Constant Collaboration Guidelines v1Constant orientations pour collaboration v1Constant richtlijnen voor samenwerking v1

Collaboration Guidelines - Short Version

Constant activities are moments of exchange, in which different generous practices develop. Giving, receiving, taking and caring are understood as reciprocal actions. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• No sexism, racism, queerphobia, ableism and other kinds of hatefulness.
• Leave physical, emotional and conceptual room for other people.
• Don’t speak for others. Do not intrude or impose yourself.
• Exchange information, experiences and knowledge. Don’t patronise nor matronise.
• Accept and appreciate differences, different points of view, conceptions, experiences, backgrounds, references, needs and limits.
• Try not to be judgmental.
• Take time to actually listen.
• Don’t assume, but ask.
• Mind the language gaps. This is a multi-lingual environment.
• Realise that saying something has different meanings and consequences for everyone.
• Respect other beings, present or not, human or not.
• Give care to your physical environment.
• Do not share photographs or recordings on proprietary social networks unless explicit consent.
• Support and foreground the use of Free Libre and Open Source software.
• The default license for all material and documentation is a Free Arts License.
• Accept that mistakes are important.

Collaboration Guidelines - Long version

• No sexism, racism, queerphobia, ableism and other kinds of hatefulness.
• Leave physical, emotional and conceptual room for other people. We respect the emotional and physical limits of people around us. This means we change our behaviour if someone signals to not be at ease with our behaviour, whatever our intentions.
• Don’t speak for others. Do not intrude or impose yourself. We are solidary with others, but we take care to not to speak in their place or to prevent them to speak for themselves. Finishing other peoples’ sentences is almost always meant as a sign of support, but it is actually not helpful, unless it is asked for.
• Exchange information, experiences and knowledge, don’t patronise nor matronise. We pay attention to the way different types of expertise are valued, specifically when it comes to technology. We know that more often than not, the arrangement of expertise re-enforces existing power relations (e.g., teacher-student hierarchy; privileges carried by whiteness, socio-economic/class, gender, heterosexuality …; communication or language skills; mental or physical ability; seniority as a participant, etc.). We try to avoid *splaining, techno-solutionism … and other forms of normative behaviour.
• Accept and appreciate differences. Different points of view, conceptions, experiences, backgrounds, references, needs and limits. We are here because we value occasions to engage with other perspectives. This might mean to not only try out different content, but also different methods of sharing. It sometimes means requesting dignity/respect/consideration for those who are not here.
• Try not to be judgmental. Collective work is exciting, challenging, de-centering, alienating and triggering. We each do what we need to do to navigate our mental, emotional, and physical well-being. If we are feeling a bit too dis-oriented or judgmental, we might leave the room for a while, but we will try to come back.
• Don’t assume, but ask. (for example what someone’s preferred pronoun is, if they want to be touched, whether they know anything about a subject). If we are unsure, we ask for clarity. We also understand that not all questions are OK, or need answering.
• Mind the language gaps. This is a multi-lingual environment. We try not to forget that we are in Brussels, a multi-lingual city that is officially operating with two languages (French and Dutch), but in practice communicates in many more tongues. Even if we make use of English as a lingua franca, we all bring different languages and vocabularies so we understand that everyone experiences very different levels of comfort while speaking and writing. Native english speakers must understand that their own ease in expressing themselves (particularly in terms of specialized vocabulary and speed) might provoke unease for non-native speakers.
• Words and ways of speaking impact people in various ways. What you are saying is differently understood by each person. Our listening is conditioned differently, socially, linguistically, emotionally. That why it is good not to assume that what you did intent to say was understood exactly as such.
• Respect other beings, present or not, human or not. We try to respect the dignity, experiences, and perspectives of those that are implicated by the work we do. It is very possible that those affected are not in the room with us.
• Give care to your physical environment. We pay attention to the people, facilities, infrastructures and objects brought together and treat them with the necessary care.
• The default license for all material and documentation is a Free Art License. For collaborative work such as worksessions, auto-documentation and a generous exchange of ideas and knowledge is key. For this reason, we acknowledge that the default license for shared work, notes, prototypes, sketches generated in the context of the worksession is an Open Content License [FAL]. If we need an exception to this rule, we take responsibility to inform other participants about it.
• Support and foreground the use of Free Libre and Open Source software. We understand that Constant is committed to Free / Libre and Open Source Software, and we make an effort to use F/LOSS tools as much as possible. If we notice a companion struggle with yet un-known tools and procedures, we make an effort to help out.
• Do not share photographs or recordings on proprietary social networks unless explicit consent by all involved. As part of a shared documentation effort, pictures, audio and video will be recorded during worksessions and other collective situations. If we feel too uncomfortable with this, we signal this at the beginning of the worksession to potential recorders.
• Accept that mistakes are important. We work to not take it personally when anyone breaks these guidelines because we all have been conditioned into systems of oppression. We are unlearning; this makes us uncomfortable and we try not to expect neat, tidy solutions.**

Harassment is unacceptable and will not be tolerated during any Constant event, meeting or gathering. This goes for all online, collective or one-on-one communications. Harassment is what people experience it to be. It doesn’t matter how the person harassing intended their action, important is how it was experienced. We understand that it is important to make explicit what counts as harrassment, but we are not used to this language. We have for now used quotes from guidelines and codes of conduct that we have been inspired by.

Harassment includes:

• trolling, i.e. sustained disruption of conversations, talks or other events. [1]
• nonconsensual photography or recording including logging online activity for harassment purposes. [2]
• gratuitous or off-topic use of nudity and/or sexual images in public spaces (including presentation slides). [1]
• deliberate intimidation, stalking or following. [1]
• nonconsensual physical contact and simulated physical contact (e.g., textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop. [2]
• patterns of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others. [2]
• unwelcome sexual attention. [3]
• microaggressions, i.e. small, subtle actions that marginalize people. [1]
• comments that reinforce systemic oppression related to gender, gender identity and expression, trans status, sexual orientation, dis-ability, mental illness, neurodiversity, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion (or lack thereof), technical choices, lack of technical knowledge, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. [2]
• unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment. [2]
• deliberate misgendering. [2]
• deliberate use of “dead” or rejected names. [2]
• incitement and threats of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm. [2]
• continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease. [3]
• deliberate “outing” of any private aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse. [3]
• publication of private communication without consent. [2]
• knowingly making false claims about a person. [2]

[1] https://queer-code.org/coc
[2] https://www.freebsd.org/internal/code-of-conduct.html
[3] https://radix.one/en/code-of-conduct