Diversity

***NOTE: This is currently a DRAFT in progress***

Diversity and the OSGeo Foundation

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) supports diversity in the community: OSGeo community members can safely interact, contribute, share, learn, and be respected for who they are. OSGeo is a large, international organisation made up of members with different cultural, historical, and linguistic backgrounds. Diversity involves acceptance and respect for these differences and more, including ethnicity, race, cultural traditions, religious expressions, age, gender, socio‐economic status, mental or physical ability, and sexual orientation. OSGeo strives to foster growth and innovation in the geospatial industry, and diversity must be respected to reach this goal.

Where Diversity Applies in OSGeo

Diversity and its acceptance applies to everything that OSGeo does including mailing lists, projects, documentation, language in code comments, code sprints, and events.

Feedback and Concerns

OSGeo is a worldwide organization. People converging in the organization have different cultures and background. In some cultures, some behaviors are considered normal, whereas in other cultures might result as disrespectful and offensive. Before getting offended from other people's behavior, consider that there could be a misunderstanding in the communication. Ask yourself if you really think that the other person meant to be disrespectful towards you. Translation is also a common cause of misunderstanding.

Most people in the organization speak English as a second language, and it is possible that they do not always use the language with accuracy or in the way you would.

If you are in an unpleasant situation where one person's behaviour is causing discomfort to you or someone else, consider one or more of these options:

Raise a direct protest against the person who is causing your discomfort: talk to each other.
Ask friends or others there directly for help - you are never alone, others will always help you.
Contact event staff, members of the local organizing committee (LOC), or volunteers.
Contact anybody from the OSGeo Board of Directors either personally or by email, private and in confidence, at board-priv(at)osgeo(dot)org.
You may also contact the President of OSGeo directly at president(at)osgeo(dot)org.
If you think it is appropriate, contact event security staff or local law enforcement.

Goals for this document

Be concise (concise words get read more)
Cover key messages
Include an escalation process for dealing with both minor and major issues
Ensure key terms are understood
Couch in positive language

Questions

Should this statement be called a "Diversity Statement" or a "Code of Conduct"?

Votes

"Diversity Statement"

"Code of Conduct"

Cameron Shorter

Exemplar Sources

Draft OSGeo Conference Committee Code of Conduct

Tickbox version:

I agree to act respectfully toward others in line with the OSGeo Code of Conduct.

OSGeo Code of Conduct:

This Code of Conduct collates the collective values adopted by our OSGeo community which baselines the behaviour we do and don’t support to ensure OSGeo is a safe and productive environment for all.

We invite everyone to be respectful to all, regardless of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, national origin, ethnicity, religion, or ideas. We do not tolerate harassment of others in any form. Examples of harassment include offensive comments, verbal threats or demands, sexualized images in public spaces, intimidation, stalking, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of events, and unwelcome physical contact or sexual attention.

We expect all participants to follow the Code of Conduct when involved in OSGeo activities. This includes conferences, related social events, and online forums. Participants violating this Code of Conduct will be asked to desist and/or make amends. For gross or continual violations, offenders may be expelled from the event or forum without a refund, and/or banned from future events or other forums.

Participants are encouraged to bring any concerns to the attention of event staff, the forum, forum leader, or OSGeo Board. We thank all for helping keep OSGeo welcoming, respectful, and friendly for all.

Source: http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/conference_dev/2015-January/002851.html, 16 January 2015
Comments

QGIS Diversity Statement

The QGIS Project welcomes and encourages participation by everyone.

No matter how you identify yourself or how others perceive you: we welcome you. We welcome contributions from everyone as long as they interact constructively with our community.

While much of the work for our project is technical in nature, we value and encourage contributions from those with expertise in other areas, and welcome them into our community.

Source: https://qgis2015.wordpress.com/, downloaded 24 March 2015

O'Reilly Code of Conduct

At O'Reilly, we assume that most people are intelligent and well-intended, and we're not inclined to tell people what to do. However, we want every O'Reilly conference to be a safe and productive environment for everyone. To that end, this code of conduct spells out the behavior we support and don't support at conferences. The core of our approach is this:

We don't condone harassment or offensive behavior, at our conference venues or anywhere. It's counter to our company values. More importantly, it's counter to our values as human beings.

We're voicing our strong, unequivocal support of appropriate behavior by all participants at technical events, including all O'Reilly conferences. We invite you to help us make each O'Reilly conference a place that is welcoming and respectful to all participants, regardless of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, national origin, ethnicity, or religion. So that everyone can focus on the conference itself, and the great networking and community richness that happens when we get together in person, we will not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form—in person or online.

Examples of harassment include offensive comments, verbal threats or demands, sexualized images in public spaces, intimidation, stalking, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of sessions or events, and unwelcome physical contact or sexual attention.

We expect all participants—attendees, speakers, sponsors, and volunteers—to follow the Code of Conduct during the conference. This includes conference-related social events at off-site locations, and in related online communities and social media. Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. Conference participants violating this Code of Conduct may be expelled from the conference without a refund, and/or banned from future O'Reilly events, at the discretion of O'Reilly Media.

Please bring any concerns to the immediate attention of the event staff, or contact our VP of Conferences, Gina Blaber at gina@oreilly.com. We thank our participants for your help in keeping the event welcoming, respectful, and friendly to all participants.

Read the blog post by Tim O'Reilly that is the basis of our functional code of conduct for all O'Reilly conferences.

Thanks to the Lean Startup folks and the jsconf.us folks, whose Codes of Conduct inspired some changes to our own.

Source: http://www.oreilly.com/conferences/code-of-conduct.html, downloaded 24 March 2015
Comments

CON: This is missing a description of graduated escalation process, and how a report would be handled.
PRO: It makes good use of positive language

FOSS4G 2015 Code of Conduct

Source

https://2015.foss4g-na.org/code-conduct, downloaded 24 March 2015

Comments

PRO: Acknowledges need for treating people respectfully
CON: Can be seen as confrontational, and could be read as implying assumption of guilt
CON: This statement could be seen as too long

Further References

http://alistapart.com/article/tweaking-the-moral-ui, downloaded 24 March 2015