Re: [guadec-list] anti-harassment policy
Hi, The majority of the board voted for the long version of the code of conduct for GUADEC to be posted. We really appreciate all the work done by the organizers, but people who voted in favor feel that it's the board's responsibility to make decisions that affect the GNOME community as a whole, and having the code of conducts for events is one such decision. Our goal is to develop a similar code of conduct that applies to all GNOME events. People who voted in favor thought that explaining the rules and how they will be enforced is a good idea. Please post the version below, which includes a short version, on https://www.guadec.org/conduct The enforcement policy stays the same on https://wiki.gnome.org/GUADEC/2014/CodeOfConduct - I'd like to encourage people, especially local, French-speaking, and board members to add themselves to the support team on that page. The reason the board was included in this thread from the beginning is that the initial policy said that people can contact anyone on the board and because I wanted people on the board to be able to provide feedback about the policy. Thanks, Marina Short version for the registration form: We plan for a safe and friendly conference experience for everyone. Please confirm that you agree with our code of conduct. Short version for the front page: GUADEC is dedicated to a safe and friendly conference experience for everyone. Please familiarize yourself with our code of conduct. Code of conduct Short version GUADEC is dedicated to a safe and friendly conference experience for everyone. Please be considerate of other people in your actions at all conference events. Please report any concerns to one of the contact people below. Long version GUADEC is a welcoming and friendly event, during which GNOME contributors often make friends and resolve to come to the next GUADEC. GUADEC is dedicated to providing a safe and friendly conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to any of the above qualities, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks. Sexist, racist, or other exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate for GUADEC. Such content and remarks can be harassing to people by making them feel excluded by other attendees. Participants asked to stop any harassing or inappropriate behavior are expected to comply immediately. Exhibitors in the sponsor exhibit space are also subject to the code of conduct. If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the code of conduct support team members may issue a warning for an unintentional or minor offense or expel the participant from the conference with no refund for repeat or serious offense. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please immediately contact Alexandre Franke, Marina Zhurakhinskaya, or anyone else on the code of conduct support team. These people will be introduced at the opening for the conference and conference volunteers will be able to help you identify one of them. Code of conduct support team members will be able to address the harassing or inappropriate behavior with the offender, provide escorts, contact local law enforcement, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the conference. We value your attendance. We expect participants to follow these rules at all conference venues and conference-related social events. Contact information: Alexandre Franke +33 368 910 123, alexandre.franke at NO SPAM gmail DOT com Marina Zhurakhinskaya marinazik at NO SPAM gmail DOT com More names or code of contuct support team link to https://wiki.gnome.org/GUADEC/2014/CodeOfConduct#Support_team Other useful numbers: Emergency number for police, fire department, or ambulance: 112 24/7 medical assistance: “SOS médecin” +33 388 75 75 75 Taxi company: Taxi 13 +33 388 36 13 13 On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 7:27 AM, Ekaterina Gerasimova kittykat3...@gmail.com wrote: On 10/07/2014, Alexandre Franke alexandre.fra...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 9:28 AM, Christophe Fergeau cferg...@gmail.com wrote: Something I've been wondering in the last few days, can we concretely expel someone from the conference if they keep coming back in spite of us telling them they are no longer welcome and have been expelled? I'm afraid we won't be able to do much apart from kicking them out over and over
Re: [guadec-list] anti-harassment policy
On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 3:28 AM, Christophe Fergeau cferg...@gmail.com wrote: Hey, On Wed, Jul 09, 2014 at 11:49:10AM -0400, Marina Zhurakhinskaya wrote: If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the code of conduct support team members may [...] expel the participant from the conference with no refund for repeat or serious offense. Something I've been wondering in the last few days, can we concretely expel someone from the conference if they keep coming back in spite of us telling them they are no longer welcome and have been expelled? I'm afraid we won't be able to do much apart from kicking them out over and over when we notice they are present :( We can cancel their registration and ask them to give up their badge. If they come back after that, it would be trespassing and either the venue security or police can deal with that. Christophe ___ guadec-list mailing list guadec-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/guadec-list
Re: [guadec-list] anti-harassment policy
On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 3:19 AM, Christophe Fergeau cferg...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Jul 07, 2014 at 10:51:21PM -0400, Marina Zhurakhinskaya wrote: On Mon, Jul 7, 2014 at 2:22 PM, Christophe Fergeau cferg...@gmail.com wrote: Sexual language and imagery are a common concern. If there are other types of concerns people think are worth listing, they can be added. E.g. it can be Sexual or violent language and imagery are not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks This is a common concern in some circles yes. What we seem to be doing here is assuming people are going to do bad (ie are going to be jerks), and to avoid this, we have to put ourselves in the position of censors. People will sometimes act as jerks either because they feel like it or because they don't realize how their actions affect others. This happens at technical conferences often. It happens at GUADEC rarely, but there have been a few incidents (most of them private). Uh? I was talking about explicitly banning public display of sexual imagery in the anti-harassment policy, I don't think these private incindents had something to do with this, did they? RMS's presentation had sexual language (in addition to being sexist). Having a policy doesn't mean we assume everyone will be a jerk, but we want to deter or know how to deal with a jerk-like behavior because it might happen. Well, public display of sexual imagery is not the only way of being a jerk, I'm not talking about the anti-harassement policy as a whole here. I can find plenty of offensive pictures which are not banned by the policy (for example, Muhammad pictures, especially caricatures would be a *very* bad thing to do). Why is the policy not banning that because some people could be jerks? Also, I remember https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-moXUALZtw caused some issues in a past GUADEC, but still we do nothing about this in the policy, and we try to prevent potential abuse of sexual imagery? They fell under harassment in the earlier version. The latest version covers it more explicitly: Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks. Sexist, racist, or other exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate for GUADEC. Such content and remarks can be harassing to people by making them feel excluded by other attendees. http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_incidents http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/EMACS_virgins_joke I'm sorry, but I don't think we should be doing that. I'd rather assume people will do good, tell them we trust them to behave appropriately, and possibly reminding them to be wary of others' sensibilities. This seems much more positive to me and more rewarding for our community. We assume people will be good and abide by the anti-harassment policy. We have people of different genders and from different cultures attending, which is why spelling out what it means to behave appropriately is helpful. This was again in the context of the ban of sexual imagery, I was not talking about the anti-harassment policy as a whole. Also, how do we define 'sexual'? Is http://www.quandjeseraigrande.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Pub-Galeries-Lafayette-Jean-Paul-Goude1.jpg some sexual imagery which should be banned? (NB: this is an ad campaign from a big French department store prominently visible in Paris metro). Content which is OK in the US would probably be frowned upon/unsettling from some more 'traditionalist' countries or background. How do we set the bar here? I think we can set the bar to exclude images that convey a sexual message, because they are off-topic for GUADEC. What is a sexual message? Who will decide that? For some muslim, women's hair must be covered, or even most of the face ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil#Islam ) « The principal aim of the Muslim veil is to hide that which men find sexually attractive. ». We can use Western society's idea of what conveys a sexual message. GUADEC is a private event, and we can decide what is appropriate for it. If sexual images or language are not appropriate for it and we ask people not to use them, then using them is a harassing act. You can learn more about why people often feel that these types of images and language are harassing at technical conferences at http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-harassment_policy_resources#Sexualized_environment This is what I was saying at the beginning, I understand that sexualized images are a concern for 'geek feminists'. I expect that different kind of images will be a problem if there were vocal 'black geeks' or 'jewish geeks' communities. I'm also not saying sexualized imagery is ok, just that I don't see why this should be explicitly listed in that policy. Christophe ___ guadec-list mailing list guadec-list@gnome.org
Re: [guadec-list] anti-harassment policy
On 11 July 2014 21:41, Marina Zhurakhinskaya marina...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 3:19 AM, Christophe Fergeau cferg...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Jul 07, 2014 at 10:51:21PM -0400, Marina Zhurakhinskaya wrote: On Mon, Jul 7, 2014 at 2:22 PM, Christophe Fergeau cferg...@gmail.com wrote: Sexual language and imagery are a common concern. If there are other types of concerns people think are worth listing, they can be added. E.g. it can be Sexual or violent language and imagery are not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks This is a common concern in some circles yes. What we seem to be doing here is assuming people are going to do bad (ie are going to be jerks), and to avoid this, we have to put ourselves in the position of censors. People will sometimes act as jerks either because they feel like it or because they don't realize how their actions affect others. This happens at technical conferences often. It happens at GUADEC rarely, but there have been a few incidents (most of them private). Uh? I was talking about explicitly banning public display of sexual imagery in the anti-harassment policy, I don't think these private incindents had something to do with this, did they? RMS's presentation had sexual language (in addition to being sexist). Having a policy doesn't mean we assume everyone will be a jerk, but we want to deter or know how to deal with a jerk-like behavior because it might happen. Well, public display of sexual imagery is not the only way of being a jerk, I'm not talking about the anti-harassement policy as a whole here. I can find plenty of offensive pictures which are not banned by the policy (for example, Muhammad pictures, especially caricatures would be a *very* bad thing to do). Why is the policy not banning that because some people could be jerks? Also, I remember https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-moXUALZtw caused some issues in a past GUADEC, but still we do nothing about this in the policy, and we try to prevent potential abuse of sexual imagery? They fell under harassment in the earlier version. The latest version covers it more explicitly: Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks. Sexist, racist, or other exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate for GUADEC. Such content and remarks can be harassing to people by making them feel excluded by other attendees. http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_incidents http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/EMACS_virgins_joke I'm sorry, but I don't think we should be doing that. I'd rather assume people will do good, tell them we trust them to behave appropriately, and possibly reminding them to be wary of others' sensibilities. This seems much more positive to me and more rewarding for our community. We assume people will be good and abide by the anti-harassment policy. We have people of different genders and from different cultures attending, which is why spelling out what it means to behave appropriately is helpful. This was again in the context of the ban of sexual imagery, I was not talking about the anti-harassment policy as a whole. Also, how do we define 'sexual'? Is http://www.quandjeseraigrande.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Pub-Galeries-Lafayette-Jean-Paul-Goude1.jpg some sexual imagery which should be banned? (NB: this is an ad campaign from a big French department store prominently visible in Paris metro). Content which is OK in the US would probably be frowned upon/unsettling from some more 'traditionalist' countries or background. How do we set the bar here? I think we can set the bar to exclude images that convey a sexual message, because they are off-topic for GUADEC. What is a sexual message? Who will decide that? For some muslim, women's hair must be covered, or even most of the face ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil#Islam ) « The principal aim of the Muslim veil is to hide that which men find sexually attractive. ». We can use Western society's idea of what conveys a sexual message. I am surprised to see that you do not care about cultural differences, especially given how many of the GUADEC attendees are newcomers from non-Western societies and given that one of the major arguments offered to the board was that the policy is supposed to make newcomers feel safe. Having seen the numerous opinions in this and other related threads, it appears to be that Western society does not have a consensus on what is harassment and what is not. Therefore, anyone can argue that the policy does not apply to them because they are not from the same part of Western society as you and their expectations are different even for the defined points. Thank you for bringing to our attention how incredibly diverse our community is. GUADEC is a private event, and we can decide what is appropriate for it. If sexual images or language are not
Re: [guadec-list] anti-harassment policy
Some outsider comment as I'm on this mailing list, somehow. :) On Fri, 2014-07-11 at 16:41 -0400, Marina Zhurakhinskaya wrote: On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 3:19 AM, Christophe Fergeau cferg...@gmail.com wrote: What is a sexual message? Who will decide that? For some muslim, women's hair must be covered, or even most of the face ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil#Islam ) « The principal aim of the Muslim veil is to hide that which men find sexually attractive. ». We can use Western society's idea of what conveys a sexual message. I would rather point to the CoC instead: It also contains regardless of [...] physical appearance which in my humble interpretation rates anybody's personal freedom to wear a veil (or not) higher than somebody else's potential interpretation of whether somebody should cover her/his hair or not. So if a conflict on interpreting sexual message arose, then people should maybe respectfully talk to each other and point out the issue, which the CoC is about (or not? well, to me it is). As self-censorship was brought up earlier: I share the sentiment but I don't consider it bad to think twice what you say and how you act, especially in a diverse community. I expect everybody to assume good faith at first, or at least naivity, or even stupidity, instead of assuming an intention of insulting and hurting feelings. Behavior and terms are always interpretable. We will never find an objective wording that conveys a totally clear and shared interpretation in our diverse world, e.g. for sexual images. Still that doesn't mean that people shouldn't think first when choosing images in presentations whether they could be considered sexual by part of the audience. If you're unsure, ask your (hopefully diverse enough) peer group for feedback first? Maybe it's just my understanding, but I thought we are first of all after creating more awareness and understanding of problems created by behavior considered problematic by some, plus supporting everybody in being good and respectful community members by providing guidelines. andre -- Andre Klapper | ak...@gmx.net http://blogs.gnome.org/aklapper/ ___ guadec-list mailing list guadec-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/guadec-list
