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Ethics and empathy in OSS
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‎content/blog/2021/ethics-and-empathy-in-open-source.md‎

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title: "Ethics and Empathy in Open Source"
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publishDate: 2021-04-16
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---
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One of the biggest stories to come out in the tech industry last week was the [deliberate bad patches to the linux kernel](https://www.zdnet.com/article/greg-kroah-hartman-bans-university-of-minnesota-from-linux-development-for-deliberately-buggy-patches/)
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and got the University of Minnesota from future contributions.
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When reading the article I was reminded how incredibly broken
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the tech industry is. I say broken because a group of people
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thought that it was ok to experiment on an Open Source Project
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without express permission. This shows that the leadership of
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the Computer Science faculty, and possibly the Doctoral
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candidates lack any form of empathy... and possibly shows how
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there is a lack of ethics being taught. To "experiment" on a
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project and the people who maintain it is not ethical. At least
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to me.
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One of my friends, [Ashley Hunsberger](https://twitter.com/aahunsberger),
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has done a fantastic talk at [Selenium Conf Berlin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5CdM87B9wo&list=PLRdSclUtJDYV8I_B5rLkMI7jL_JMv7GRO&index=8) entitled
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"The death of liberal arts". In this talk Ashley talks about
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how, with a testing twist, how humanities subjects can improve
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the way we approach our problems in the technical world.
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Open Source projects already get a lot of people abusing them regularly,
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complaining that their poorly written bug reports are not being actioned,
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or that something they are benefitting from for free isn't working the way
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they expect. 99% of the time the contributors are doing this in their free
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time. And the 1% who are paid to work on Open Source? They don't deserve to
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be treated badly either. They will go above and beyond to try help but they
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are not to be abused. I've said it before that you should [hug a developer
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or don't be a dick.](/blog/2011/hug-a-oss-developer-or-dont-be-a-dick/) and
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have even [described what harassment can look like](/blog/2017/harassment-of-open-source-maintainers-or-contributors/).
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Circling back to the original reason for blogging, the experiment could have
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happened if it had been planned with a little bit of empathy. I feel
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a social engineering project like that could be useful and a lot can be
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learned to improve the security of software in the Open Source world.

‎docs/blog/2021/ethics-and-empathy-in-open-source/index.html‎

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<meta name="twitter:description" content="One of the biggest stories to come out in the tech industry last week was the deliberate bad patches to the linux kernel and got the University of Minnesota from future contributions.
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When reading the article I was reminded how incredibly broken the tech industry is. I say broken because a group of people thought that it was ok to experiment on an Open Source Project without express permission. This shows that the leadership of the Computer Science faculty, and possibly the Doctoral candidates lack any form of empathy&hellip; and possibly shows how there is a lack of ethics being taught."/>
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<meta property="og:description" content="One of the biggest stories to come out in the tech industry last week was the deliberate bad patches to the linux kernel and got the University of Minnesota from future contributions.
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When reading the article I was reminded how incredibly broken the tech industry is. I say broken because a group of people thought that it was ok to experiment on an Open Source Project without express permission. This shows that the leadership of the Computer Science faculty, and possibly the Doctoral candidates lack any form of empathy&hellip; and possibly shows how there is a lack of ethics being taught." />
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<h1>Ethics and Empathy in Open Source</h1>
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</header>
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<p>One of the biggest stories to come out in the tech industry last week was the <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/greg-kroah-hartman-bans-university-of-minnesota-from-linux-development-for-deliberately-buggy-patches/">deliberate bad patches to the linux kernel</a>
108+
and got the University of Minnesota from future contributions.</p>
109+
<p>When reading the article I was reminded how incredibly broken
110+
the tech industry is. I say broken because a group of people
111+
thought that it was ok to experiment on an Open Source Project
112+
without express permission. This shows that the leadership of
113+
the Computer Science faculty, and possibly the Doctoral
114+
candidates lack any form of empathy&hellip; and possibly shows how
115+
there is a lack of ethics being taught. To &ldquo;experiment&rdquo; on a
116+
project and the people who maintain it is not ethical. At least
117+
to me.</p>
118+
<p>One of my friends, <a href="https://twitter.com/aahunsberger">Ashley Hunsberger</a>,
119+
has done a fantastic talk at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5CdM87B9wo&amp;list=PLRdSclUtJDYV8I_B5rLkMI7jL_JMv7GRO&amp;index=8">Selenium Conf Berlin</a> entitled
120+
&ldquo;The death of liberal arts&rdquo;. In this talk Ashley talks about
121+
how, with a testing twist, how humanities subjects can improve
122+
the way we approach our problems in the technical world.</p>
123+
<p>Open Source projects already get a lot of people abusing them regularly,
124+
complaining that their poorly written bug reports are not being actioned,
125+
or that something they are benefitting from for free isn&rsquo;t working the way
126+
they expect. 99% of the time the contributors are doing this in their free
127+
time. And the 1% who are paid to work on Open Source? They don&rsquo;t deserve to
128+
be treated badly either. They will go above and beyond to try help but they
129+
are not to be abused. I&rsquo;ve said it before that you should <a href="/blog/2011/hug-a-oss-developer-or-dont-be-a-dick/">hug a developer
130+
or don&rsquo;t be a dick.</a> and
131+
have even <a href="/blog/2017/harassment-of-open-source-maintainers-or-contributors/">described what harassment can look like</a>.</p>
132+
<p>Circling back to the original reason for blogging, the experiment could have
133+
happened if it had been planned with a little bit of empathy. I feel
134+
a social engineering project like that could be useful and a lot can be
135+
learned to improve the security of software in the Open Source world.</p>
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