All community and team members will need to agree to it before being granted access to platforms for the elections. Note: Uchaguzi edits are welcome until February 20th (We need to send to the community for agreement).

Also, thanks to Geeks without Bounds and the VTC Summit for the first iteration of this code. We've tweaked it for Uchaguzi and the Ushahidi community.

Code of Collaboration

Be Considerate

• There are different levels of digital literacy and language/localization in a global community.
• Help each volunteer find roles that work for them and help them learn.
• Be mindful of people's time.

Be Respectful

• Being inclusive means being kind and community focused.
• Consider the ethics of data sharing/ownership.
• Practice and contribute under the principle of "do no harm."
• Recognize that we have potential to do harm and commit to constantly reassessing this risk.
• Understand and work with the community and audience as to what "harm" means to them.

Be Collaborative

• When we disagree, we consult others.
• When we are unsure, we ask for help.
• We take care of ourselves and each other so we can make great contributions and be around for the long haul [see http://neworganizing.com/user/dash/ for inspiration from the political organizing world]
• Hand off your work considerately by turning over remaining tasks to the coordinator or team lead.
• Respect other roles but fulfilling only your assigned tasks.
• Urgent and critical items follow the verification protocols.
• Ensure and create thorough documentation to protect resilience.

Be Transparent

• Maintain transparency of process and code.
• Share your process, best practices, lessons learned so others have opportunities to share with you, and to help build community.
• The community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. No prerequisites exist to participate in the community. Inclusiveness in make-up, action, and participation.
  • (Prerequisites do have to be set, depending on how a VTC is organized, their leadership may be assuming legal liability for actions of members. Those assuming risk have to be in a position to control their risk by setting rules.)
• Seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and the reality of those around us, as well as participation in society.

Be Mindful of people's privacy

• Be mindful of security and privacy considerations. Do not share sensitive data.
• Follow verification and security guidelines for mapping - do not publish dangerous speech, personal names, and personal identifying information (guidelines to be determined)

For background research See: Draft from Volunteer Technical Community Summit (Original Document from VTC Summit)