--On Wednesday, May 15, 2013 14:28 -0700 Doug Ewell
<doug(_at_)ewellic(_dot_)org> wrote:
...
I did this because
the WG at the time included a malicious contributor who had
already contacted the HR department of another contributor's
employer, asking them to professionally discipline the
employee, because he had supported an RFC 3683 PR-action
against the first contributor. Full disclosure can be a
dangerous thing.
I know that sort of "contact the employer and ask them to chew
out the employee" stuff goes on because I've had it tried on me
at least twice although both involved technical issues and
choices, not, e.g., a PR-action. In the first instance, the
employer said something about academic freedom and essentially
told the person complaining to kiss off. In the second, the
employer laughed.
I may have been luckier in my choices of employers (and clients)
and I know bad stuff happens sometimes, but the sort of case you
outline doesn't seem to me to be a good argument against
disclosure of affiliations. It seems to me that, very rare edge
cases aside, either:
(i) Your employer knows what you are doing and saying in
the IETF, at least to the extent that they care, and
will back you should such complaints arrive.
(ii) You and your employer have an agreement that you
participate in the IETF as an independent activity that
they don't try to control. Should a complaint arise,
they presumably tell the complaining party that unless
your IETF behavior is an embarrassment to the company,
in which case (iii) applies.
(iii) Your IETF behavior is, as far as your employer is
concerned, that of a loose cannon. You regularly work
against company positions or the company's best
interests and haven't laid the internal foundation for
that to be acceptable. A complaint associated with
something you have disclosed could get you into big
trouble, but complaints are equally likely from people
who know where you are working, disclosure or no, such
as fellow employees of the same organization.
So I suggest that, if your behavior is proper and above board,
disclosure will rarely create a problem. If your behavior
isn't, then disclosure may be the least of your difficulties.
In addition, the IETF may be in need of a mechanism for
documenting and disclosing the identities of anyone who thinks
that complaining to someone's employer about his or her
reasonable behavior at the IETF. I imagine the community could
figure out appropriate and completely informal ways to
discourage that particular style of trying to influence IETF
decision-making.
best,
john