History

  • Version 2.0 - current version; effective from 2022-10-27
  • Version 1.0 - accessible at the Wayback Machine

We strive to create a safe, professional space for people to learn from each other and maintaining a high standard of professional behaviour at events and online is critical to that goal.

This Code of Conduct outlines our expectations for all attendees, including organizers, of any Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) event or research effort, both online and in-person regarding activities in relation to events. This code also applies to online communities. This code also details steps for reporting unacceptable behaviour. Organizers will enforce this code throughout events and IOI staff will enforce this code in online communities related to our program activities. We expect cooperation from all participants to help ensure a safe environment for everybody.

IOI is committed to providing a harassment-free environment for everyone regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion, or work experience. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate for any professional event or community forum.

Harassment includes, but is not limited to:

  • Verbal comments that reinforce social structures of domination related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion or work experience.
  • Sexual images in public spaces
  • Deliberate intimidation, stalking or following
  • Harassing photography or recording
  • Posting (or threatening to post) other people’s personally identifying information (“doxing”)
  • Spamming or trolling
  • Sustained disruption of talks or other events
  • Uninvited physical contact
  • Unwelcome sexual attention
  • Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behaviour

For more information about what constitutes harassment and examples, please refer to Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's Community Participation Guidelines and the Gathering for Open Source Hardware’s examples of behaviour.

Enforcement

Actions we may take to enforce this Code include and are not limited to:

  • Asking anyone to stop a behaviour; the person asked is expected to comply immediately
  • Asking anyone to leave the in-person and online spaces either temporarily, for the remainder of an event, or permanently, without pecuniary reimbursement
  • Removing anyone’s access to the in-person and online spaces that we manage either temporarily, for the reminder of an event, or permanently
  • Communicating to all event participants and/or community members to reinforce our expectations for conduct and remind what is unacceptable behaviour; this may be public for practical reasons
  • Communicating to all event participants and/or community members that an incident has taken place and how we will act or have acted– this may be for the purpose of letting event participants and/or community members know we are aware and are dealing with the incident; this communication may include naming any person who has been asked to stop or leave– this would be for the purpose of enabling us to enforce the action
  • Banning anyone from participating in IOI-managed spaces, future events and activities, either temporarily or permanently
  • For non-IOI employees, a report to your organization
  • For IOI employees, disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment
  • No action

Please note that there are spaces and platforms on which IOI has no way to control access. These include but are not limited to:

  • Social media platforms, e.g. Twitter, Facebook
  • Shared Google documents that the public can edit and/or not owned by IOI
  • Public GitHub repositories

In these venues, in addition to some of the other actions we can take above, we can:

  • Be the ones who/support participants to report issues to the venue
  • Support and encourage participants to block people

Reporting Code of Conduct Violations

Your notification of any concerns is essential to us. We cannot help resolve a problem unless we know about it. Therefore, please bring any concerns to our attention as soon as possible so that we can take whatever steps are necessary to address the situation.

You can make a report directly in person or by email to Kaitlin Thaney at kt [at] investinopen [dot] org or Emmy Tsang at emmy [at] investinopen [dot] org.

At any IOI event, we will have a designated Event Safety Team. They will take the lead in acting on reports during the events. Staff and the Safety Team work together to assist with the enforcement of the code of conduct during the event.

When making a personal report, staff and/or Safety Team will ensure you are safe and cannot be overheard. They may involve other event staff to ensure your report is managed properly. Once safe, we'll ask you to tell us about what happened. This can be upsetting, but we'll handle it respectfully, and you can bring someone to support you. You won't be asked to confront anyone, you will not be left alone, and all reports will be handled with discretion.

In your report, please do your best to include:

  • Your contact information.
  • Identifying information (e.g. names, nicknames, pseudonyms) of the participant who has violated the Code of Conduct.
  • The behaviour that was in violation.
  • The approximate time of the behaviour (if different than the time the report was made).
  • If possible, where the Code of Conduct violation happened.
  • The circumstances surrounding the incident.
  • Other people involved in the incident.
  • If you believe the incident is ongoing, please let us know.
  • If there is a publicly available record (e.g. mailing list record, chat record), please include an image or link.
  • Any additional helpful information.

After you file a report, a member of IOI staff or an Event Safety Team member will contact you personally to review the incident, follow up with any additional questions and make a decision as to how to respond. If the person who is harassing you is part of the response team, they will recuse themselves from handling your incident. We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse.

Confidentiality and data policy

All reports, and any additional information and data included, are collected and stored solely for the purpose of enforcing this Code of Conduct. Please refer to our Privacy Policy for more information about our information processing practices.

Questions

For questions about codes of conduct in general, we recommend you check this Code of Conduct FAQ. Please also feel free to message us at operations <at> investinopen.org.

Acknowledgements

This Code of Conduct is based on the eLife 2018 Sprint and 2021 Sprint Codes of Conduct, which in turn is based on the example anti-harassment policy from the Geek Feminism wiki, created by the Ada Initiative and other volunteers (CC0).