+1 for all of the below

Matthew C. Mariner
Head of Special Collections and Digital Initiatives
Assistant Professor
Auraria Library
1100 Lawrence StreetDenver, CO 80204-2041
[log in to unmask]
http://library.auraria.edu :: http://archives.auraria.edu





On 11/26/12 3:51 PM, "Tom Cramer" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>+1 for Bess's motion
>+1 for Roy's expansion to C4L online interactions as well as face to face
>+1 for Karen's focus on general inclusivity and fair play
>
>> For me the hardest thing is how one monitors and resolves issues that
>>arise. As a group with no formal management, I suppose the conference
>>organizers become the "deciders" if such a necessity arises. If it's
>>elsewhere (email, IRC) -- that's a bit trickier. The Ada project's
>>detailed guides should help, but if there is a policy it seems that
>>there necessarily has to be some responsible "body" -- even if ad hoc.
>
>
>It seems to me that there would be tremendous benefit in having
>
>1.) an explicit statement of the community norms around harassment and
>fair play in general. In the best case, this would help avoid
>uncomfortable or inappropriate situations before they occur.
>
>2.) a defined process for handling any incidents that do arise, which in
>the case of this community I would imagine would revolve around
>reporting, communication, negotiation and arbitration rather than
>adjudication by a standing body (which I agree is hard to see in this
>crowd). I know several high schools have adopted peer arbitration
>networks for conflict resolution rather than referring incidents to the
>Principal's Office--perhaps therein lies a model for us for any incidents
>that may not be resolved simply through dialogue.
>
>- Tom
>
>
>
>On Nov 26, 2012, at 2:32 PM, Karen Coyle wrote:
>
>> Bess and Code4libbers,
>> 
>> I've only been to one c4l conference and it was a very positive
>>experience for me, but I also feel that this is too valuable of a
>>community for us to risk it getting itself into crisis mode over some
>>unintended consequences or a "bad apple" incident. For that reason I
>>would support the adoption of an anti-harassment policy in part for its
>>consciousness-raising value. Ideally this would be not only about sexual
>>harassment but would include general goals for inclusiveness and fair
>>play within the community. And it would also serve as an acknowledgment
>>that none of us is perfect, but we can deal with it.
>> 
>> For me the hardest thing is how one monitors and resolves issues that
>>arise. As a group with no formal management, I suppose the conference
>>organizers become the "deciders" if such a necessity arises. If it's
>>elsewhere (email, IRC) -- that's a bit trickier. The Ada project's
>>detailed guides should help, but if there is a policy it seems that
>>there necessarily has to be some responsible "body" -- even if ad hoc.
>> 
>> kc
>> 
>> 
>> On 11/26/12 2:16 PM, Bess Sadler wrote:
>>> Dear Fellow Code4libbers,
>>> 
>>> I hope I am not about to get flamed. Please take as context that I
>>>have been a member of this community for almost a decade. I have
>>>contributed software, support, and volunteer labor to this community's
>>>events. I have also attended the majority of code4lib conferences,
>>>which have been amazing and life-changing, and have helped me do my job
>>>a lot better. But, and I've never really known how to talk about this,
>>>those conferences have also been problematic for me a couple of times.
>>>Nothing like what happened to Noirin Shirley at ApacheCon (see
>>>http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Noirin_Shirley_ApacheCon_incident if
>>>you're unfamiliar with the incident I mean) but enough to concern me
>>>that even in a wonderful community where we mostly share the same
>>>values, not everyone has the same definitions of acceptable behavior.
>>> 
>>> I am watching the toxic fallout from the BritRuby conference
>>>cancellation with a heavy heart (go search for "britruby conference
>>>cancelled" if you want to catch up and/or get depressed). It has me
>>>wondering what more we could be doing to promote diversity and
>>>inclusiveness within code4lib. We have already had a couple of
>>>harassment incidents over the years, which I won't rehash here, which
>>>have driven away members of our community. We have also had other
>>>incidents that don't get talked about because sometimes one can feel
>>>that membership in a community is more important than one's personal
>>>boundaries or even safety. We should not be a community where people
>>>have to make that choice.
>>> 
>>> I would like for us to consider adopting an anti-harassment policy for
>>>code4lib conferences. This is emerging as a best practice in the larger
>>>open source software community, and we would be joining the ranks of
>>>many other conferences:
>>>http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassment/Adoption.
>>>The Ada Initiative has a great discussion of why adopting an
>>>Anti-Harrassment policy is a good choice for a conference to make, as
>>>well as some example policy statements, here:
>>>http://adainitiative.org/what-we-do/conference-policies/ Here is a
>>>summary:
>>> 
>>>> Why have an official anti-harassment policy for your conference?
>>>>First, it is necessary (unfortunately). Harassment at conferences is
>>>>incredibly common - for example, see this timeline
>>>>(http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/index.php?title=Timeline_of_incidents)
>>>>of sexist incidents in geek communities. Second, it sets expectations
>>>>for behavior at the conference. Simply having an anti-harassment
>>>>policy can prevent harassment all by itself. Third, it encourages
>>>>people to attend who have had bad experiences at other conferences.
>>>>Finally, it gives conference staff instructions on how to handle
>>>>harassment quickly, with the minimum amount of disruption or bad press
>>>>for your conference.
>>> If the conference already has something like this in place, and I'm
>>>just uninformed, please educate me and let's do a better job
>>>publicizing it.
>>> 
>>> Thanks for considering this suggestion. If the answer is the usual
>>>code4lib answer (some variation on "Great idea! How are you going to
>>>make that happen?") then I hereby nominate myself as a member of the
>>>Anti-Harrassment Policy Adoption committee for the code4lib conference.
>>>Would anyone else like to join me?
>>> 
>>> Bess Sadler
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> Manager, Application Development
>>> Digital Library Systems & Services
>>> Stanford University Library
>> 
>> -- 
>> Karen Coyle
>> [log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net
>> ph: 1-510-540-7596
>> m: 1-510-435-8234
>> skype: kcoylenet