Friendly space policy consultation 2019

Welcome to the 2019 Friendly Space Policy (FSP) consultation! In this consultation, Foundation trust and safety policy staff would like to collect ideas and suggestions from community members on how to improve and refine the current Friendly Space Policy that has, to date, applied to Foundation-supported events. To do that, we would like to hear from you about:

• Potential changes that could be made to the FSP
• What the FSP and its current enforcement do well
• What the FSP and its current enforcement need to improve

This consultation is not a vote on what should be included or changed, but rather a collaborative exchange of ideas. The Foundation welcomes your ideas and thoughts, but because this is a Foundation-owned policy for Foundation-supported events, staff will be the final decision makers on what the policy will contain. The Foundation-owned policy is the minimum required policy for those who hold Foundation-supported events; event organizers are free to apply more restrictive, but not less restrictive, policies to their own events.

The policy

First, let's all make sure we know what the current Friendly Space Policy says:

The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to providing a harassment-free venue and conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, physical appearance, age, race, ethnicity, political affiliation, national origin, or religion—and not limited to these aspects. We do not tolerate any form of harassment of conference participants. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue or talks. Any participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference at the discretion of the conference organizers.

Harassment includes but is not limited to offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, physical appearance, age, race, ethnicity, political affiliation, national origin, or religion. Harassment also includes sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, unwelcome following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention. Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the conference organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of conference staff immediately. Conference staff can be identified by special badges.

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. We value your attendance.

Organizers: Contact information will be publicized to event participants on a per-event basis.

Local phone numbers for hotel/venue security, local law enforcement, local sexual assault hotline, local emergency and non-emergency medical, and local taxi company to be publicized to event participants as appropriate on a per-event basis.

We expect participants to follow these rules at Wikimedia Foundation venues, all conference venues, and conference-related social events.

-- Official Wikimedia Foundation Friendly Space Policy, located on Foundationwiki

Ideas for consideration

For more ideas about how to form Friendly Space Policies, see this Mediawiki page

A main purpose of this consultation is to collect ideas on how to expand or change the current re-use of the Foundation's policy for a big community-guided conference format like Wikimania into a tailored FSP policy for all Foundation-supported events. Community members and Foundation staff have already come up with some suggested additions and changes to the policy. Below, we invite you to add your own ideas and share opinions on each of them:

Passive opt-out for photos

The conference should provide a method for attendees to passively opt-out of being in photos taken at the event. This may take the form of a different-colored lanyard. For example, at technical conferences, there is currently a three-color lanyard system in use: green or black means that photos are OK. Yellow means "please ask me before taking photos" and Red means "no photos at all. Photographers are expected to not photograph those displaying this opt-out and ask the persons that signal they do not want to be photographed without consent.

Discuss "Passive opt-out for photos"

Active consent for photos

Those taking photographs at events are expected to obtain direct and explicit consent from photo subjects before taking, sharing or uploading photos to places like social media and/or Wikimedia Commons.

Discuss "Active consent for photo uploads"

"Touch sensitivity" stickers

Event staff should make available badge stickers for attendees to use to indicate preferences such as "I welcome physical contact" and "please do not make physical contact with me without asking." Attendees will be expected to respect those stickers.

A Phabricator task discussing such stickers already exists.

Discuss "'Touch sensitivity' stickers"

Propose your own idea...

...on the talk page

Current policy successes

Here, we would like to hear from you about what the current policy does right and what benefits it provides.

Discuss current policy successes

Current policy weaknesses

Here, we would like to hear from you about how the current FSP policy may need to be changed or adapted in order to best protect community members.

Discuss current policy weaknesses