On the other hand, to my knowledge, there are no procedures in place for an existing organization to officially “align” with the movement as it were.
The following idea does nothing to thwart threats from individual bad actors* but it is a way to limit damage from less competent organizations: In another community that I’ve been part of, we had the problem that guests of honor, partner organisations, trademark owners, and attendees had to rely heavily on the people who were organizing conventions. There were scores of these conventions springing up everywhere, and no one knew who to trust anymore. Actual malevolence was the exception but incompetence was rampant.
In Europe, friends of mine formed a European certification organization for conventions. To obtain its endorsement, conventions have to comply with a number of requirements, have to have organized one convention (so the application process usually takes over a year), have to be ready to coordinate with the other established conventions, etc.
The result is that we – partners, attendees, etc. – have a place to check whether a convention is trustworthy and competent, and conventions have a place to turn if they want to be officially and widely recognized.
A panel may be the only resort when it comes to individuals, but for organizations we can be more proactive and create transparent processes from the start, processes that benefit everyone including the organization itself.
If InIn had had such a process to rely on, Gleb may’ve had experienced people at CEA to bounce ideas off of, and those people may’ve noticed early on that some plans would be seen as astroturfing and that that’s bad. (I had been running a little NPO for a year or two when I first heard of the concept, and it’s possible the astroturfing of InIn is not an unambiguous textbook case from Gleb’s perspective.) Gleb could’ve also saved a lot of time he spent marketing to EAs, and had InIn already been in such a process, everyone could’ve been much more direct about their suggestions. For example, I’ve always read the ubiquitous “broad public outreach is dangerous: don’t do it” as a cipher for “broad public outreach is dangerous: we don’t trust you to get it right.” Such advice sounds hypocritical coming from people associated with or aware of organizations that have collaborated on articles on EA in NYT and WSJ. (But I heard Singer is to blame for those.)
* I’m not weighing in on the debate on whether Gleb qualifies as one. I’ve liked him for the couple months that I’ve known him and will maintain my neutrality.
On the other hand, to my knowledge, there are no procedures in place for an existing organization to officially “align” with the movement as it were.
The following idea does nothing to thwart threats from individual bad actors* but it is a way to limit damage from less competent organizations: In another community that I’ve been part of, we had the problem that guests of honor, partner organisations, trademark owners, and attendees had to rely heavily on the people who were organizing conventions. There were scores of these conventions springing up everywhere, and no one knew who to trust anymore. Actual malevolence was the exception but incompetence was rampant.
In Europe, friends of mine formed a European certification organization for conventions. To obtain its endorsement, conventions have to comply with a number of requirements, have to have organized one convention (so the application process usually takes over a year), have to be ready to coordinate with the other established conventions, etc.
The result is that we – partners, attendees, etc. – have a place to check whether a convention is trustworthy and competent, and conventions have a place to turn if they want to be officially and widely recognized.
A panel may be the only resort when it comes to individuals, but for organizations we can be more proactive and create transparent processes from the start, processes that benefit everyone including the organization itself.
If InIn had had such a process to rely on, Gleb may’ve had experienced people at CEA to bounce ideas off of, and those people may’ve noticed early on that some plans would be seen as astroturfing and that that’s bad. (I had been running a little NPO for a year or two when I first heard of the concept, and it’s possible the astroturfing of InIn is not an unambiguous textbook case from Gleb’s perspective.) Gleb could’ve also saved a lot of time he spent marketing to EAs, and had InIn already been in such a process, everyone could’ve been much more direct about their suggestions. For example, I’ve always read the ubiquitous “broad public outreach is dangerous: don’t do it” as a cipher for “broad public outreach is dangerous: we don’t trust you to get it right.” Such advice sounds hypocritical coming from people associated with or aware of organizations that have collaborated on articles on EA in NYT and WSJ. (But I heard Singer is to blame for those.)
* I’m not weighing in on the debate on whether Gleb qualifies as one. I’ve liked him for the couple months that I’ve known him and will maintain my neutrality.