“Eye” by ‘T’ BY-ND 2.0:

• Open Source is Made of Humans
• Watch With Improving Diversity Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• The Myth of Meritocracy
• Code of Conduct
• Assignment: Reading & Discussion

Open Source is Made of Humans

We’ve talked a lot about ‘open’. We’ve run through attributes that make a project most likely to be accessible for new contributors. But, at the core of everything, and I mean everything, is that open source is about people, solving problems for people together.

Community Health is everyone’s responsibility.

Watch With Improving Diversity Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Sarah Sharp,a coordinator for Outreachy, which provides three-month internships for people from groups traditionally underrepresented in tech, delivers a powerful keynote on privilege and responsibility in open source communities.

The Myth of Meritocracy

You might hear that Open Source is driven by a meritocracy governance model. The assumption of meritocracy is that everyone starts in a similar place, and thus have the same opportunity.

For reasons of gender-identity, socio-economic status, age, race, family-status, available time, access to technology and many other diversity dimensions - meritocracy is in fact a myth.

Much of this data reinforced what we know about the myth of meritocracy, and that despite its promise, meritocracy actually enables toxic, exclusionary norms that prevent development of resilient, diverse communities. - Emma Irwin, Reflection — Inclusive Organizing for Open Source Communities

Code of Conduct

Like any gathering of humans, be it family, a group of colleagues, sports teams - interacting can be challenging at times. A set of unhealthy ‘norms’ can be established accidentally when we neglect to be explicit about how we want our communities to interact and this can lead toxic communities.

A Code of Conduct, sometimes called Participation Guidelines, is an agreement outlining ways we should interact and treat each other, including what is acceptable, unacceptable and behaviors all community members should aspire to - with a clear reporting process for violations. Codes of Conduct are also sometimes called Participation Guidelines.

Here are some examples of open source community Codes of Conduct:

• Kubernetes
• GoLang
• Rust
• Mozilla Participation Guidelines

Without enforcement a Code of Conduct means nothing. Without enforcement, and modeling of healthy behavior by community leaders - what we see is that more assertive individuals, and that those with perceived clout tend to dominate discussion. It is your role as a community member to not only abide by CoC, but to look out for others as well. A healthy community is everyone’s responsibility.

Assignment: Reading & Discussion

1. Read ‘What Makes a Good Community’ by Sarah Sharp.
2. Review Mozilla’s Community Participation Guidelines
3. Review Geek Feminism’s Timeline of Incidents to get a sense of struggles in communities over the years, online and in person.
4. Group discussion or personal reflection:
   • What types of behavior are acceptable in a community and why? Have you seen those behaviors in any communities? What happened? What should have happened?
   • Who is responsible for reporting violations? Consider the role of bystanders in your responses.
   • How might you help a community be a more welcoming place?
   • How can we help people with less privilege contribute to open projects?
   • What privilege do you have?

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