2023/Safe Space Policy

WikiConference North America 2023 • Toronto

The organizers of WikiConference North America are dedicated to providing a harassment-free event experience for everyone, regardless of level of experience, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, physical abilities, neurodiversity, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, national origin, marital status, veteran status, or socio-economic background. A Friendly Space Policy (or Safe Space Policy) exists to support a healthy and sustainable community where diversity and inclusion can thrive. We encourage all participants to conform to this Friendly Space Policy and it will be enforced when necessary.

If a participant engages in behavior that goes against the Friendly Space Policy, the event organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender of expulsion from the event.

If you are being harassed, or you notice someone else being harassed, or have any related concerns, please contact a member of the event staff. There will be designated people to help. Friendly Space Staff can be identified by their orange safety vests and/or yellow badges.They will assist to make participants feel safe for the event, and help contact security personnel and/or law enforcement if needed.

Our conference may include attendees who do not wish their photos to be published. Please avoid photographing them, and more importantly please do not distribute or publish any photos of attendees who do not wish to be photographed, signaled by their wearing a RED lanyard.

Please note that this is a dynamic document.

We value your attendance.

Specifics

Encouraged behaviors

• Be welcoming: These are some examples of ways to contribute to a positive environment that welcomes and supports people of all backgrounds and identities:
  • Use welcoming and inclusive language. Please use the pronouns an individual has indicated are appropriate.
  • Respect differing viewpoints and experiences
  • Keep discussions and conversations civil
  • Have empathy towards other community members
• Be considerate and patient: actively seek to acknowledge, respect, and understand fellow community members. While critique is natural and important, good critiques are kind, respectful, clear, and constructive.
• Assume good faith: misunderstandings happen easily, both online or in person. Please ask clarifying questions before assuming that a communication was inappropriate.
• Be respectful: Discussion is an important part of our project, but it can lead to disagreements. We must strive to keep our discussions and disagreements appropriate and civil. When we disagree, try to understand why. Seek to understand each other and work to resolve disagreements and differing views constructively.

Behavior that will not be tolerated

• Our conference is international. Cultures differ. The point of view of the recipient of a message is important. Our safe space policy covers (but is not limited to) these issues:
• Harassment: Includes offensive statements/comments about gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance such as physique, ethnicity or belief, representations of a sexual nature, conscious intimidation, stalking, persecution, unwanted photography or recording, repeated disruption of lectures and other events, undesirable physical contact and unwanted sexual attention. People who are warned about such behavior must cease immediately. This also includes: asking the same question several times after other participants tried to answer, asking very general questions that are not directly related to projects people are working on, calling out people asking for their opinion about a specific topic. Do not pester other users with repeated messages.
• Abuse: Including verbal, written, or physical abuse
• Discrimination of any person or group of persons, including discriminatory jokes and language
• Conduct or speech which might be considered sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, ableist or otherwise discriminatory or offensive in nature
• Violence and threats: Violence and threats of violence are not acceptable. This includes harassment, deliberate intimidation, and incitement of violence including encouraging a person to commit self-harm. This includes posting or threatening to post other people’s personally identifying information ("doxing") online.
• Personal attacks: Conflicts naturally arise, but avoid personal attacks. It is not okay to insult, demean or belittle others. Attacking someone for their opinions, beliefs and ideas is not acceptable. Avoid yelling, and please let others speak. Do not post other people's personally identifying information ("doxing")
• Unwelcome sexual attention: This includes comments, jokes, or imagery of a sexual nature in interactions, communications, or presentation materials, as well as sexual images or text. Images with sexual connotations (e.g. implied by certain emojis) are often inappropriate or unwelcome. Be aware of how your actions affect others; if it makes someone uncomfortable, stop. This includes:
  • Continued unwelcome one-on-one communication after a request to cease
  • Unwelcome sexual attention
  • Repeated harassment of others. In general, if someone asks you to stop, then stop.
• Unwanted content: Be aware when you are sharing video or audio which might be disconcerting to others. Avoid posting content, pictures, or links that are unrelated to the current topic, or repeated or overly frequent posts. Don't overly promote a specific opinion or topic. Do not post sexually explicit or violent material.
• Participants asked to stop any unwanted behavior are expected to comply immediately. This applies to everyone, including event staff and sponsors.

Get some support / help

Onsite Friendly Space 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. Friendly Space Staff can be identified by their orange safety vests and yellow badges. We value your attendance at this conference. We will have a group of designated people who will monitor the online chat and discussion areas to ensure that the policy outlined here is adhered to. They will have the ability to remove those violating the policy from comment sections, pads, and any other discussion areas under the control of the conference team. They will also have the ability to permanently ban anyone who clearly and/or persistently violates the policy. If you feel uncomfortable during the event or feel that the above policies are being broken, please contact the Friendly Space Team:

• Speak to Friendly Space Staff members in-person who are wearing orange safety vests and/or yellow badges.
• Speak to other Event Staff members who can guide you to the appropriate Friendly Space or other people who can assist you.
• Online via Telegram Chat: WCNA 2023
• Online via Email: safety at wcna dot wiki

Background

• The Friendly space policies and Event Ban policy apply to this event.
• Wikimania Friendly space policy, analogous to this one.
• For matters not explicitly listed, the Wikimedia Universal Code of Conduct applies to this event and all Wikimedia events.