The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to a harassment-free conference experience for everyone. I'm proposing a fairly short and standard anti-harassment policy of the type that's becoming best practice for tech conferences and hackathons.
Draft: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Sumanah/AHP
I don't imagine I'll get much response on this, but just wanted to put it out there before implementing. I intend on putting this into place by the middle of next week, in time for the San Francisco hackathon (starting January 20th).
Comments on the talk page, please.
On 12 January 2012 16:00, Sumana Harihareswara sumanah@wikimedia.org wrote:
The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to a harassment-free conference experience for everyone. I'm proposing a fairly short and standard anti-harassment policy of the type that's becoming best practice for tech conferences and hackathons. Draft: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Sumanah/AHP
Nice one :-) A candidate for WMF and wider Wikimedia events in general, too.
- d.
On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 11:04 AM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 12 January 2012 16:00, Sumana Harihareswara sumanah@wikimedia.org wrote:
The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to a harassment-free conference experience for everyone. I'm proposing a fairly short and standard anti-harassment policy of the type that's becoming best practice for tech conferences and hackathons. Draft: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Sumanah/AHP
Nice one :-) A candidate for WMF and wider Wikimedia events in general, too.
I don't see anything preventing harassment over choice of DBMS ;-)
All kidding aside, this looks great. Agree with David wholeheartedly here.
-Chad
On 12 January 2012 17:09, Chad innocentkiller@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 11:04 AM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 12 January 2012 16:00, Sumana Harihareswara sumanah@wikimedia.org wrote:
The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to a harassment-free conference experience for everyone. I'm proposing a fairly short and standard anti-harassment policy of the type that's becoming best practice for tech conferences and hackathons. Draft: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Sumanah/AHP
Nice one :-) A candidate for WMF and wider Wikimedia events in general, too.
I don't see anything preventing harassment over choice of DBMS ;-)
All kidding aside, this looks great. Agree with David wholeheartedly here.
Is amazing how this whole wikimedia thing as changed since 2002. I don't understand half the messages on this mail list. This is really a complex and professional organization, that has advanced a lot in the past years. I lurk on the mail list, tryiing to find a way to help, but is really hard, because there are here top-notch profesionals doing things the best way that is possible. You guys rocks.
2012/1/12 Chad innocentkiller@gmail.com
On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 11:04 AM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 12 January 2012 16:00, Sumana Harihareswara sumanah@wikimedia.org wrote:
The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to a harassment-free conference experience for everyone. I'm proposing a fairly short and standard anti-harassment policy of the type that's becoming best practice for tech conferences and hackathons. Draft: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Sumanah/AHP
Nice one :-) A candidate for WMF and wider Wikimedia events in general, too.
I don't see anything preventing harassment over choice of DBMS ;-)
In all seriousness, i was harassed more than once IRL and online for saying that SVN doesn't suck as much as die-hard Git fans say it does. This policy can say "preferred technology" in addition to "Creative Commons license".
-- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
What if you need more attention and want to be harassed?
Amir: Also, SVN does kinda suck :P
Seriously though, this looks great.
I've been fortunate enough to not have been harassed at a conference much more than being trolled on occasion, but I think that's a more borderline case that doesn't quite warrant any serious actions.
That said, I think there's an excuse game that gets played a lot. When I've expressed concern in the past I've often been told things like like "yeah, but they are a really good contributor, that's just how they are, deal with it" or "they're [enter country of origin here], that's just how they are, deal with it".
This lays some ground rules that are fair in any venue around the world. Thanks for putting this together.
- Trevor
On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 8:35 AM, Amir E. Aharoni < amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
2012/1/12 Chad innocentkiller@gmail.com
On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 11:04 AM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com
wrote:
On 12 January 2012 16:00, Sumana Harihareswara sumanah@wikimedia.org
wrote:
The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to a harassment-free conference experience for everyone. I'm proposing a fairly short and standard anti-harassment policy of the type that's becoming best practice for tech conferences and hackathons. Draft: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Sumanah/AHP
Nice one :-) A candidate for WMF and wider Wikimedia events in
general, too.
I don't see anything preventing harassment over choice of DBMS ;-)
In all seriousness, i was harassed more than once IRL and online for saying that SVN doesn't suck as much as die-hard Git fans say it does. This policy can say "preferred technology" in addition to "Creative Commons license".
-- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
I agree with what others have said and wanted to add that these are increasingly common at conferences I've attended.
I feel it's a proactive approach to addressing this problem. Conveys community expectations in a fair, balanced and direct way. Provides an important fallback for folks fearing retaliation for reporting harassment, etc. Plus organizers of events unsure of their footing on handling issues like this. Having had the opportunity to help with anti-bullying legislation, I'm pleased that it falls within a lot of recommendations made by folks who were studying this behavior before Wikipedia was even a twinkle in Jimbo's eyes. :)
Kudos for drafting it and being thoughtful / intentional enough to modify for Wikimedia usage. I can honestly say I haven't see licensing preferences as an enumerated category before. :)
I agree with Chad - it's a good candidate for wider Wikimedia use. Perhaps aude and others within WMDC can consider this for Wikimania as well?
-greg aka varnent
------- Gregory Varnum Lead, Aequalitas Project Lead Administrator, WikiQueer Founding Principal, VarnEnt @GregVarnum fb.com/GregVarnum
On Jan 12, 2012, at 1:44 PM, Trevor Parscal wrote:
What if you need more attention and want to be harassed?
Amir: Also, SVN does kinda suck :P
Seriously though, this looks great.
I've been fortunate enough to not have been harassed at a conference much more than being trolled on occasion, but I think that's a more borderline case that doesn't quite warrant any serious actions.
That said, I think there's an excuse game that gets played a lot. When I've expressed concern in the past I've often been told things like like "yeah, but they are a really good contributor, that's just how they are, deal with it" or "they're [enter country of origin here], that's just how they are, deal with it".
This lays some ground rules that are fair in any venue around the world. Thanks for putting this together.
- Trevor
On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 8:35 AM, Amir E. Aharoni < amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
2012/1/12 Chad innocentkiller@gmail.com
On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 11:04 AM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com
wrote:
On 12 January 2012 16:00, Sumana Harihareswara sumanah@wikimedia.org
wrote:
The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to a harassment-free conference experience for everyone. I'm proposing a fairly short and standard anti-harassment policy of the type that's becoming best practice for tech conferences and hackathons. Draft: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Sumanah/AHP
Nice one :-) A candidate for WMF and wider Wikimedia events in
general, too.
I don't see anything preventing harassment over choice of DBMS ;-)
In all seriousness, i was harassed more than once IRL and online for saying that SVN doesn't suck as much as die-hard Git fans say it does. This policy can say "preferred technology" in addition to "Creative Commons license".
-- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
Well done, Sumana. I especially like the start of the exception list. Presumably situations such as academic discourse on body function (at a WMF conference on improving content), or depictions of artifacts (in the GLAM context) would be exceptions.
Danese
On Jan 12, 2012, at 8:00 AM, Sumana Harihareswara sumanah@wikimedia.org wrote:
The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to a harassment-free conference experience for everyone. I'm proposing a fairly short and standard anti-harassment policy of the type that's becoming best practice for tech conferences and hackathons.
Draft: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Sumanah/AHP
I don't imagine I'll get much response on this, but just wanted to put it out there before implementing. I intend on putting this into place by the middle of next week, in time for the San Francisco hackathon (starting January 20th).
Comments on the talk page, please.
Sumana Harihareswara Volunteer Development Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation
Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
Thanks, Danese. Right now this policy is limited to technical-only events for the reason you describe; I'm talking with other Wikimedia conference organizers to adjust wording for Wikimania and other not-just-technical events.
-Sumana
On 01/12/2012 04:40 PM, Danese Cooper wrote:
Well done, Sumana. I especially like the start of the exception list. Presumably situations such as academic discourse on body function (at a WMF conference on improving content), or depictions of artifacts (in the GLAM context) would be exceptions.
Danese
On Jan 12, 2012, at 8:00 AM, Sumana Harihareswara sumanah@wikimedia.org wrote:
The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to a harassment-free conference experience for everyone. I'm proposing a fairly short and standard anti-harassment policy of the type that's becoming best practice for tech conferences and hackathons.
Draft: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Sumanah/AHP
I don't imagine I'll get much response on this, but just wanted to put it out there before implementing. I intend on putting this into place by the middle of next week, in time for the San Francisco hackathon (starting January 20th).
Comments on the talk page, please.
Sumana Harihareswara Volunteer Development Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation
Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
Hi!
So, I am pro this policy. It's clean, neat, and easy to understand. However, in some ways, I feel that while a policy like this is a(n) (unfortunately) necessary tool to prevent discrimination and harassment at tech events, I do not think that it is sufficient. Let me explain.
In my mind, policies such as this are useful when you either a) want to kick someone who's actions are unacceptable out of your event or b) something bad happened and the organizer wants to be able to point to the policy and say "that was against our policy." These are both good things. Having conditions for ejection from an event is useful. However, in my mind, it does not address underlying issues, the variety of -isms, that contributed to harassment and discrimination. It has also been my experience in being around various folk at tech conferences (such as um... myself) that geeks like me often do not have 100% developed social skills and may already deal with feelings of isolation. Thus, what I would love to see would be, in addition to a policy such as this, activities specifically designed to foster closer community, connection, and to bring home that everyone at such an event is valuable, as well as establishing basic social expectations which can be very useful in social situations where participants come from a wide range of cultures and countries.
I am, at this moment, not sure what form this thing that I am advocating would take, but I would definitely be interested in working with others to come up with such activities/models/etc. It would probably happen at the beginning of an event, and it would need to be enjoyable, so that people would actually want to come. This is as far as I've managed to get in my brainstorming.
Thoughts? Ideas? Comments?
-peter
On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 4:47 PM, Sumana Harihareswara sumanah@wikimedia.org wrote:
Thanks, Danese. Right now this policy is limited to technical-only events for the reason you describe; I'm talking with other Wikimedia conference organizers to adjust wording for Wikimania and other not-just-technical events.
-Sumana
On 01/12/2012 04:40 PM, Danese Cooper wrote:
Well done, Sumana. I especially like the start of the exception list. Presumably situations such as academic discourse on body function (at a WMF conference on improving content), or depictions of artifacts (in the GLAM context) would be exceptions.
Danese
On Jan 12, 2012, at 8:00 AM, Sumana Harihareswara sumanah@wikimedia.org wrote:
The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to a harassment-free conference experience for everyone. I'm proposing a fairly short and standard anti-harassment policy of the type that's becoming best practice for tech conferences and hackathons.
Draft: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Sumanah/AHP
I don't imagine I'll get much response on this, but just wanted to put it out there before implementing. I intend on putting this into place by the middle of next week, in time for the San Francisco hackathon (starting January 20th).
Comments on the talk page, please.
Sumana Harihareswara Volunteer Development Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation
Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
Peter Youngmeister py@wikimedia.org wrote:
So, I am pro this policy. It's clean, neat, and easy to understand. However, in some ways, I feel that while a policy like this is a(n) (unfortunately) necessary tool to prevent discrimination and harassment at tech events, I do not think that it is sufficient. Let me explain.
In my mind, policies such as this are useful when you either a) want to kick someone who's actions are unacceptable out of your event or b) something bad happened and the organizer wants to be able to point to the policy and say "that was against our policy." These are both good things. Having conditions for ejection from an event is useful. However, in my mind, it does not address underlying issues, the variety of -isms, that contributed to harassment and discrimination. It has also been my experience in being around various folk at tech conferences (such as um... myself) that geeks like me often do not have 100% developed social skills and may already deal with feelings of isolation. Thus, what I would love to see would be, in addition to a policy such as this, activities specifically designed to foster closer community, connection, and to bring home that everyone at such an event is valuable, as well as establishing basic social expectations which can be very useful in social situations where participants come from a wide range of cultures and countries.
I am, at this moment, not sure what form this thing that I am advocating would take, but I would definitely be interested in working with others to come up with such activities/models/etc. It would probably happen at the beginning of an event, and it would need to be enjoyable, so that people would actually want to come. This is as far as I've managed to get in my brainstorming.
Thoughts? Ideas? Comments? [...]
I think you're missing the objective of the policy. It aims at taking away the fear from potential participants to be harassed. Encouraging people with insufficient social skills to come is not going to help that cause especially if pressure is put on the other participants to engage with their harassers or even see them as "valuable".
In all high-profile cases that surfaced in the past years, harassment almost never took place in a presentation or pan- el discussion, but during "social events" which ostensibly were meant to foster community building like you propose. So to mitigate the risk, social interaction should be mini- mized.
Tim
I think you're missing the objective of the policy. It aims at taking away the fear from potential participants to be harassed. Encouraging people with insufficient social skills to come is not going to help that cause especially if pressure is put on the other participants to engage with their harassers or even see them as "valuable".
In all high-profile cases that surfaced in the past years, harassment almost never took place in a presentation or pan- el discussion, but during "social events" which ostensibly were meant to foster community building like you propose. So to mitigate the risk, social interaction should be mini- mized.
Well, I think if you look at conferences as a whole, the biggest cases have been in presentations. Here's a list of examples:
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_incidents
Of course these are just examples that are sexist. I'm positive there are way more examples out there.
In general, the social events are optional, but that doesn't mean we should allow them to be free-for-alls either. The anti-harassment policy should also involve social events. If you've had too much to drink, then you should be cut off. If you harass someone at a social event, even a non-sponsored one, you should also fall under this policy.
- Ryan
Hi Tim,
It seems as though what I was proposing was not entirely clear.
Firstly, I feel that I understand the value of the policy that Sumana wrote. This is why I repeatedly praised it as valuable in my email. Having a harassment policy and guidelines for ejection from an event is important. I am not disputing this.
What I was discussing was the idea of things that could be done to prevent instances of harassment, not to respond to them. I believe that most people are well intentioned, and that some percentage of instances of harassment arise from misunderstandings and/or a lack of understanding of expected behavior/social norms. What I was proposing was to attempt to foster a stronger sense of community, create greater understanding of what is and is not acceptable behavior (especially in grey areas, which are always the most difficult), and to create greater respect for all members of a community *before* any instances of harassment occur.
In the case of individuals who are not well intentioned, these are individuals who do not have a place at conferences, as a main goal of such events is to foster community. Such individuals should be asked to leave a conferences and perhaps not invited back.
It is clear, at this point, that harassment at tech conferences is a systemic problem, not just a couple of isolated events. As such, I think that attempting to address this problem in multiple manners is important. Again, I will state that having an anti-harassment policy is an important thing to have in place. Additionally, I am of the opinion that threat of retribution alone (in this case being shunned from a community) is not a completely effective tact to take when dealing with systemic problems.
I hope that this has clarified my statement some.
Best, Peter
On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 8:14 PM, Ryan Lane rlane32@gmail.com wrote:
I think you're missing the objective of the policy. It aims at taking away the fear from potential participants to be harassed. Encouraging people with insufficient social skills to come is not going to help that cause especially if pressure is put on the other participants to engage with their harassers or even see them as "valuable".
In all high-profile cases that surfaced in the past years, harassment almost never took place in a presentation or pan- el discussion, but during "social events" which ostensibly were meant to foster community building like you propose. So to mitigate the risk, social interaction should be mini- mized.
Well, I think if you look at conferences as a whole, the biggest cases have been in presentations. Here's a list of examples:
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_incidents
Of course these are just examples that are sexist. I'm positive there are way more examples out there.
In general, the social events are optional, but that doesn't mean we should allow them to be free-for-alls either. The anti-harassment policy should also involve social events. If you've had too much to drink, then you should be cut off. If you harass someone at a social event, even a non-sponsored one, you should also fall under this policy.
- Ryan
Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
Thanks to all of you for your feedback on this. We've now finalized the policy and it now lives at
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Friendly_space_policy
wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org