Hello all! long time :)
Having Flock so close, and after read the article sent to the group by Justin [1] about microaggressions in the workplace, it might be a good idea to have some private sessions with those who feel affected by the Fedora overall environment somehow.
It's true that a lot of times people committing aggression isn't aware of those, maybe by language, culture or some other factors; and having people from all around the world would be a great idea to approach this knowledge and have a way to measure real cases. People feel vulnerable more than we even realize, specially when their work (name them contributions) are public and easy to follow. So here's the general Idea:
Who would be benefit of?
* D&I team would be able to gather 1:1 info from real cases, real experiences since survey system haven't been a viable solution "yet". * People with real struggles would find a familiar face where to lay part of their struggles and open up (hopefully) * Fedora community CoC and how we handle events could benefit from the information gathered. * Not only people affected, but 3rd parties friends who know cases and victims, can work as bridges into knowing those experiences. * The better the info, the better we can help.
Worst case scenario? And potential solutions...
* People is to afraid to show up in person and talk about their experiences: Here comes some main points.
- Who: Having a familiar face could be the break point for some people, so it's "a must" to have people who have been long term contributors into the D&I or the Fedora environment and have proven to be non-conflict, easy listeners and at least good and fluent with English so nothing gets lost in translation.
- Where: Having a personal meeting would make it easier to be recognized by others, and this bring a new difficulty, however, there are ways to address this: Option A: Share a casual coffee with your listener, so it's not an uncomfortable interview. Option B: Have a chat table, so you can just write your thoughts but being closer for a friendly support if needed. Option C: No personal interaction, but host a meeting at the end of Flock to discuss the info gathered without disclosing personal info, or details about the info gathered.
- How: The most important part of the idea is to let people know they will be in a safes pace with someone who won't emit judges or give advice, we are only listeners trying to understand better how we can keep improving the overall social health of the community. So again, here are some ideas on how we could let people feel safe into contacting us: Option A: A general call for contributions where those who are interested into share information can send a private email, so no names or anything will be public. Option B: A point of contact or person of contact (probably someone with a special tag or something so again, is not a noticeable spot where others can feel judged) they can reach for a coffee (please have a coffee/tea spot). Option C: A note box. A nice option would include to have a box where people can write their experiences, suggestions and more, and just place them in a safe box where no names would be seen at all. completely anonymous, and again, read them all and discuss with the lesser details how that can help us improve.
- Fedora Map: It would also be a great (and weird) idea to have somehow of a world map where people could just put a post it or a sticker on how they feel according to: ' Overall joy of being a worldwide Fedora member ' How comfortable fo you feel with your regional community? ' Are you comfortable with your regional group? ' Do you have a nice and smooth interaction inside the Teams you're part of?
Anyway... long email, but do any of these ideas ring a bell to you? Does this sounds like a good idea to start collecting real information about the social health of Fedora community?
[1] https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/microaggressions-research/
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