Apereo Welcoming Policy 2.0 - Extended Version

Introduction

The Apereo Foundation exists to further its core mission, “to assist and facilitate educational organizations which collaborate to foster, develop, and sustain open technologies and innovation to support learning, teaching, and research.” We believe that this mission is best advanced in a community that is open, welcoming, and supportive to all who might contribute. Innovation requires the participation of a broad and representative community.

Openness, inclusion, collaboration and participation are core aspects of our work. These guidelines aim to support a community where all people should feel welcome, safe to participate and introduce new ideas to inspire others.

Purpose

The following behaviours are expected of all Apereo community members and participants:

  • Be respectful.  Respect other ideas, styles and viewpoints, and discuss matters in a constructive and positive way aiming always to build better ways of doing things together.
  • Be considerate. Apereo software is used by other people and that means any decision about changes will affect users and colleagues. Seek to understand the potential impact of changes to software or community practices, listen to those affected, and consider how best to support the process of change.
  • Be collaborative. What we produce is a complex whole made of many parts and is the sum of many efforts. Collaboration between teams that each have their own goal and vision is essential. For the whole to be more than the sum of its parts, each part must make an effort to understand the whole. We prefer to work transparently and involve interested parties as early as possible because we believe that collaboration reduces redundancy and improves the quality of our work.
  • Be inclusive. Seek diverse perspectives. Diversity of views and of people on teams powers innovation, even if it is not always comfortable. Encourage all voices. Help new perspectives be heard and listen actively. If you find yourself dominating a discussion, it is especially important to step back and encourage other voices to join in. Be inclusive of everyone in an interaction, respecting and facilitating people’s participation.
  • Value decisiveness, clarity and consensus. Disagreements, social and technical, are normal, but we do not allow them to persist and fester leaving others uncertain of the agreed direction. We expect participants in our community and within our software communities to resolve disagreements constructively. When they cannot, we escalate the matter to structures with designated leaders to arbitrate and provide clarity and direction.
  • Ask for help when unsure. Nobody is expected to be perfect in this community. Asking questions early avoids many problems later, so questions are encouraged, though they may be directed to the appropriate forum. Those who are asked should be responsive and helpful.
  • Appreciate and accommodate our similarities and differences. The Apereo community comes from many cultures and backgrounds and we value this as a source of strength. Cultural differences can encompass from religious to personal habits. Be respectful of people with different cultural practices, attitudes and beliefs. Use preferred titles (including pronouns) and the appropriate tone of voice. Be open to learning from and educating others as well as educating yourself.
  • Lead by example. By matching your actions with your words, you become a person others want to follow. Your actions influence others to behave and respond in ways that are valuable and appropriate for our organizational outcomes. Design your community and your work for inclusion. Hold yourself and others accountable for inclusive behaviors.

Unacceptable Behavior

We invite all those who participate in Apereo to help us creat safe and positive experiences for everyone.

This policy prohibits harassment of any kind within the software communities, events, and working groups affiliated with or sponsored by Apereo.

The following behaviours are considered to be unacceptable under these guidelines.

  • Violence and Threats of Violence. Violence and threats of violence are not acceptable - online or offline. This includes incitement of violence toward any individual. Also includes posting or threatening to post other people’s personally identifying information.
  • Derogatory Language. Hurtful or harmful language related to: Background, family status, gender, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, native language, age, ability, race and/or ethnicity, national origin, socioeconomic status, religion, geographic location or other attributes.
  • Unwelcome sexual attention or unwelcome physical contact is not acceptable. This includes sexualized comments, jokes or imagery in interactions, communications or presentation materials, as well as inappropriate touching, groping, or sexual advances.

These descriptions are intended to share an understanding of prohibited conduct.  The descriptions are not presented or intended to be exhaustive lists.

Consequences of Unacceptable Behavior

Any person electing to utilize this complaint resolution procedure will be treated courteously.   The complaint will be handled as confidentially as possible.  Apereo will take appropriate action to the extent possible to address any violations of this policy.  Groundless, untruthful, or malicious complaints will result in comparable sanctions.

The Apereo Board of Directors will designate at least two Standing Duty Officers members to receive complaints at any time. These Standing Duty Officers can be reached at duty-officer[at]apereo[dot]org.

Reports of harassment/discrimination will be promptly and thoroughly investigated by the people responsible for the safety of the space, event or activity. Appropriate measures will be taken to address the situation.

Anyone asked to stop unacceptable behaviour is expected to comply immediately. Violation of these guidelines can result in being ask to leave an event or online space, either temporarily or for the duration of the event, or being banned from participation in spaces, or future events and activities in perpetuity.

If you feel you have been falsely or unfairly accused of violating this Code of Conduct, you should notify the conference conduct team by email at duty-officer[at]apereo[dot]org with a concise description of your grievance. Your grievance will be handled in accordance with our existing governing policies.

For incidents determined to be actionable the Apereo Executive Director, Chair, or named proxy will decide and execute appropriate sanctions, possibly including but not limited to: Verbal warning, removal from the event without refund or removal from a working group, prohibition from attending future events or participating in other working groups.

This Code is not exhaustive or complete. It is not a rulebook; it serves to distil our common understanding of a collaborative, shared environment and goals. We expect it to be followed in spirit as much as in the letter.


The Apereo conduct rules is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. You may re-use it for your own software community, and modify it as you wish, just please allow others to use your modifications and give credit to the Apereo Foundation!

It has been adapted with few modifications from Mozilla participation guidelines, Ubuntu code of conduct, view source code of conduct, and portions of our own Apereo previous code of conduct.