W3C PWE TF Draft April 14 2012, updated July 3 2014

Status : Superseded by Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

3 July 2014: minor tweaks for release (copyright date, spell check, removed references).

April 14th: Pretty much final. Was last updated based on April 13 call: swap discrimination bullet and listdef, alpha order for glossary, refined Work env def, added Wendy to ack, and box style for code. Msg to staff about the code.

This document is member-only. It will be public when released (after the May 2012 AC most probably).

This document is an editor's draft, working for the Positive Work Environment Task Force. The content may change at any moment. The content has not yet been reviewed by W3C as a whole.

The final page will start here, with a different style for better integration in the site.

Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

Preamble
Statement
Code
Glossary
Acknowledgements

Preamble

W3C is a growing and global community where participants choose to work together, and in that process experience differences in language, location, nationality, and experience. In such a diverse environment, misunderstandings and disagreements happen, which in most cases can be resolved informally. In rare cases, however, behavior can intimidate, harass, or otherwise disrupt one or more people in the community, which W3C will not tolerate.

A Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct is useful to define accepted and acceptable behaviors and to promote high standards of professional practice. It also provides a benchmark for self evaluation and acts as a vehicle for better identity of the organization.

This code (CEPC, pronounced "sep-see"), complemented by a set of Procedures is available to any member of the W3C community —staff, members, invited experts, participants in W3C meetings, W3C teleconferences, W3C mailing lists, W3C conference or W3C functions, etc.

Education and training materials are available from the Positive Work Environment public homepage.

Statement of Intent

W3C is committed to maintain a positive work environment. This commitment calls for a workplace where participants at all levels behave according to the rules of the following code. A foundational concept of this code is that we all share responsibility for our work environment.

Code

Treat each other with respect, professionalism, fairness, and sensitivity to our many differences and strengths, including in situations of high pressure and urgency.
Never harass or bully anyone verbally, physically or sexually.
Never discriminate on the basis of personal characteristics or group membership.
Communicate constructively and avoid demeaning or insulting behavior or language.
Seek, accept, and offer objective work criticism, and acknowledge properly the contributions of others.
Be honest about your own qualifications, and about any circumstances that might lead to conflicts of interest.
Respect the privacy of others and the confidentiality of data you access.
With respect to cultural differences, be conservative in what you do and liberal in what you accept from others, but not to the point of accepting disrespectful, unprofessional or unfair behavior.
Promote the rules of this Code and take action (especially if you are in a leadership position) to bring the discussion back to a more civil level whenever inappropriate behaviors are observed.

Glossary

Demeaning behavior: is acting in a way that reduces another person's dignity, sense of self-worth or respect within the community.

Discrimination: is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on criteria such as: physical appearance, race, ethnic origin, genetic differences, national or social origin, name, religion, gender, sexual orientation, family or health situation, pregnancy, disability, age, education, wealth, domicile, political view, morals, employment, or union activity.

Insulting behavior: is treating another person with scorn or disrespect.

Harassment: is any conduct, verbal or physical, that has the intent or effect of interfering with an individual, or that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment.

Leadership position: includes group Team contacts, group Chairs, W3C management, and Advisory Board members.

Participant

includes the following persons:

W3C Team (employees, contractors, fellows)
W3C group participants (members and invited experts)
Advisory Committee Representatives (and their guests)
W3C Offices staff
Anyone from the Public partaking in the W3C work environment (e.g. comment on our specs or email us, attend our conferences, functions, etc)

Respect

is the genuine consideration you have for someone (if only because of their status as participant in W3C, like yourself), and that you show by treating them in a polite and kind way.

Sexual harassment: includes visual displays of degrading sexual images, sexually suggestive conduct, offensive remarks of a sexual nature, requests for sexual favors, unwelcome physical contact, and sexual assault.

Unwelcome behavior

Hard to define? Some questions to ask yourself are:

how would I feel if I were in the position of the recipient?
would my spouse, parent, child, sibling or friend like to be treated this way?
would I like an account of my behavior published in the organization's newsletter?
could my behavior offend or hurt other members of the work group?
could someone misinterpret my behavior as intentionally harmful or harassing?
would I treat my boss or a person I admire at work like that ?

Summary: if you are unsure whether something might be welcome or unwelcome, don't do it.

Unwelcome sexual advance

includes requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, where:

submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment,
submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as a basis for employment decisions affecting the individual,
such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating hostile or offensive working environment.

Workplace Bullying: is a tendency of individuals or groups to use persistent aggressive or unreasonable behavior (e.g. verbal or written abuse, offensive conduct or any interference which undermines or impedes work) against a co-worker or any professional relations.

Work Environment: is the set of all available means of collaboration, including, but not limited to messages to mailing lists, private correspondence, Web pages, chat channels, phone and video teleconferences, and any kind of face-to-face meetings or discussions.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the contributions from the participants in PWETF: Kazuyuki Ashimura, Ann Bassetti, Steve Bratt, Judy Brewer, Daniel Dardailler, Ted Guild, Simon Hernandez, Coralie Mercier, Mauro Nunez, Wendy Seltzer, Jeanne Spellman, Ralph Swick, Amy van der Hiel. As well as all those who provided input for improvements over time.

Last change $Id: cepc.html,v 1.84 2014/10/23 21:11:10 coralie Exp $

[Superseded] Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct