Allowing Conflicted Parties to give input to Software Development Proposal drafting (was Re: Conflict of Interest policy, 1 March 2012 draft)

[Bradley M. Kuhn]

>> * *Drafting the Software Development Proposal.* PLCs must draft a
>> written proposal for every software development project their Project
>> wishes to fund. During the drafting process, if a PLC Person (or his
>> or her family member), a PLC Person's employer and/or a fellow
>> employee of PLC Person's employer wish to be considered a candidate
>> to fulfill the funded software development contract, that PLC Person
>> has a conflict of interest and must recuse herself or himself from
>> the proposal drafting process and abstain from any vote to approve
>> that proposal. All other procedures as outlined in
>> <<Procedures-PLC-Persons,_Conflict Resolution Procedures for PLC
>> Persons_>> shall still apply. The PLC must document the PLC Person's
>> abstention from the proposal drafting process in the minutes of the
>> next PLC meeting.

Chris Leonard wrote at 21:42 (EST) on Thursday:
> in practice, it may be that the conflicted person is the only PLC
> member with the requisite technical expertise or situational awareness
> to draft a suitably detailed proposal.  Is it possible to acknowledge
> that the rest of the PLC should generally be capable of taking
> advantage of the conflicted persons special knowledge and
> contributions to the drafting without allowing the creation of "an
> uneven playing field".

Tony and I discussed your concern, and we came up with this change:

  * *Drafting the Software Development Proposal.* PLCs must draft a
  written proposal for every software development project their Project
  wishes to fund. During the drafting process, if a PLC Person (or his
  or her family member), a PLC Person's employer and/or a fellow
  employee of PLC Person's employer wish to be considered a candidate to
  fulfill the funded software development contract, that PLC Person has
  a conflict of interest and must recuse herself or himself from the
  proposal drafting process, except to disclose material facts and to
  respond to questions, and must abstain from any vote to approve that
  proposal.  All other procedures as outlined in
  <<Procedures-PLC-Persons,_Conflict Resolution Procedures for PLC Persons_>> 
  shall still apply. The PLC must document the PLC Person's abstention
  from the proposal drafting process in the minutes of the next PLC
  meeting.

This change allows the conflicted PLC Person to "disclose material facts
and to respond to questions" to the drafting process, but does not allow
them to do the drafting themselves.

It's admittedly a subtle distinction, but I think it's important we keep
any conflicted parties at arms' length from the process of drafting any
specific development proposals.

Does this change address your concern?
-- 
Bradley M. Kuhn, Executive Director, Software Freedom Conservancy