OSGeo UK Local Chapter

Code of Conduct for FOSS4GUK Online

General Guidelines

Zoom is the video communication platform being used for FOSS4GUK Online 2020.

These guidelines are meant as a tool to help presenters and attendees have an enjoyable event, and should be read alongside the general OSGeo Code of Conduct, which applies to all platforms and communication mediums.

Guidelines for Presenters

Online conferences must be moderated in the normal sense, from starting and stopping presentations and acting on code of conduct issues. You will be assigned a host and co-host, who will handle the technical aspects of managing security throughout your presentation. Some general guidelines are as follows:

Moderation

The host and co-host are there to manage the technical and communications aspects of the sessions, and process, and to allow presenters to focus on their content - both presenters and attendees should channel issues and questions through them to help the sessions run smoothly

The meeting host or co-host reserves the right to place bad actors or trolls ‘on hold’, or ‘in the waiting room’. They will not be able to participate in the call until the hold is removed.

If there are further instances of inappropriate behaviour (as defined by the OSGeo Code of Conduct) the participant will be removed from the presentation permanently. This prevents their return to any part of the event, on any device, so should not be used lightheartedly.

The meeting host or co-host, or OSGeo:UK conference organising committee reserves the right to ‘lock the meeting’ completely, which prevents any new attendees accessing the event. They also have the right to end the event completely if there are continued episodes of contravention of the Code of Conduct by multiple individuals.

Escalating and/Reporting a Problem

Issues that cannot be handled by the presentation host and co-host should be escalated to the OSGeo:UK conference committee by e-mail.

Meeting recordings

All presentations will be recorded and uploaded to the OSGeo:UK YouTube channel for public viewing. This is done on an opt-out basis. If you do not wish for your presentation to be recorded, or after the presentation don’t wish for the recording to be uploaded to YouTube, then you must explicitly contact the OSGeo:UK conference committee by e-mail.

Presentations where a code of conduct violation is known to have occurred will be treated separately and a joint decision between the presenter, co-host, and the conference organising committee will be made as to whether the recording should be made available.

Guidelines for Attendees

Please don’t share the links with anyone else, each stream has a fixed capacity (just like a conference room) and if you share the details other registered delegates may not be able to get into the room = bad karma.

When you select the link to a stream and enter the password you will be placed in a waiting room for a minute or two until the host opens the room and admits you.

All delegates will be muted when they enter a room and the host and co-host will have the choice to unmute and mute depending on the numbers in the room.

Asking Questions

You can ask a question during a presentation by using the zoom chat facility (it will only allow you to send a message to the host and co-host), the host will select a few questions at the end of the talk and will invite you to ask your question, or if there are a lot of questions the host may amalgamate them and ask them on your behalf.

We have disabled the facility to chat with other attendees in the zoom app because it can get too noisy in big sessions.

Video

We will be recording video of all sessions, your image could appear in some of the video (or in screenshots that we may post to Twitter). If you do not want your image to appear you can switch off the video in your zoom client, you will still be able to watch the presenters and hear or speak.

Be Nice

This is a first for us, we hope we have thought of everything and that the day runs smoothly. But if stuff goes wrong, please be patient, we will get problems fixed as fast as we can and will provide updates via the Twitter channel