Adapted from the Django Code of Conduct for the Open ONI Community.
Contents
Like the technical community as a whole, the Open ONI community is made up of a mixture of professionals and volunteers from all over the world.
Diversity is one of our huge strengths, but it can also lead to communication issues and unhappiness. To that end, we have a few ground rules that we ask people to adhere to. This code applies equally to founders, mentors and those seeking help and guidance.
This isn’t an exhaustive list of things that you can’t do. Rather, take it in the spirit in which it’s intended - a guide to make it easier to enrich all of us and the technical communities in which we participate.
This code of conduct applies to all spaces managed by the Open ONI organization. This includes Open ONI Slack, Open ONI GitHub, and any other forums created by the project team which the community uses for communication online or in person. In addition, violations of this code outside these spaces may affect a person's ability to participate within them.
If you believe someone is violating the code of conduct, please see Reporting below.
This is the team of individuals who have volunteered to respond to violation reports and enforce this code of conduct. Please contact any and all members with code of conduct inquiries and violation reports.
| Member Name | Slack Handle | Email Address |
|---|---|---|
| Karin Dalziel | karin | kdalziel2 [at] unl.edu |
| Andrew Gearhart | andrewgearhart | amg32 [at] psu.edu |
| Ray Henry | Ray Henry | rayh [at] uoregon.edu |
| Greg Tunink | techgique | techgique [at] unl.edu |
- Be friendly and patient.
- Be welcoming. We strive to be a community that welcomes and supports people of all backgrounds and identities. This includes, but is not limited to members of any race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, colour, immigration status, social and economic class, educational level, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, size, family status, political belief, religion, and mental and physical ability.
- Be considerate. Your work will be used by other people, and you in turn will depend on the work of others. Any decision you take will affect users and colleagues, and you should take those consequences into account when making decisions. Remember that we're a world-wide community, so you might not be communicating in someone else's primary language.
- Be respectful. Not all of us will agree all the time, but disagreement is no excuse for poor behavior and poor manners. We might all experience some frustration now and then, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack. It’s important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one. Members of the Open ONI community should be respectful when dealing with other members as well as with people outside the Open ONI community.
- Be careful in the words that you choose. We are a community of
professionals, and we conduct ourselves professionally. Be kind to others. Do
not insult or put down other participants. Harassment and other exclusionary
behavior aren't acceptable. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Violent threats or language directed against another person.
- Discriminatory jokes and language.
- Posting sexually explicit or violent material.
- Posting (or threatening to post) other people's personally identifying information ("doxing").
- Personal insults, especially those using racist or sexist terms.
- Unwelcome sexual attention.
- Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior.
- Repeated harassment of others. In general, if someone asks you to stop, then stop.
- When we disagree, try to understand why. Disagreements, both social and technical, happen all the time and Open ONI is no exception. It is important that we resolve disagreements and differing views constructively. Remember that we’re different. The strength of Open ONI comes from its varied community, people from a wide range of backgrounds. Different people have different perspectives on issues. Being unable to understand why someone holds a viewpoint doesn’t mean that they’re wrong. Don’t forget that it is human to err and blaming each other doesn’t get us anywhere. Instead, focus on helping to resolve issues and learning from mistakes.
Original text courtesy of the Speak Up! project.
If you believe someone is violating the code of conduct we ask that you report it to one or more members of the Open ONI Community Health Team either via email or Open ONI Slack. If you are reporting a violation by one or more of the team members, only the other team members will be informed to review and respond to the report. In the event of any conflict of interest a team member must immediately notify the other members, and recuse themselves if necessary. All reports will be kept confidential. In some cases we may determine that a public statement will need to be made. If that's the case, the identities of all victims and reporters will remain confidential unless those individuals instruct us otherwise.
If you believe anyone is in physical danger, please consider notifying appropriate law enforcement first. If you are unsure whether it is necessary or what law enforcement agency is appropriate, please include this in your report. The team may consider contacting law enforcement if deemed appropriate based on the report.
If you are unsure whether the incident is a violation, or whether the space where it happened is covered by this Code of Conduct, we encourage you to still report it. We would much rather have a few extra reports where we decide to take no action, rather than miss a report of an actual violation. We do not look negatively on you if we find the incident is not a violation. And knowing about incidents that are not violations, or happen outside our spaces, can also help us to improve the Code of Conduct or the processes surrounding it.
In your report please include:
- Your contact info (so we can get in touch with you if we need to follow up)
- Names (real, nicknames, or pseudonyms) of any individuals involved. If there were other witnesses besides you, please try to include them as well.
- When and where the incident occurred. Please be as specific as possible.
- Your account of what occurred. If there is a publicly available record please (e.g. a GitHub issue/PR comment) include a link.
- Any extra context you believe existed for the incident.
- If you believe this incident is ongoing.
- Any other information you believe we should have.
You will receive a message from the Open ONI Community Health Team acknowledging receipt. If you provide an email address for contact, the response will cc all team members, excluding any members who may be reported for possible violation, for greater transparency. We promise to acknowledge receipt within three business days (and will aim for much quicker than that). Our acknowledgement response will include an estimated time for full response based on team availability (illness, vacation, conferences, etc) and complexity of the report (number of individuals, time span, availability of public evidence, etc). Team members will aim to communicate availability through email auto-replies and Slack status messages.
The team will meet to review the incident and determine:
- What happened.
- Whether this event constitutes a code of conduct violation.
- Who the bad actor was.
- Whether this is an ongoing situation, or if there is a threat to anyone's physical safety.
If this is determined to be an ongoing incident or a threat to physical safety, the team's immediate priority will be to protect everyone involved. This means we may delay an "official" response until we believe that the situation has ended and that everyone is physically safe.
If a report doesn't contain enough information, the team will obtain all relevant data before acting by contacting any individuals involved to get a more complete account of events. This information will be collected in writing, and whenever possible the committee's deliberations will be recorded and retained (i.e. Slack transcripts, email discussions, recorded voice conversations, etc).
If the act is ongoing (such as someone engaging in harassment in Slack), or involves a threat to anyone's safety (e.g. threats of violence), any team member may act immediately (before consulting other members) to end the situation. In ongoing situations, any team member may at their discretion employ any of the tools available to the team, including bans and blocks.
If the incident involves physical danger, any member of the team may act unilaterally to protect safety. This can include contacting law enforcement or other local personnel.
In situations where an individual team member acts unilaterally, they must report their actions to the team for review within 24 hours. These unilateral actions will then receive accompanying violation reports.
Once the team has a complete account of the events they will make a decision as to how to respond. Responses may include:
- Nothing (if we determine no violation occurred).
- A private reprimand from the team to the individual(s) involved.
- A public reprimand in the space the violation occurred.
- An imposed vacation (i.e. asking someone to "take a week off" from Slack or GitHub). They'll be asked to take this vacation voluntarily, but if they don't agree then a temporary ban may be imposed to enforce this vacation.
- A permanent or temporary ban from some or all Open ONI spaces. The team will maintain records of all such bans so that they may be reviewed in the future, extended to new Open ONI fora, or otherwise maintained.
- A request for a public or private apology. The team may, if it chooses, attach "strings". For example, the team may ask a violator to apologize in order to retain their membership on a Slack channel.
Once we've determined our final action, we'll contact the original reporter to let them know what action (if any) we'll be taking. We'll take into account feedback from the reporter on the appropriateness of our response and record it for posterity, but we don't guarantee we'll act on it.
Finally, the team will compile a summary of the situation and may choose to release a public report of the incident.
After the beginning of each new year, the team will publicize the number of violation reports received and the team's enforcement decisions for the previous year. Any public incident reports will be listed and linked to as well.
| Year | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Violation reports | To be released early 2021 |
| No violation occurred | |
| Private reprimand | |
| Public reprimand | |
| Imposed vacation | |
| Temporary ban | |
| Permanent ban | |
| Strings Attached | |
| Private apology | |
| Public apology |
- 2020
- To be released early 2021
Changes to the Open ONI Community Code of Conduct can be tracked in this file on GitHub at: https://github.com/open-oni/open-oni/blob/dev/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
Portions of text derived from the Django Code of Conduct which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license.