no strings attached. And titles. Which are priceless you know. Everyone on this planet (I was going to say everyone _else_ but . . .) : For heaven's sake GD, I don't perceive the MVP programme as producing a conflict of interest as any rewards are unsolicited by the recipient and no demands are made by the provider of the rewards. The whole scheme is very open to the point that Microsoft operate a website describing the scheme and several members of the programme also run a site putting forward their perspective. People we know have received the MVP title and have not changed their behaviour in the least (the how-come-Ed-still-hates-PSTSs-when-he's-an-MVP? argument). If there really was a perceived conflict of interests people would not accept the award as it would damage them professionally. The scheme has clear mutual benefits for Microsoft and the Microsoft-product-using community as it encourages people to provide helpful on-line support but there is nothing that amounts to a conflict of interests. Are we seriously supposed to believe that people who would otherwise consider Microsoft products inferior would spend their time helping people use them just so they could be awarded a title the only possible material benefit of which would only pertain if they locked themselves into working with these products? You are quite happy to come on here and ask the advice of these MVPs about GroupWise clients for a project that you have costed up before you have a solution worked out and yet you think they are unethical - don't you think there's a certain amount of double standards here? Your actions come across like someone who receives benefits from the welfare state and spends their time moaning about the immorality of capitalism. -----Original Message----- From: Greg Deckler [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 18 December 2003 15:34 To: Exchange Discussions Subject: Greg's Utterly Fascinating Views on Ethics I have not yet covered the Conflict of Interest topic but I'm sure that it will come up eventually. Until then, here is how I see the two sides. Greg: Accepting direct gifts from third parties, especially significant gifts such as large dollar items and titles, presents a real or perceived conflict of interest between an IT professional's client (either the customer or company that he or she works for) and that third party. This is why companies have limits on the type and dollar amount of gifts that employees can accept from third parties. Because MVP is primarily a title and titles are priceless, there are obvious grounds for a potential conflict of interest. And it does not matter if the conflict of interest is real or perceived. The whole point of ethics and conflict of interest rules is to help keep people from getting into ethical trouble and to remove even the specter or impropriety. The Other Side: The MVP title is not unethical. In fact, it does not matter what you do or who you accept gifts from or what the type or dollar amount of those gifts, it will never, ever constitute a conflict of interest. Furthermore, there is really no such thing as a "conflict of interest". This whole "conflict of interest" nonsense is, in fact, an evil plot propagated by the secretive Illuminati. Obviously, the Illuminati have corrupted Greg's brain and the brains of all of the corporations that have rules against accepting gifts. Don't become another victim! Even if God himself comes down and points out that something is obviously a potential conflict of interest, argue with God because the Illuminati have obviously gotten to him. 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]
