It's sad that we have to address this formally (as formal as c4l gets
anyway), but that's reality, so yes, bess++ indeed, and mjgiarlo++,
anarchivist++ for the quick assist.
The responses to the list in the past couple of hours alone suggest that
this is something much of the community would want to get behind. To
that end, and as a show of (positive) force--not to mention how cool our
community is--I think it might be neat if we could find a way to make
whatever winds up being drafted something we can sign; i.e. attach our
personal names. I don't know how that would work exactly...maybe via the
wiki (where it seems to me a lot of good info goes to die) or the
code4lib Github (slightly better since you could link to your
credentials in a an environment much larger than our own, and everyone
could have a copy), but something along those lines. I'm happy to help
if I can.
Anyway, just a thought.
-Jon
--
Jon Stroop
Digital Initiatives Programmer/Analyst
Princeton University Library
jstr...@princeton.edu
http://pudl.princeton.edu
http://findingaids.princeton.edu
On 11/26/12 6:33 PM, Michael J. Giarlo wrote:
All,
Building on what Bess and others have written, and on the GitHub repo that
anarchivist set up, I've contributed a rough draft of a Code4Lib code of
conduct:
https://github.com/code4lib/antiharassment-policy/blob/master/code_of_conduct.md
This strawperson code of conduct is based on DLF Forum's, which is based on
the Ada Initiative's sample policy. It is modified slightly to reflect a
broader scope of the conference, conference social events, the IRC channel,
and the mailing list.
Throw darts, rinse, repeat.
-Mike
On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 6:10 PM, Robert Sanderson <azarot...@gmail.com>wrote:
+1, of course :)
You might wish to consider some further derivatives/related pages:
http://www.diglib.org/about/code-of-conduct/
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Friendly_space_policy
https://thestrangeloop.com/about/policies
http://www.apache.org/foundation/policies/anti-harassment.html
Rob
On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 3:57 PM, Mariner, Matthew <
matthew.mari...@ucdenver.edu> wrote:
+1 for all of the below
Matthew C. Mariner
Head of Special Collections and Digital Initiatives
Assistant Professor
Auraria Library
1100 Lawrence StreetDenver, CO 80204-2041
matthew.mari...@ucdenver.edu
http://library.auraria.edu :: http://archives.auraria.edu
On 11/26/12 3:51 PM, "Tom Cramer" <tcra...@stanford.edu> wrote:
+1 for Bess's motion
+1 for Roy's expansion to C4L online interactions as well as face to
face
+1 for Karen's focus on general inclusivity and fair play
For me the hardest thing is how one monitors and resolves issues that
arise. As a group with no formal management, I suppose the conference
organizers become the "deciders" if such a necessity arises. If it's
elsewhere (email, IRC) -- that's a bit trickier. The Ada project's
detailed guides should help, but if there is a policy it seems that
there necessarily has to be some responsible "body" -- even if ad hoc.
It seems to me that there would be tremendous benefit in having
1.) an explicit statement of the community norms around harassment and
fair play in general. In the best case, this would help avoid
uncomfortable or inappropriate situations before they occur.
2.) a defined process for handling any incidents that do arise, which in
the case of this community I would imagine would revolve around
reporting, communication, negotiation and arbitration rather than
adjudication by a standing body (which I agree is hard to see in this
crowd). I know several high schools have adopted peer arbitration
networks for conflict resolution rather than referring incidents to the
Principal's Office--perhaps therein lies a model for us for any
incidents
that may not be resolved simply through dialogue.
- Tom
On Nov 26, 2012, at 2:32 PM, Karen Coyle wrote:
Bess and Code4libbers,
I've only been to one c4l conference and it was a very positive
experience for me, but I also feel that this is too valuable of a
community for us to risk it getting itself into crisis mode over some
unintended consequences or a "bad apple" incident. For that reason I
would support the adoption of an anti-harassment policy in part for its
consciousness-raising value. Ideally this would be not only about
sexual
harassment but would include general goals for inclusiveness and fair
play within the community. And it would also serve as an acknowledgment
that none of us is perfect, but we can deal with it.
For me the hardest thing is how one monitors and resolves issues that
arise. As a group with no formal management, I suppose the conference
organizers become the "deciders" if such a necessity arises. If it's
elsewhere (email, IRC) -- that's a bit trickier. The Ada project's
detailed guides should help, but if there is a policy it seems that
there necessarily has to be some responsible "body" -- even if ad hoc.
kc
On 11/26/12 2:16 PM, Bess Sadler wrote:
Dear Fellow Code4libbers,
I hope I am not about to get flamed. Please take as context that I
have been a member of this community for almost a decade. I have
contributed software, support, and volunteer labor to this community's
events. I have also attended the majority of code4lib conferences,
which have been amazing and life-changing, and have helped me do my
job
a lot better. But, and I've never really known how to talk about this,
those conferences have also been problematic for me a couple of times.
Nothing like what happened to Noirin Shirley at ApacheCon (see
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Noirin_Shirley_ApacheCon_incidentif
you're unfamiliar with the incident I mean) but enough to concern me
that even in a wonderful community where we mostly share the same
values, not everyone has the same definitions of acceptable behavior.
I am watching the toxic fallout from the BritRuby conference
cancellation with a heavy heart (go search for "britruby conference
cancelled" if you want to catch up and/or get depressed). It has me
wondering what more we could be doing to promote diversity and
inclusiveness within code4lib. We have already had a couple of
harassment incidents over the years, which I won't rehash here, which
have driven away members of our community. We have also had other
incidents that don't get talked about because sometimes one can feel
that membership in a community is more important than one's personal
boundaries or even safety. We should not be a community where people
have to make that choice.
I would like for us to consider adopting an anti-harassment policy
for
code4lib conferences. This is emerging as a best practice in the
larger
open source software community, and we would be joining the ranks of
many other conferences:
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassment/Adoption.
The Ada Initiative has a great discussion of why adopting an
Anti-Harrassment policy is a good choice for a conference to make, as
well as some example policy statements, here:
http://adainitiative.org/what-we-do/conference-policies/ Here is a
summary:
Why have an official anti-harassment policy for your conference?
First, it is necessary (unfortunately). Harassment at conferences is
incredibly common - for example, see this timeline
(http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/index.php?title=Timeline_of_incidents
)
of sexist incidents in geek communities. Second, it sets expectations
for behavior at the conference. Simply having an anti-harassment
policy can prevent harassment all by itself. Third, it encourages
people to attend who have had bad experiences at other conferences.
Finally, it gives conference staff instructions on how to handle
harassment quickly, with the minimum amount of disruption or bad
press
for your conference.
If the conference already has something like this in place, and I'm
just uninformed, please educate me and let's do a better job
publicizing it.
Thanks for considering this suggestion. If the answer is the usual
code4lib answer (some variation on "Great idea! How are you going to
make that happen?") then I hereby nominate myself as a member of the
Anti-Harrassment Policy Adoption committee for the code4lib
conference.
Would anyone else like to join me?
Bess Sadler
b...@stanford.edu
Manager, Application Development
Digital Library Systems & Services
Stanford University Library
--
Karen Coyle
kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet
