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Code of Conduct

openEHR International - Code of Conduct (CoC)

openEHR International, as an open community, wholeheartedly follow the guidelines of the Code of Conduct (CoC) as defined by the Apache Foundation and here you find a copy with some small adjustments. 

The CoC applies to all communication spaces managed by openEHR International and the openEHR community, including mailing lists, issue trackers, wikis, blogs, twitter, linkedIn etc.

While a CoC can never be complete, we believe the one made by the Apache Foundation provides a thorough understanding of how people can work together in a polite, friendly and productive environment. 

The following is a copy of the guidelines:

Specific Guidelines

We strive to:

1. Be open. We invite anyone to participate in our community. We preferably use public methods of communication for project-related messages, unless discussing something sensitive. This applies to messages for help or project-related support, too; not only is a public support request much more likely to result in an answer to a question, it also makes sure that any inadvertent mistakes made by people answering will be more easily detected and corrected.

2. Be empathetic, welcoming, friendly, and patient. We work together to resolve conflict, assume good intentions, and do our best to act in an empathetic fashion. We may all experience some frustration from time to time, but we do not allow frustration to turn into a personal attack. A community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one. We should be respectful when dealing with other community members as well as with people outside our community.

3. Be collaborative. Our work will be used by other people, and in turn we will depend on the work of others. When we make something for the benefit of the project, we are willing to explain to others how it works, so that they can build on the work to make it even better. Any decision we make will affect users and colleagues, and we take those consequences seriously when making decisions.

4. Be inquisitive. Nobody knows everything! Asking questions early avoids many problems later, so questions are encouraged, though they may be directed to the appropriate forum. Those who are asked should be responsive and helpful.

5. Be careful in the words that we choose. Whether we are participating as professionals or volunteers, we value professionalism in all interactions, and take responsibility for our own speech. Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other participants. Harassment and other exclusionary behaviour are not acceptable. This includes, but is not limited to:

   • Violent threats or language directed against another person.

   • Sexist, racist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.

   • Posting sexually explicit or violent material.

   • Posting (or threatening to post) other people’s personally identifying information (“doxing”).

   • Sharing private content, such as emails sent privately or non-publicly, or unlogged forums such as IRC channel history.

   • Personal insults, especially those using racist or sexist terms.

   • Unwelcome sexual attention.

   • Excessive or unnecessary profanity.

   • Repeated harassment of others. In general, if someone asks you to stop, then stop.

   • Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behaviour.

6. Be concise. Keep in mind that what you write once will be read by hundreds of people. Writing a short e-mail means people can understand the conversation as efficiently as possible. Short emails should always strive to be empathetic, welcoming, friendly and patient. When a long explanation is necessary, consider adding a summary. Try to bring new ideas to a conversation so that each mail adds something unique to the thread, keeping in mind that the rest of the thread still contains the other messages with arguments that have already been made.Try to stay on topic, especially in discussions that are already fairly large.

7. Step down considerately. Members of every project come and go. When somebody leaves or disengages from the project they should tell people they are leaving and take the proper steps to ensure that others can pick up where they left off. In doing so, they should remain respectful of those who continue to participate in the project and should not misrepresent the project’s goals or achievements. Likewise, community members should respect any individual’s choice to leave the project.

Diversity Statement

The openEHR community welcomes and encourages participation by everyone. We are committed to being a community that everyone feels good about joining. Although we may not be able to satisfy everyone, we will always work to treat everyone well.

No matter how you identify yourself or how others perceive you: we welcome you. Though no list can hope to be comprehensive, we explicitly honour diversity in: age, culture, ethnicity, genotype, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, neurotype, phenotype, political beliefs, profession, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, subculture and technical ability.

Standards for behaviour in the openEHR community are detailed in the Code of Conduct above. We expect participants in our community to meet these standards in all their interactions and to help others to do so as well.