Code of Conduct

Our code of conduct is adopted from the guidelines developed by the NumFOCUS community. If you have any questions about SPEC's code of conduct please email us at [e-mail].

THE SHORT VERSION

Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down others. Behave professionally. Remember that harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary jokes are not appropriate. All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate. We are dedicated to providing a harassment-free community for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of community members in any form. Thank you for helping make this a welcoming, friendly community for all.

THE LONG VERSION

Sustainable Progress and Equality Collective (SPEC) welcomes and encourages participation in our community by people of all backgrounds and identities. We are committed to promoting and sustaining a culture that values mutual respect, tolerance, and learning, and we work together as a community to help each other live out these values. We have created this diversity statement because we believe that a diverse community is stronger, more vibrant, and produces better software and better science. A diverse community where people treat each other with respect has more potential contributors, more sources for ideas, and fewer shared assumptions that might hinder development or research. Although we have phrased the formal diversity statement generically to make it all-inclusive, we recognize that there are specific identities that are impacted by systemic discrimination and marginalization. We welcome all people to participate in the SPEC community regardless of their identity or background.

Introduction and Scope

This code of conduct should be honored by everyone who participates in the SPEC community. It should be honored in any SPEC-related activities, by anyone claiming affiliation with SPEC, and especially when someone is representing SPEC in any role (including as an event volunteer or speaker). This code of conduct applies to all spaces managed by SPEC, including all public and private mailing lists, issue trackers, wikis, forums, and any other communication channel used by our community. The code of conduct equally applies at SPEC events and governs standards of behavior for attendees, speakers, volunteers, booth staff, and event sponsors. This code is not exhaustive or complete. It serves to distill our understanding of a collaborative, inclusive community culture. Please try to follow this code in spirit as much as in letter, to create a friendly and productive environment that enriches the SPEC community. We require all SPEC sponsored and affiliated projects to adopt a code of conduct for their project that encourages a productive, respectful environment for all open source contributors and community members. The SPEC Code of Conduct follows below.

Standards for Behavior

SPEC is a worldwide community. All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Please always be kind and courteous. There’s never a need to be mean or rude or disrespectful. Thank you for helping make this a welcoming, friendly community for all.

We Strive to:

Be empathetic, welcoming, friendly, and patient.

We remember that every SPEC project and program is crafted by human beings who deserve to be treated with kindness and empathy. We work together to resolve conflict and assume good intentions. We may all experience some frustration from time to time, but we do not allow frustration to turn into a personal attack. A community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one.

Be collaborative.

Our work depends on the participation of many people, and in turn others depend on our work. Open source communities depend on effective and friendly collaboration to achieve their goals.

Be inquisitive.

Nobody knows everything! Asking questions early avoids many problems later, so we encourage questions, although we may direct them to the appropriate forum. We will try hard to be responsive and helpful.

Be careful in the words that we choose.

We are careful and respectful in our communication and we take responsibility for our own speech. Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other members of the community.

Unacceptable Behavior

We are committed to making participation in this community a harassment-free experience. We will not accept harassment or other exclusionary behaviors, such as:

• The use of sexualized language or imagery

• Excessive profanity (please avoid curse words; people differ greatly in their sensitivity to swearing)

• Posting sexually explicit or violent material

• Violent or intimidating threats or language directed against another person

• Inappropriate physical contact and/or unwelcome sexual attention or sexual comments

• Sexist, racist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language

• Trolling or insulting and derogatory comments

• Written or verbal comments which have the effect of excluding people on the basis of membership in a specific group, including level of experience, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, neurotype, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, or nationality

• Public or private harassment

• Sharing private content, such as emails sent privately or non-publicly, or direct message history, without the sender’s consent

• Continuing to initiate interaction (such as photography, recording, messaging, or conversation) with someone after being asked to stop

• Sustained disruption of talks, events, or communications, such as heckling of a speaker

• Publishing (or threatening to post) other people’s personally identifying information (“doxing”), such as physical or electronic addresses, without explicit permission

• Other unethical or unprofessional conduct

• Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behaviors

Reporting Guidelines

If you believe someone is violating the code of conduct, please report this in a timely manner. Code of conduct violations reduce the value of the community for everyone. The team at SPEC takes reports of misconduct very seriously and is committed to preserving and maintaining the welcoming nature of our community.

All reports will be kept confidential.

In some cases we may determine that a public statement will need to be made. If that’s the case, the identities of all involved parties and reporters will remain confidential unless those individuals instruct us otherwise.

All complaints will be reviewed and investigated and will result in a response that is deemed necessary and appropriate to the circumstances. The SPEC team commits to maintaining confidentiality with regard to the reporter of an incident.

For possibly unintentional breaches of the code of conduct, you may want to respond to the person and point out this code of conduct (either in public or in private, whatever is most appropriate). If you would prefer not to do that, please email SPEC at [e-mail].

Take care of each other. Alert SPEC if you notice a dangerous situation, someone in distress, or violations of this code of conduct, even if they seem inconsequential.

How to Submit a Report

If you feel your safety is in jeopardy or the situation is an emergency, we urge you to contact local law enforcement before making a report to SPEC. (In the U.S., dial 911.)

SPEC is committed to promptly addressing any reported issues. If you have experienced or witnessed behavior that violates the SPEC Code of Conduct, please email us at [e-mail] and include your name, title/position, level of urgency, and details about where and when the incident occurred.

Person(s) Responsible for Resolving Incidents

All reports of breaches of the code of conduct will be investigated by the SPEC Code of Conduct Enforcement Team, who will handle intake procedures. Currently, the Code of Conduct Enforcement Team consists of SPEC's core leadership team and steering committee.

If an incident takes place at an event or meetup or within the community channels of a SPEC project, the SPEC Code of Conduct Enforcement Team will reach out to the relevant organizers/community managers/project leaders as necessary to follow up on the incident.

If the incident you are reporting involves a member of SPEC's core leadership team or steering committee and you do not feel comfortable submitting your report to the code of conduct enforcement team you can reach out to SPEC's fiscal host Open Collective Foundation.

As a fiscally hosted collective, SPEC is required to operate in accordance with OCF's sponsorship agreement and Open Collective's Community Guidelines. As such escalations concerning SPEC's leadership team should be escalated to OCF. You can email OCF at [e-mail].