Archive Access Policy

The presentations that make up the current and archived conferences on this site have been made open access and are freely available for viewing, for the benefit of authors and interested readers.

Code of Conduct

Introduction

PKP seeks to provide a welcoming, fun, and safe community and conference experience for everyone.

We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Discriminatory language and imagery (including sexual) is not appropriate for any event venue, including talks, or any community channel such as the forum or blog comments.

Harassment is understood as any behavior that threatens another person or group, or produces an unsafe environment. It includes offensive verbal comments or non-verbal expressions related to gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religious beliefs, sexual or discriminatory images in public spaces (including online), deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.

Conflict Resolution Procedures

1. Initial Incident

If you are being harassed, if you notice that someone else is being harassed, or if you have any other concerns, and you feel comfortable speaking with the offender, please inform the offender that he/she/ze has affected you negatively. Often, the offending behavior is unintentional, and the accidental offender and offended will resolve the incident by having that initial discussion.

PKP recognizes that there are many reasons why speaking directly to the offender may not be workable for you (including but not limited to unfamiliarity with the conference or its participants, concerns for personal safety, etc.). If you don't feel comfortable speaking directly with the offender for any reason, skip straight to step 2.

2. Escalation

If the offender insists that he/she/ze did not offend, if offender is actively harassing you, or if direct engagement is not a good option for you at this time, then you will need a third party to step in. Find an event organizer or PKP staff person, who should be listed on the conference web site. If you can't find an event organizer, there will be other staff available to help if the situation calls for immediate action.

3. Wider community response to Incident

If the incident doesn't proceed beyond the first step (discussion reveals offense was unintentional, apologies said, public note or community is informed of resolution), then there's not much the community needs to do at this point since the incident was resolved without outside intervention.

If incident results in corrective action, the community should support the decision made by the conference organizers, such as ending a talk early or providing support to those harmed by the incident, either publicly or privately (whatever individuals are comfortable with).

If the conference organizers run into issues implementing the CoC, then the organizers will come to the community for assistance with these issues and the community should revise the CoC as they see fit.

People will have different opinions about how the CoC is enforced. Some will argue that a particular decision was unfair, and others will say that it didn't go far enough. We can't stop people having differing opinions, but what we can try to do is have constructive discussions that lead to something tangible (affirmation of decision, change in CoC, modify decision, etc,).

Sanctions

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. If a participant engages in harassing behavior, organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender, expulsion from the event, or banning the offender from the forum.

Specific sanctions may include but are not limited to:

• warning the harasser to cease their behavior and that any further reports will result in other sanctions
• requiring that the harasser avoid any interaction with, and physical proximity to, their victim for the remainder of the event
• early termination of a talk that violates the policy
• not publishing the video or slides of a talk that violated the policy
• not allowing a speaker who violated the policy to give (further) talks at the event
• immediately ending any event volunteer responsibilities and privileges the harasser holds
• requiring that the harasser not volunteer for future PKP events (either indefinitely or for a certain time period)
• requiring that the harasser immediately leave the event and not return
• publishing an account of the harassment

PKP event organizers can be identified by their name badges, and will help participants contact venue security or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the event.

If an incident occurs, please use the following contact information:

SFU Harbour Centre Security: 778-782-5029

Vancouver Police Department: 911

Women Against Violence Against Women Crisis Line (24/7): 604-255-6344

Vancouver Taxi: (604) 871-1111

We expect participants to follow these rules at all conference venues, conference-related social events, community gatherings, and online communication channels.

We value your participation in the PKP community, and your efforts to keep PKP a safe and friendly space for all participants!

Licensed under CC0

Based on the example policy from code4lib and the Geek Feminism wiki, created by the Ada Initiative and other volunteers.