On 11/10/10 18:10 , Ian Jackson wrote:
John Goerzen writes ("Re: Code of Conduct at events"):I'm still not sure that a "code of conduct" is really the right thing.I'm not attached to the "Code of Conduct" phrase. Another way to put it would be "Policy on Behaviour at the Conference". But I think it is very valuable that there is a written document which sets out the standards of behaviour expected. As community we come from many different places, with different cultural expectations. And, sadly speaking, in the wider societies of many of our homes (including mine), of violence and sexual assault - particularly by men against women - are not as culturally unacceptable as they are to me personally. A written policy does a number of things: * It clarifies to everyone what is and is not OK. In particular, I feel strongly that we should explicitly state that nonconsensual touching is not OK. In some cultures it is considered acceptable under some circumstances, but in general it can be very intrusive or even threatening particularly for people from a different culture.
So hypothetical situation: suppose there is a group of people who do brilliant open source work and would like to become a SPI project. But they happen to come from a culture with acceptable behaviour that you disagree with. Does that mean you want to prevent them from joining SPI, because your mores trump theirs?
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