O'Reilly to adopt anti-harrassment Code of Conduct for Oscon

http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/07/sexual-harassment-at-technical.html

by jdp23 • 15 years ago

51 38 15 years ago

radar.oreilly.com

shubber• 15 years ago

Much as I'm glad to see something along these lines, I'm a little taken aback that it took this long to publish. Even the original post refers to "last Oscon," and O'Reilly runs a lot of conferences. Last Oscon wasn't the first time "something happened."

kscaldef2• 15 years ago

This OSCON is the first (that I know of) where speakers started withdrawing their talks over the lack of a policy.

pyre5• 15 years ago

That somehow seems worse. It took community pressure from the speakers to get O'Reilly to have some sort of a policy against harassment/stalking/offensive behavior?

vanadium2• 15 years ago

It was done largely in solidarity with Noirin Plunkett, Director and Executive VP at the Apache Software Foundation, who had to deal with harassment at OSCON and physical assault at ApacheCon: http://blog.nerdchic.net/archives/705/

suprgeek2• 15 years ago

It is a sad state of affairs that Tech conferences are now having to institute acceptable behavior guidelines.

Looking at some of the Past events, I suspect that at least some of this behavior is because some of the presenters want to be seen as "edgy". They will throw up a provocative image or make a sexist or borderline racist/Offensive comment to depict how much of a rebel they are.

Does this really add to the Technical weight or clarity of their talk? Personally speaking, I would never work with anybody who did this - no matter if they were a 10X productive super rockstar who invents new languages on the side.

diolpah3• 15 years ago

"Personally speaking, I would never work with anybody who did this - no matter if they were a 10X productive super rockstar who invents new languages on the side."

Thank you for volunteering to help those of us who prefer to hire on merit. More for us.

Uchikoma• 15 years ago

I wish you much fun with hiring such a guy and exploding your team.

michaelchisari3• 15 years ago

Appropriate behavior doesn't factor into your definition of merit? Do you hire purely on code quality?

pyre5• 15 years ago

So as long as someone is a 'rockstar' coder, it doesn't matter if he/she destroys the morale for the rest of your employees?

<sarcasm> I guess it's just their loss. They should feel privileged to be working with <rockstar coder>! </sarcasm>

cdavid2• 15 years ago

Note that Tim most likely refered to actual physical aggression, something which is arguably worse than making "edgy" presentations (the article there mentioned OSCON: http://lwn.net/Articles/417952/).

yummyfajitas2• 15 years ago

I'm curious - why does a conference need a policy about such things at all? Are local laws against violent acts insufficient?

vanadium2• 15 years ago

Mmm, what? From the linked article itself:

"One issue that has come up at some technical conferences is sexual or racist comments or images in slides. This is not appropriate. Speakers and exhibitors should use good judgment; if we hear complaints and we think they are warranted, you may not be invited back."

wladimir2• 15 years ago

I'm all for freedom of self expression. Yes it means there could be a bad joke (damn you!) here and there, or a comment that is edgier than it should be, but hey we're all human... I do not believe creativity can thrive if you need to sanitize every word, and make everything perfectly dry and businesslike, with the organizers ready to chime in if you make any remotely sexual or racist comment...

suprgeek2• 15 years ago

Please do not present a false choice - It is not "be sexist, racist, offensive" OR "be dry, businesslike with every word sanitized".

Frankly presenters who indulge in this kind of behavior are giving in to the worst kind of intellectual laziness. If the only way they can get people to pay attention to their "incredibly dry sanitized" presentation is by making sexist/racist/<offensive> slides then that talk has no place in the conference to begin with.

This is exactly the kind of naive attitude that keeps women away - as another poster has linked would you consider any of this acceptable? http://lwn.net/Articles/417952/

mkn• 15 years ago

I'm all about anti-harassment guidelines, but the following is just as offensive as harassment:

I’d like to borrow a line from the Flickr Community Guidelines, which use the term Creepiness as follows: "You know that guy. Don’t be that guy." If we hear that you are that guy, we will investigate, and you may be asked to leave.

That's not a clear guideline, and it's sexist, to boot. Consider:

We all know that prudish woman. Don't be that prudish woman.

That wouldn't fly, and for the same very good reasons that their guidelines need more work. They need first to remove the gender language, since unwanted advances and inappropriate behavior can come from either side, and second to spell out clearly what is prohibited, since that is the only way the rules can be fairly applied.

diolpah3• 15 years ago

mkn, it is rarely a good idea to question the thought police. Prepare to be informed about how your male privilege invalidates any point you make.

tzs4• 15 years ago

I hope their rules will apply to both men and women. There is sometimes a tendency to overlook when women harass men.

lhnn• 15 years ago

I can easily see innocent and benevolent dark humor being overreacted to with all this buzz about 'awareness' at conferences. Ironically sexist though it is, simply saying "don't be that guy" should be the extent of the conversation.

This says to me, "There are people ready to be offended at your talk. Walk on eggshells."

O'Reilly to adopt anti-harrassment Code of Conduct for Oscon

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