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Hi Maria,<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
@Ben - Thanks for sharing World Human Rights day. I'm a long time
fan of the UNDHR!<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Jonathan<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2018-12-09 12:49, María Arias de
Reyna wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAERgKeA6HUAPDYUGvmCwmVUqte01OAgk4K3K4yeHQRyk8kgMHg@mail.gmail.com">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">Dear OSGeo community,<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
This has been a slow task, but there are some actions taking
place:<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Have a nice day!<br>
María.<br>
<br>
<br>
[1] <a
href="https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2018-August/011640.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/2018-August/011640.html</a><br>
[2] <a href="https://www.contributor-covenant.org/"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.contributor-covenant.org/</a><br>
[3] <a
href="https://thebias.com/2017/09/26/how-good-intent-undermines-diversity-and-inclusion/"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://thebias.com/2017/09/26/how-good-intent-undermines-diversity-and-inclusion/</a><br>
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