Code of Conduct

[Colin Clark]

Hi Justin,

Some comments inline, inspired by our off-list conversation and the other comments we've seen on the list so far today...

> On Feb 9, 2017, at 2:45 PM, Justin Obara <obara.justin at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I think in general I like the contributor-covenant. However, my initial gut reaction is that it seemed code focused, despite using words like community and contributor. I’m not 100% sure it addresses the breadth of work, outreach, and etc that we do in our community. Maybe this is just a matter of tone / presentation style.

Fascinating! I didn't read it this way at all. I think these are the two excerpts that best address the issue scope in the Contributor Covenant:

"Project maintainers have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct..."

and

"This Code of Conduct applies both within project spaces and in public spaces when an individual is representing the project or its community."

As I mentioned in my last email, I think we could probably adjust this to be clearly inclusive of the many types of resources we collaborate on, including design artefacts and conversations, etc. But I didn't read this as technically oriented, since we already have a very inclusive concept of "contributions" to Fluid.

> I’m also not sure of our intended scope. Does it just cover fluid and fluid related tasks? Will it be a requirement for all of our partners in the work that we do? Is it meant to govern over every aspect of work at the IDRC whether involving workshops, guests, visitors, etc? This may have an impact on the enforcement and how that is structured, developed and etc. Perhaps the enforcement model outlined in the contributor-covenant itself doesn’t necessarily reflect how we can best address issues that arise in our community.

I responded with some comments about this in my last note, and it sounds like Jess has similar impressions. I think there's a lot of potentially overlapping territory here, and we should try to keep it as simple as we can. Remember, a great many people who participate in our community work for different employers or are volunteers. So I think we don't want to be too overarching in our scope, at least for now. In my mind, this is a proposal to cover the interactions we all have here in the context of working on Fluid—the lists, Vidyo sessions, wiki pages, IRC conversations, design resources, and Github reviews.

Of course, for those of us who do work for the Inclusive Design Research Centre, inclusive behaviour is a crucial part of our professional responsibility every day, regardless of where we are or who we're collaborating with. But I think that's distinct in some sense from what our communities and collaborators may adopt with us.

> In doing some quick googling for codes of conduct I came across "Why the Open Code of Conduct Isn’t for Me <http://dancerscode.com/blog/why-the-open-code-of-conduct-isnt-for-me/>" that was posted as a response to a code of conduct adopted by GitHub. I probably don’t completely agree with everything said there, and some of it is specific to language used in a specific code of conduct, but it does have some good points and things to think about.

From my perspective, this blog post really reflects some nasty and conflationary thinking, though it might seem subtle at first. This invocation of the trope of "political correctness" is always a marker of privilege. And it's a reminder of how privileged thinking is so often unable to even recognize or confront itself. One of the counterintuitive aspects of inequality it that often *seems* so equal—but only to some. 

Remember, as the quote from one of the CoCs Jess suggested reminds us: our community's social engagements are always sedimented in the power structures and asymmetry of the culture it is embedded in. To say things like "To be offended is a choice" is to entirely overlook the systemic nature of inequality: when you live and experience it every day, you don't have the freedom to choose whether or not to "just" be offended. Choosing not to be or respond in some way is a privilege reserved for those who have power. Freedom of speech and action needs to be inclusive of everyone's sense of freedom and safety.

Here are a couple of links that may help to break down the logics of privilege that I see at work in parts of the blog post you mentioned:

http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/10/complaints-about-political-correctness/
http://everydayfeminism.com/2016/06/your-racist-jokes-arent-funny/

Mistakes and oversights happen, and are not really what a code of conduct is all about. But it is when those things are systemically ignored or excused and allowed to accumulate that we risk creating a culture in which the most crucial members of our community—those who bring the different, otherwise marginalized, and unique perspectives that we need most as designers—may feel uncomfortable to speak or to contribute.

> Perhaps we need to take a step back and define what it is exactly that we want for our community. Is it a set of rules to be strictly enforced, is it a set of expectations and core values that we strive for, etc?

I can only speak personally here, and I'm sure others have thoughts. I'm interested in ensuring that our community is inviting to those who have experienced marginalization or inequality in other contexts or communities. I'm interested in participating in a larger movement among open source communities to more clearly affirm inclusive values. I don't think this is case of "rules strictly enforced," nor a change whatsoever to our now decade-old community culture. Rather, it's a relatively common-sense confirmation of our commitment to inclusion. It provides a simple process to follow in the unlikely case that a significant problem comes up, and it provides lots of discretionary space. If we continue to be ourselves—to be open, generous, flexible, and inclusive—I don't think we'll ever have to worry about the rules or their enforcement. But having them there sometimes makes people feel freer and more safe. Just in case.

Colin

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