Code of Conduct at events [and 1 more messages]

Wichert Akkerman wichert at wiggy.net
Thu Nov 11 08:49:44 UTC 2010


On 11/10/10 18:10 , Ian Jackson wrote:
> John Goerzen writes ("Re: Code of Conduct at events"):
>> I'm still not sure that a "code of conduct" is really the right thing.
>
> I'm not attached to the "Code of Conduct" phrase.  Another way to put
> it would be "Policy on Behaviour at the Conference".
>
> But I think it is very valuable that there is a written document which
> sets out the standards of behaviour expected.  As community we come
> from many different places, with different cultural expectations.
> And, sadly speaking, in the wider societies of many of our homes
> (including mine), of violence and sexual assault - particularly by men
> against women - are not as culturally unacceptable as they are to me
> personally.
>
> A written policy does a number of things:
>
>   * It clarifies to everyone what is and is not OK.  In particular, I
>     feel strongly that we should explicitly state that nonconsensual
>     touching is not OK.  In some cultures it is considered acceptable
>     under some circumstances, but in general it can be very intrusive
>     or even threatening particularly for people from a different
>     culture.

So hypothetical situation: suppose there is a group of people who do 
brilliant open source work and would like to become a SPI project. But 
they happen to come from a culture with acceptable behaviour that you 
disagree with. Does that mean you want to prevent them from joining SPI, 
because your mores trump theirs?

Wichert.



More information about the Spi-general mailing list