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Hello Everyone,
My name is Stella Ng, and I am a Senior Manager (Policy) in Trust and
Safety at the Wikimedia Foundation. I am writing with an update on the
Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) and to address a few outstanding
questions. First let me start by thanking everyone who attended last
Friday’s Conversation Hour where the Universal Code of Conduct Phase 2
Drafting committee and the Trust and Safety Policy Team provided an update
on the enforcement guidelines of the UCoC. We also had an opportunity to
respond to several questions with regards to the voting process, the
proposed enforcement guidelines, and the next steps.
As the UCoC Project Team, we realize the importance of these sessions as
they assist us to connect with you, thereby contributing to a better
understanding of the enforcement guidelines and the Universal Code of
Conduct itself. We also view these sessions as extremely important in
highlighting the upcoming voting process. Therefore, we have scheduled two
more sessions that will be held on the 25th of February 2022 at 12:00 UTC,
and on the 4th of March 2022 at 15:00 UTC, and we urge everyone who is able
to attend and dialogue with us. For more information on the upcoming
conversation sessions, please refer here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/2021_consultations/Roundtable_discussions#Conversation_Hours>
.
Similarly, over the last couple of weeks, we have received feedback,
recommendations, and questions with regards to the enforcement guidelines
of the UCoC. As a precursor to our meeting on the 25th of February 2022, I
thought that I could take this opportunity to highlight where we are at
this point.
As many of you are aware, the call for the UCoC was a recommendation
of the 2018-2020
Wikimedia Movement Strategy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recommendations/Provide_for_Safety_and_Inclusion>
to provide safety and inclusion for everyone. The UCoC policy was then
developed by a volunteer committee and underwent extensive community
consultations with dozens of revisions prior to the Board resolution that
adopted it. The UCoC guidelines should elevate good conduct on Wikimedia
projects and should empower all our communities to address harassment and
negative behavior while creating a more welcoming and inclusive environment
for contributors and readers. I agree with those who built the
recommendation that this will support an environment that will have great
potential to reduce bias and confusion, and to concentrate efforts at the
local level whenever possible.
With that context, I’ll answer some questions that have been posed here, at
the February 4th conversation hour, and on other platforms.
1. Where are we with the vote for enforcement guidelines for the Universal
Code of Conduct (UCoC)
As of now, a vote to ratify the enforcement guidelines for the Universal
Code of Conduct (UCoC) is scheduled for March 7, 2022 to March 21, 2022 via
SecurePoll. For more information on voting, please visit this page here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Enforcement_guidelines/Voter_information>
.
2. Who can vote?
All registered Wikimedia contributors who meet minimum activity requirements
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Enforcement_guidelines/Voter_information#Voting_eligibility>,
affiliate and Wikimedia Foundation staff and contractors (employed prior to
17 January 2022), and current and former Wikimedia Foundation trustees will
have the opportunity to vote on the enforcement guidelines proposal in
SecurePoll.
*3. *Are staff forced or encouraged to vote in a specific way?
No, the staff of the Wikimedia Foundation and those of the affiliates are
not encouraged to vote in a specific way. We are encouraging everyone to
vote independently. For the Code of Conduct enforcement guidelines to be
effective, we need honest input to help us detect if there are areas of
needed improvement.
*4. *Will people outside the Wikimedia Foundation be involved in
scrutinizing the vote to verify authenticity?
The UCoC project team has already reached out to multiple non-staff
Wikimedians with experience with global community voting and verification
processes (including the stewards) to request their experienced help in
designing and implementing the scrutinizing of the vote. The scrutinizing
team will be announced as soon as it's finalized.
*5. I*s the Trust and Safety team biased with relation to the outcome of
the vote?
In answering this, let me start by noting that the Trust and Safety unit
has three arms: Policy, Disinformation, and Operations. The team
facilitating the UCoC is the Policy team. The Policy team is not involved
in investigations of user conduct. While we don't believe the Operations
team is or would be biased, this separation of functions was intentional
precisely to avoid inadvertent bias. I lead the Policy team, and we are not
assessed by whether or not this collaboratively created document reaches
approval on its first run or further development is needed. We are,
however, assessed on whether we work well with the community. This means
developing a collaborative approach to enforcing the UCoC that will
function for the community. Our goal is to meet that responsibility as well
as we can.
*6. *What do the UCoC Enforcement guidelines consist of?
The UCoC Enforcement guidelines consist of preventive work (promoting UCoC
awareness, recommending UCoC training, among others) and responsive work
(detailing a process for filing, processing reported violations, providing
resources for reported violations, designating enforcement actions for
violations…) that are intended to help community members coordinate well
together with processes that are fair and equitable across communities to
provide the safest working environment for all.
*7. *Why should I vote?
Ratification of the enforcement guidelines is necessary to finalize
enforcement pathways, processes, and actions for the UCoC. The vote on the
Enforcement Guidelines is designed to evaluate the community’s support for
the UCoC and gather feedback if voters have reservations about the present
proposals. If the enforcement guidelines are not felt to be currently ready
to test, they can be modified until they are.
While there will be time to evaluate how well they are working prior to the
one year review of both the policy and the enforcement approach, we don’t
think it will be possible to fully understand what works and what doesn’t
until we see it in practice.
We also hope that there will be immediate improvement to the conditions
volunteers experience on movement wikis. Clear expectations of behavior and
approaches when disagreements occur should help everyone.
*8. *What happens after the vote concludes?
For the Enforcement Outline to be ratified, the community-led vote will
need to be 50%+1 majority “yes”. From there, the draft will be sent to the
Board of Trustees for ratification.
If the vote produces a majority “no” or an exactly even split, the UCoC
project team will anonymize and publish the reasons given by “no” voters,
and prepare a summarized report. Members of the two UCoC Drafting
Committees will be invited to form a Revisions Committee; this group will
look at improvements to the Guidelines based on concerns raised in the
voting process. Similar to this process, the revisions will be published
for review, and a second vote will be held. This is why, if you decide to
vote "no" on ratification of the current version of the Guidelines, it's so
very important that you provide some comments about what you think needs to
be changed!
*9. I*s there a voter information page that can provide me with all the
information needed for the vote?
Yes, the Foundation has set up a page to provide guidance on the vote. You
can access this page through this
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Enforcement_guidelines/Voter_information#Voting_FAQ>
link.
Finally, allow me to remind you to attend the next conversation hours that
will be held on the 25th of February 2022 at 12:00 UTC, and on the 4th of
March 2022 at 15:00 UTC, so that we can dialogue together.
Best,
Stella Ng