[OSGeo-Discuss] Changes (and proposed changes) regarding the Code of Conduct

[Jonathan Moules]

Hi Maria,

Just a thought, but I'm not sure getting rid of the assumption of good 
faith is a good idea. To do so would be basically assuming people are 
guilty until proven innocent which runs counter to how these things 
should work.

To use a personal anecdote, many years ago I had a black flatmate who I 
was joking around with and I made a comment that it turns out is a 
negative racial epithet. Being young and unworldly, I didn't know that 
at the time and certainly didn't mean it in that context, it also has a 
perfectly innocent context - the only one I'd ever been exposed to - 
which is how I was using it.

Now, reading your thebias.com link, I can see that the author there 
would suggest I be pilloried for what was an honest mistake. They'd say 
I was being "careless" or "ignorant" and stepping on their toes. But I 
don't think either is fair because it's not reasonable to expect people 
to know everything that could offend everyone, especially somewhere as 
multicultural as the internet.

For example, consider this symbol: 👍a simple thumbs-up emoticon that's 
commonly used to signify "it's all good" and "thanks". Well, it turns 
out that it's "an obscene insult" in some cultures! I didn't know that 
until a few seconds ago when I went searching for a simple example.

I have learnt over the years from experiences in both directions that 
it's best to always assume good faith if possible. Humans may be the 
species with the most complex communication on the planet, but that 
doesn't mean we don't fail often.

@Ben - Thanks for sharing World Human Rights day. I'm a long time fan of 
the UNDHR!

Cheers,
Jonathan


On 2018-12-09 12:49, María Arias de Reyna wrote:
> Dear OSGeo community,
>
> As you may already know, I have been working for the last months in 
> improving our community procedures[1] to make it a safer space. Recent 
> events in the community have shown that we have a lot of work ahead.
>
> We all, as OSGeo, must remove the recent bullying and campaigning 
> mentality that is unfortunately gradually become a part of our 
> culture. 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.
>
> This has been a slow task, but there are some actions taking place:
>
> CoC committee members have become inactive. I volunteered to pick up 
> the task and lead a new CoC committee. Right now I am the only CoC 
> member, but I am looking for more volunteers. If only, to make sure 
> that if I am involved in any CoC incident, someone else can take care 
> of it properly as mediator.
>
> I want to change also the way incidents and violations of the CoC are 
> reported. I noticed there are reports being done on person and on 
> private email, but never through the official channels (which right 
> now is a mailing list).To improve this, I will ask the SAC to replace 
> the mailing list with an alias and a form on the website. Also, there 
> will be a public list of who receives those emails so people reporting 
> incidents will have a clear understanding of who is receiving the 
> information and decide to contact privately only a subset of the team. 
> Replacing the mailing list by an alias that sends the data directly to 
> the inbox of the CoC team is important, as sometimes incidents are not 
> reported just because the person reporting is scared to leave a trace 
> of the report or is not sure who will be reading the report.
>
> Another action I am going to propose is a change on the CoC itself. 
> Our community has grown a lot both in diversity and in numbers, and we 
> need a strict code of conduct that makes sure marginalized or harrased 
> people is always covered by it. We can't rely anymore on just common 
> sense and good faith.
>
> Once the new board is settled, I am going to propose to change the 
> current CoC for another like the Contributor Covenant[2]. As it is a 
> CoC shared by many communities, this has the advantage of receiving 
> the upgrades and experience from other communities. As you can see, it 
> fixes some of the bugs from our CoC, like the assuming good intent and 
> good faith[3] part that made the current CoC useless on most cases. I 
> will propose to add some foreword to adapt to specifities for our 
> community, but in my opinion, the latest version of the Contributor 
> Covenant is easy to read, simple, and cover most of what we need. My 
> hope is that this new CoC can be adapted to all OSGeo Projects and 
> Events that don't already have a CoC, so we have full OSGeo universe 
> covered by default.
>
> I hope this actions will prove useful in the medium term and we don't 
> have to see more members leaving the community. We should remember to 
> be empathic and kind. We are all seeking the same goals and we should 
> encourage cooperation, not hinder each other. I know that developer 
> communities are very used to these bad behaviours, but I'm confident 
> we can grow better.
>
> Have a nice day!
> María.
>
>
> [1] https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2018-August/011640.html
> [2] https://www.contributor-covenant.org/
> [3] 
> https://thebias.com/2017/09/26/how-good-intent-undermines-diversity-and-inclusion/
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

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