UDS Day Four: Code of Conduct Review

I felt it was important to capture the emotional response from this meeting instead of waiting until the end of the day. The Community Council met with the community at UDS to discuss the current revision of the code of conduct. There was one amazing and inspiring commonality in evidence; everyone deeply cared about the health of Ubuntu. This was especially evident in comments made by Allison Randall and Mark Shuttleworth. The original code of conduct was created in Oxford and was derived by a desire to avoid the pitfalls that other open source projects had fallen to. The current process of revising the code of conduct is reflective of that same desire, but based on several years of experience.

One thing in particular was to eliminate ad-hominem attacks and attacks on community members… these types of behaviors do terrible damage to a community, because it will cause people to curtail their involvement in Ubuntu. In short what is really being said is ‘be excellent’ to one another even when a person holds an opinion that you do not agree with. An even more succinct statement is “assume the best in others.”

If you are interested you can view the pad here.

UDS: Improving Diversity

The Ubuntu community embraces and encourages diversity.

It’s important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one. We expect members of the Ubuntu community to be respectful when dealing with other contributors as well as with people outside the Ubuntu project and with users of Ubuntu.  ~ from the Ubuntu Code of Conduct

At UDS-N there was a call to take additional steps to help further encourage diversity at UDS. One of the ideas was to create an anti-harassment policy. I offered to draft a potential policy for UDS. Doing so involved reading existing policies from other conferences and getting a better of idea of what kinds of harassment exists at tech conferences.  I have been gathering policies for the last four weeks, but put off reading them and the associated stories until today.

I am disgusted with what I have read about taking place at other conferences. Given my positive experience at UDS-N it is inconceivable to me that this behavior is not only present, but tacitly allowed, at other conferences. While these incidents happened at conferences other than UDS, they do show a need for UDS to lead by example and have an anti-harassment policy.

The Ubuntu community has always been a place I felt comfortable in and the experience I had at UDS was a fantastic and open one. Due to the positive nature of UDS I am currently reflecting on if an anti-harassment policy or an inclusion policy should be created that includes an anti-harassment policy Certainly there still needs to be negative results for those that misbehave, but perhaps seeking positive behavior in-line with the Ubuntu Code of Conduct would work to better meet the goal of a community open to all. UDS was a very positive experience for me and I would like to help ensure that it is for all future attendees as well.