A COC that prevents blacklisting

^{Original article lives at: http://tumboliasociety.org/post/46/}

While Codes of Conduct are sometimes perceived as a tool for stifling ideological diversity within the software community, according to the "Fantasyland Institute of Learning", a well written COC may just as well act as an aegis for people with controversial opinions.

"Most COCs offer protection against discrimination, but only on certain dimensions. For example, the average COC does not protect against discrimination for political or philosophical views ...

These drawbacks are not insurmountable. I believe it’s possible to create a code of conduct that is not vague, and which offers uniform protections. In fact, I and others have been working on precisely such a code of conduct."[1]

The Fantasyland Institute's Code of Professionalism (FCOP) is the first implementation of such a COC, and it does seem to be an elegant solution to the problem of blacklisting within the tech community.

In particular FCOP's emphasis on peacefulness provides a more objective bar for entry than, say, how comfortable one attendee feels around another. Peaceful behavior is observable, feelings are not. This is crucial for preventing discrimination based on ideology.

"We welcome all peaceful people to participate in the Community. We do not allow Discrimination, Stereotyping, Harassment, Judgmental Communication, or violations of privacy. We do not exclude any peaceful people from our Community unless they have demonstrated an inability to follow our terms and conditions.”[1]

FCOP may be viewed and contributed to here. Despite being a work in progress, I would encourage anyone reading to check it out and spread word of its existence, especially to conference organizers.

1.] Introducing FCOP, http://degoes.net/articles/introducing-fcop