Introducing a Code of Conduct

--- type: slide --- ## Fostering Diversity in Open Source Communities: Introducing a Code of Conduct --- ## Trigger Warning: Harassment --- ## What is a Code of Conduct? * A Code of Conduct (CoC) outlines the expected behaviours and responsibilities for participating within a community. * It also serves to establish specific community guidelines. --- ## Why Code of Conduct? * Define community standards. * Signal a welcoming and inclusive project. * Providing a reporting mechanism for inappropriate behavior. * Establishing procedures for handling harassment. --- ## Diversity in Open Source Communities In a 2017 survey, it was reported * Gender * 3% of all respondents were women * Ethnicity * 16% of them were ethnic minorities * Other underrepresented groups * LGBT+, disabled people, etc. --- ## Open Source Software People matter as much as code! --- ## Who can ask for inclusion of a CoC? * Project maintainers * Contributors * Potential contributors * External observers *Basically anyone!* --- ## Story of adding a Code of Conduct to the OCaml community --- ## OCaml OCaml is an ML-family functional programming language *ML as in meta-language, not machine learning ;)* --- ## OCaml OCaml is an ML-family functional programming language - Created in 1996 at INRIA, France - Many users from academia and industry - Growing community across the world * *Self plug*: Come to our workshop tomorrow on "A taste of Functional Programming with OCaml" to know more about OCaml. --- ## OCaml community CoC ### Attempt#1 (2017-2020) * Discussions among maintainers and community leaders to introduce a CoC. * Formed a team and drafted a CoC based on the Contributor Covenant. --- ## OCaml community CoC ### Attempt#2 (2022) * I took the initiative to drive this forward on behalf of the OCaml Software Foundation. * Established a team to draft a CoC and serve as arbitrators for violation reports. * Proposed the addition of a CoC to major communication channels and GitHub source repositories. * Sought community feedback. * Made amendments based on suggestions. --- ## Forming a CoC enforcement team --- ### Duties of the CoC enforcement team * Serve as an approachable point of contact for discussing issues and act as arbitrators for handling violation reports. * Ensure the enforcement of actions in accordance with the CoC guidelines. * The scope includes GitHub projects and communication channels such as mailing lists, Discord, Slack, Discourse, and private messages within the community context. --- ## Candidates An ideal candidate for the CoC enforcement team is someone who is: * Willing to do this work * often this is unpaid, non-rewarding volunteer work * Been part of the community and intend to do so for some more time * A mix of recent and long-time contributors * Generally nice and inclusive in their behaviour * Project maintainers (not a hard requirement) --- ## Candidates To avoid conflict of interests, we didn't include: * Individuals with significant power, such as BDFL. * Individuals occupying prominent hiring positions, including CXOs of companies engaged in the community. --- ### CoC Team by-laws Self-imposed rules for forming a diverse, representative, and approachable committee: * Achieve a balance in terms of gender, ethnicity, nationality, etc. * Ensure representation of the community's diversity. * Maintain a number of members roughly proportional to the community's size. * Avoid an overrepresentation of individuals from the same organization to promote decentralization. --- ## Text Two ways to go about it * Use am existing Code of Conduct text as a starting point * Write one from scratch *There are pros and cons to both* --- ### Various stages of action for CoC violation reports * Private conversation or warning * Public conversation or warning * Request an apology * Short-term ban * Long-term ban --- ### Proposing to add a CoC * We went with the popular Contributor Covenant as base text * Added a community specific FAQ section * Request for feedback on discourse forum --- ## CoC Adoption A Code of Conduct (CoC) can be implemented when a project is created, or it can also be added at a later stage. --- ## CoC Adoption * Community should be onboard with the idea. * It's crucial to solicit community feedback before implementation. * Engage with the community to facilitate discussions on sensitive matters and work towards a compromise. * Legitimate concerns should result in adjustments to the text or processes. --- ### Points of contention *Debunking some commonly raised concerns about introducing a Code of Conduct* --- ### Point of contention #1 _Explicitly listing protected classes makes others feel excluded_ Why list protected classes? * Underrepresented groups are more vulnerable to harassment * Listing protected classes does not imply exclusion of in-group individuals. --- ### Point of contention #2 *There's no need for a CoC; everything is functioning smoothly* - Everything is "seemingly" all right - we don't know for sure - That's not a guarantee there won't be incidents in future --- ### Point of contention #3 *A CoC is centered around diversity* - It is established with data that disparity in diversity is a problem in tech in general and OSS in particular - Underrepresented groups are more vulnerable to harassment --- ### Point of contention #4 *Interactions outside community spaces might be scrutinized* - Interactions outside community is generally **not** a concern - Unless there are serious issues like hate messages, etc. --- ### Point of contention #5 *Some members may leave the community - it will be a loss for the community* * People may also leave due to abuse/harassment - also a loss for the community --- ### Point of contention #6 *Issues with text* * Nearly impossible to come up with a text everyone is 100% happy with * Text can evolve based on community's needs --- ### Point of contention #7 *CoC enforcement team members may misuse their power* * All members of the community are held to the same standards * Reports on a team member will be treated like any other report * They will be excluded from the investigation --- ## Amendments * Changed the text to Coq community's Code of Conduct * Derived from Django Code of Conduct * Some minor changes to text --- ## Takeaways * A CoC lists responsibilities and expected behaviour for participation in a community * It signals a community's values to contributors and other communities * Has means for reporting and taking action for harassment * Aims to make the community more inclusive --- ### Acknowledgements Thanks go to, in no particular order: Louis Roché, Marcello Seri, Raja Boujbel, Simon Cruanes, Sonja Heinze -- **members of the OCaml CoC enforcement team** Xavier Leroy, Gabriel Scherer, Sebastian Hinderer, KC Sivaramakrishnan, Anil Madhavapeddy and many more --- # Thank You! --- ### References * [DEI Survey](https://www.linuxfoundation.org/research/the-2021-linux-foundation-report-on-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-in-open-source#:~:text=Given%20that%20people%20of%20vastly,and%20well%2Dbeing%20is%20important.) * [OCaml Code of Conduct discourse thread](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/ocaml-community-code-of-conduct/10494) * [GitHub: Adding a Code of Conduct for your project](https://docs.github.com/en/communities/setting-up-your-project-for-healthy-contributions/adding-a-code-of-conduct-to-your-project) * [Code of Conduct Conversations in Open Source Sofware Projects on Github](https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10347026)

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