Code for America Brigade Code of Conduct Transparency Report — 2nd Quarter of 2018

Christopher Whitaker
Code for America Blog
2 min readJul 5, 2018

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Last month, we published our Code of Conduct transparency report for the Code for America Summit. Starting now, we’ll also publish a Code of Conduct transparency report each quarter for actions we take network-wide.

These reports won’t be including actions taken at Code for America main events like Summit and Brigade Congress, which will both have separate reports. We also aren’t including any actions that are currently pending; those will be included in the next quarter’s report.

Reports

  1. The Network Team learned of an incident that occurred over six months ago at a Brigade event where an attendee made unwanted physical contact with another attendee after an argument. As this is a clear violation of the Code of Conduct, the Network Team banned this individual from attending any future events. Network team members have had additional follow-ups with the Brigade to ensure better enforcement of the Code of Conduct as well as get information about any other underlying issues.
  2. The Network Team received a message from a city partner regarding issues with their local Brigade. Upon investigation, the Network Team realized that while there wasn’t a clear Code of Conduct violation, disagreements amongst the core team were heading toward a toxic state. The Network Team engaged in mediation that was witnessed by a member of the National Advisory Council. The initial mediation was deemed to be successful. However, mediation is an ongoing process and the Network Team does not consider this to be a closed case. We will continue following up with the Brigade as necessary.
  3. During the National Day of Civic Hacking online workshop, the Zoom meeting was hijacked by individuals outside Code for America’s network who used Zoom’s share screen feature to display explicit content. Attempts to boot the individuals from the webinar failed because of a loophole in the software that allows individuals to return to the webinar even after they are removed by a moderator. The problem was exacerbated because it was two individuals working in tandem to disrupt the workshop. When Code for America staff discussed the problem with Zoom staff, they informed us of additional steps we can take to better secure the workshops. Additionally, Zoom plans to close the loophole in a future update. In the meantime, workshops will be run with additional moderator controls such as not allowing people to speak or share their screens unless they are one of the presenters. This is not ideal, as the Network Team finds it useful to have everyone speak and take part in the conversation. However, until we can ensure that online workshops cannot be hijacked, the Network Team will be locking down these events.

Conclusion

The Network Team continues to work to improve it’s process for enforcing the Code of Conduct as well as working to create a more inclusive environment within the Brigades.

We hope that these quarterly reports not only provide transparency into our process, but also give insight into how we’re working to improve it.

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Christopher Whitaker
Code for America Blog

Civic Technologist - @CodeforAmerica Brigade Program Manager - #chihacknight co-host — @USArmy 11B - MPA - Author of The @CivicWhitaker Anthology — Chicagoland