[Board] Improve Community Behaviour

[María Arias de Reyna]

Hi Cameron,

I agree with you on most of your email, but some comments inline:

On Tue, Aug 7, 2018 at 1:31 AM, Cameron Shorter
<cameron.shorter at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Maria,
> Thank you for stepping forward and offering to drive a CoC initiative. It is a very worthy and often thankless role.
> While I won't have much time to give to it, I'm willing to monitor a CoC email list and help where I can.


Thank you, I suspect this is going to be an increasingly difficult task.

> With regards to your text below, I suggest that a CoC committee should focus on language used and any personal attacks, but not on the topic of conversation. Ie, I think we should drop the second paragraph (starting: "We want to remind the community that, up till now, local and regional events are not required to disclose their budgets and accounts. ")
> We also shouldn't be re-opening specific issues which appear (from what I'm exposed to) to have been resolved.

Is it resolved? From my perspective, it has been swept under the
carpet, not resolved. The resolving part was me saying "the board is
going to do something to improve" so this is the solving part. Making
clear we don't agree with that behavior and we are working on
improving the community response.

> I feel we should act swiftly, within days in email threads, resolve quickly, and move on so that people can move onto more productive activities. (Digging up an old example is likely to trigger a new spate of accusing emails.)

We should act swiftly, but we haven't. Our fault. I am being neutral
precisely because I don't want to trigger another public discussion
that is going nowhere. We are working on improving, that's the
response. Maybe not the best response, but better than none.

> I don't think we need to lecture the community again on our CoC principles. They have already been stated in the wrap up of the latest spate. But we should highlight any new initiatives that is being put into place.

Are you sure the community is aware of the guidelines? For me, a
refresh every now and then is not too much.

> Eg: reword and simplify to:
> Recent communication in the community have shown that we have occasionally slipped into unfriendly communication opportunities for improvement. To facilitate this a few of us have volunteered to act as facilitators under the banner of the CoC committee, with the aim of helping resolving differences quickly, making sure we have created a safe environment, so that we can get back to what we do best - creating great open software, data and communities.  If you would like to join us, then please get in touch.

We can add that too to the statement, although now after Jody's
suggestion it is more wide:

"Recent communication in the community have shown that we have
occasionally slipped into unfriendly communication and we need to work
on how to make the communication friendlier. We all, as OSGeo, must
remove the recent bullying and campaigning mentality that is
unfortunately  gradually become a part of our OSGeo culture. Fair play
is key on all aspects of communication both inside and outside the
community channels, because an OSGeo member represents the community
at all times. We should remember to be empathetic and kind to all
members of the community. We are all seeking the same goals and we
should encourage cooperation, not hinder each other. Disclosing
private data or hinting threats is not helpful and can only make our
community less comfortable for everyone. We will work on improving
actions on harmful behavior and learn how to communicate on a more
positive way. We don't want to punish involuntary behavior that may be
harmful, but improve it to make the community stronger and healthier.
Our culture of openness is here to empower and include everyone where
we can be effective. It should not be used aggressively to call our
individuals or organizations that are not in a position to speak. To
facilitate this a few of us have volunteered to act as facilitators
under the banner of the CoC committee, with the aim of helping
resolving differences quickly, making sure we have created a safe
environment, so that we can get back to what we do best - creating
great open software, data and communities.  If you would like to join
us, then please get in touch.

We want to remind the community that, up till now, groups within our
organization require a degree of privacy to operate effectively on our
behalf. The board also requires a degree of privacy to negotiate
relationships with our partners. The incubation process works
privately with project teams to address legal issues, in collaboration
the board and OSGeo legal team. Project teams also ask everyone to
practice responsible disclosure around security issues that can have a
wide effect. Local and regional events are not required to disclose
their budgets and accounts.

Although we want to be as transparent as possible, we understand that
each team can negotiate private agreements with different providers
that benefit the community and can't be disclosed. This is a
transparency we accept to give up in favor of being able to reach
further. In any case, we kindly ask everyone to disclose as much
information as possible, in addition to statistics, to collect data
that will help organize better and improve diversity. All events, big
or small, are important to our community and all of them are doing an
outstanding work in expanding our mission and we want them to
succeed."