The Montreal AI Ethics Institute Slack Code of Conduct¹:

Rules to follow:

1. Any content sent to the channels must be relevant and intended to generate a discussion in line with the channel theme.
2. Self-authored content is permitted, so long as it is relevant and not shared solely for self-promotional means.
3. Slack is not intended to provide a stepping stone for further pursuit of your own personal project. Slack is intended to help you grow your knowledge and meet like-minded people.

Harassment:

Harassment includes:

1. Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion.
2. Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment.
3. Deliberate misgendering or use of ‘dead’ or rejected names.
4. Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour in spaces where they’re not appropriate.
5. Physical contact and simulated physical contact (eg, textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop.
6. Threats of violence.
7. Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm.
8. Deliberate intimidation.
9. Stalking or following.
10. Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes.
11. Sustained disruption of discussion.
12. Unwelcome sexual attention.
13. Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others
14. Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.
15. Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse.
16. Publication of non-harassing private communication.

Reporting:

1. If you are being harassed by a member of the MAIEI team, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact any member of the MAIEI team through a direct Slack message. If the person who is harassing you is on the team, they will recuse themselves from handling your incident. We will respond as promptly as we can.

Expected Behaviour:

1. Be friendly and patient.
2. Be welcoming. We strive to be a community that welcomes and supports people of all backgrounds and identities. This includes, but is not limited to members of any race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, color, immigration status, social and economic class, educational level, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, size, family status, political belief, religion, and mental and physical ability.
3. Be considerate. Your ideas can be used by other people, and you in turn will depend on the ideas of others. Any decision you take will affect users and colleagues, and you should take those consequences into account when making decisions. Remember that we're a world-wide community, so you might not be communicating in someone else's primary language.
4. Be respectful. Not all of us will agree all the time, but disagreement is no excuse for poor behavior and poor manners. We might all experience some frustration now and then, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack. It’s important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one. Members of the Learning Communities (LCs) should be respectful when dealing with other members as well as with people outside the LC.
5. Be careful in the words that you choose. Do not insult or put down other participants.
6. When we disagree, try to understand why. Disagreements, both social and technical, happen all the time and the LCs are no exception. It is important that we resolve disagreements and differing views constructively. Remember that we’re different. The strength of the LC comes from its varied community, with people from a wide range of backgrounds. Different people have different perspectives on issues. Being unable to understand why someone holds a viewpoint doesn’t mean that they’re wrong.
7. Content that has been identified as objectionable, inappropriate, or off-topic will be subject to deletion by channel moderators/facilitators. Posters will receive a warning and risk being blocked from the channel if unacceptable behavior persists.

Consequences of inappropriate behaviour:

Since we run a fairly large Slack group with people from diverse social, economic, and geographical backgrounds, any harassment will not be tolerated and will be swiftly dealt with by the removal of the offending content and members. We ask you to utilize this space as a respectful discussion forum, keeping an open mind and heart is crucial!

Best Practices:

1. If you’re new to Slack, consult this link Slack 101, where you’ll find all the necessary information to get you started!
2. Please only send material which you intend to generate a discussion with.
3. When responding to a message, please start a thread within that message. To do this, you must click on the “Reply in thread” icon in the top right corner of the message. This helps keep communications on the channel clear and doesn’t notify others unnecessarily.
4. Different members will be part of different channels. So, in order to prevent cross-channel confusion, please start and finish a discussion in the same channel.
5. Don’t forget to check the pins within the channel, which contain information that is reusable (such as the Zoom link and calendar invite).
6. Please react with an emoji to the message containing the upcoming reading to show that you’ve read it.

How to make the most of Slack:

1. Engage with the messages being sent! Whether a thumbs-up reaction or starting a thread on an upcoming reading, nothing is better for expanding your knowledge than engaging in discussion!
2. You can add the Slack desktop app or mobile app to your devices.
3. Make sure to customize your notification settings. This will help ensure you’re notified for the things you care about, while limiting unnecessary notifications.

Thank you for taking the time to familiarise yourself with our Code of Conduct. Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to either Connor Wright or Camylle Lanteigne.

¹ This Code of Conduct borrows a number of elements from the Creative Commons Slack Code of Conduct and the Content + UX Slack Group.