CodeOfConduct Committee

The Code Of Conduct Committee is responsible for defining internal workflows and sharing organization knowledge related to the maintenance, implementation, and continued improvement of the OSGeo Code of Conduct ( background-wiki, Official OSGeo Code of Conduct) which was approved by the OSGeo Board in 2015. (For more on the committee scope, see below.)

Code of Conduct Comminication

OSGeo requires our projects, events and communities establish and follow a code of conduct, see Official OSGeo Code of Conduct website page:

• Berlin Code of Conduct a community managed code of conduct for events and user groups
• contributor-covenant a community managed code of conduct for open source projects
• OSGeo Code of Conduct Version 1.0 initial OSGeo code of conduct approved May 2015

Reporting:

• conduct-report@osgeo.org

Committee:

• coc-discuss@osgeo.org is used by committee members, and is available to assist OSGeo groups establish their code of conduct

Membership

The inaugural co-chairs (serving for a term of one year) were Kristin Bott and Camille Acey. (Note: Camille stepped down 2015/11/18.)The committee will be open and maintain an open mailing list (coc-discuss@osgeo.org) but will maintain a smaller voting committee (which can be contacted on their private mailing list at conduct-report@osgeo.org) to report conduct incidents and violations. This smaller committee will consist of a total of 5 members also serving one year terms. The additional 3 members will be appointed by the co-chairs.

Membership:

• Co-Chair: Maria Arias
• Co-Chair: Vicky Vergara
• Jody Garnett
• Michael Smith

Prior members:

• Kristin Bot
• Camille Acey

Mission

Our mission is to assist in making sure that OSGeo continues to be an inclusive and welcoming organization; we will accomplish this by (1) guiding policy around the CoC and other initiatives to increase diversity and (2) dealing with reports of violations of the CoC. The CoC committee will continue to iterate on the CoC, its implementation, and committee membership in order to ensure that they represent, nurture, and encourage diversity in our community.

Name

We believe that an explicitly-named committee evidences OSGeo’s commitment to the CoC. As such we wish to retain the name of “Code of Conduct Committee”.

Scope

• The committee will be responsible for developing and receiving board approval for Code of Conduct (CoC) implementation policy. Once approved, this policy and associated documentation will be circulated amongst the community.
• In support of the OSGeo Code of Conduct, the committee will work with all community members, with a strong focus on those who moderate OSGeo IRC channels, organize OSGeo gatherings and events (including FOSS4G), as well as those who steer existing OSGeo projects and/or incubate new projects.
• The committee will review and respond to reports of violations of the CoC from participants in OSGeo projects, gatherings, events, and IRC channels. “Violations” refers to any acts by individuals or groups who repeatedly act in a way that is contrary to the stated priorities of OSGeo as an organization (i.e. the board-approved CoC).
• The committee will maintain an archive/repository of such violations as well as any organizational decisions around individuals’ conduct/participation (e.g. names of banned individuals); the OSGeo LOCs, moderators, and/or board will absolutely continue to determine whether/not individuals are welcome to participate in OSGeo events / projects / forums.
• The committee will serve as a resource to Local Organizing Committees (LOC's), moderators, and other individuals and groups leading OSGeo activities, projects, and events.

Dealing With Code of Conduct Violations/ Reports of Violations

The CoC committee has no desire to blacklist individuals or provide a heavy-handed "police-like" role. Instead, we aim to serve as a resource to LOCs, moderators and the board, and to continue to iterate towards more inclusive practice/policy, as well as to help to maintain institutional knowledge about CoC violations and the decisions the LOCs, moderators, and/or board make with regard to those violations. “Violations” refers to any acts by individuals or groups who repeatedly act in a way that is contrary to the stated priorities of OSGeo as an organization (i.e. the board-approved CoC).

We intend to maintain an archive/repository of such incidents as well as any organizational (e.g. board or LOC) decisions around individuals’ conduct/participation (e.g. official warnings issues, any official investigations, and names of banned individuals). The OSGeo LOCs, moderators, and/or board will continue to determine whether/not individuals are welcome to participate in OSGeo events / projects / forums.

Communication and Privacy

The group will maintain a public mailing list at coc-discuss@osgeo.org (list archives).

The email address conduct-report@osgeo.org is intended for confidential and sensitive information, with incidents discussed privately (not recorded on a public mailing list). The Code of Conduct Committee meetings are held private meeting (in their venue of choice). The committee is available to hold public meetings upon request (e.g. in IRC to help a project team establish a code of conduct).

Documents/Resources

Additional committee documents and resources can be found at CodeofConduct_Documents