conf code of conduct

[freenerd]

http://confcodeofconduct.com/ has a version similarly to ours here, since also derived from Ada Initiative. Basically missing the "music is special" disclaimer we have here. So option could also be to just copy or link to that version ...

[plamere]

Hey all - i ran this by Lynn Root here at Spotify. She's been working on similar things for the pycon world She had some feedback that I include here:

This is great! I see that it took a lot from the Geek Feminism's "Conference Anti Harassment Policy" guidelines 1. I really like the addition of language wrt the possibility of explicit music lyrics/images/etc and to provide a disclaimer before a demo. I would encourage organizers to emphasize this verbally too.

One thing that I may suggest is adding some language wrt how organizers may deal with the response. For example, the Geek Feminism guideline mentions this:

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the conference organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference [with no refund]. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of conference staff immediately. [Conference staff can be identified by t-shirts/special badges/head sets.]

Conference staff will be happy to help participants contact hotel/venue security or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the conference. We value your attendance.

We expect participants to follow these rules at all conference venues and conference-related social events.

As well, I'm sure it was thought of already and just not up on GitHub but just to be super-explicit: it's important to have contact information (an email, a phone number, something) of an organizer(s) that will be available to address an issue at any time during the event, as well as local authority information too.

Hope this helps! Thank you!

[rknLA]

I'm so glad this is getting bumped back to the radar.

Re: how to take action, this seemed to be a difficult point to figure out, since the events tend to have different organizers. Maybe it's the sort of thing that, the points of contact for each individual event need to be identified before an event is promoted on musichackday.org as an official event?

Paul, I think you also mentioned that the "with no refund" but is a little irrelevant in the context of a free hackathon. Still, expulsion from the event is valid.

[freenerd]

All additions above sound reasonable to me (with changes to MHD: s/conference/hack day/, no refund since free, no unified way of identifying staff).

I think the transient nature of MHD organizers and the lack of an overarching sadly makes it impossible to advertise, discuss or enforce these rules over all Music Hack Days though. And eventually it comes down to the organizers being aware of the problem and acting accordingly. I think this can only happen if people who care for an anti-harrasment policy (us) actively bring this to each and every organizer. I don't see a way how that will happen.