DRS Futures Team Principles
For any significant socio-technical system, program, or initiative, the single most critical factor to success is not technology, money, time, tools, clever innovations, productive processes, etc. While all important, they are all subsidiary to people coming together in community dedicated towards a common purpose. This will be no different for the DRS Futures project. We have established a large and diverse team. We are all important teammates, collaborators, and contributors. Each of us brings to the project a unique set of skills, expertise, and lived experiences. We need to incorporate all of these perspectives into our routine activities.
As team members we accept a duty of care to ourselves and others with an obligation to act always with respect and acceptance of commonality and difference.
Everyone has their own preferences for modes of communication. Some like to engage in frank discussion (as the diplomats say, but which really means vigorous — though always respectful — argument). Others are more comfortable with more indirect or even anonymous means of discourse. Every communicative position across this spectrum is equally valid. Everyone should expect and receive affirmation of their own communicative style and feel comfortable in participating in team deliberations and decision-making in the manner of their choice. It is vitally important that every voice is heard and given full and meaningful consideration and response, not just the loudest voices. It is incumbent on all of us, and especially those exercising leadership or facilitation responsibility, to ensure that this happens.
Other organizations have published their own codes of conduct (referenced below). We embrace and strive to conform to points of commonality across those codes, including:
- Welcoming language
- Respect pronouns & identity
- Active listening
- Amplifying under-represented voices/viewpoints
- Offering and accepting critique graciously
- Being an active bystander: https://oge.harvard.edu/bystander-intervention
- Ensuring accessibility of resources and collections (this would apply to project artifacts, stakeholder engagement materials, and the Digital Repository solution itself)
Working Practices
- Notes taken during meetings allow participants (and other interested parties) to access discussion points and agreements made during those meetings at later dates. At least one attendee should endeavor to take notes for each meeting. In addition, if other attendees are able to add clarification, correction, context or detail to existing notes, that collaboration should be encouraged.
- Ensure that closed captioning is enabled for all video meetings.
- Endeavor to record stakeholder meetings when appropriate and share materials with invitees afterwards.
- Recognize that people may need to turn video off for any reason.
References
- ALA: https://connect.ala.org/codeofconduct
- DLF: https://www.diglib.org/about/code-of-conduct/
- DPSC (Digital Preservation Service Collaborative) Statement of Shared Values: Latest draft: https://github.com/dpscollaborative/sharedvalues/blob/master/shared-values_en_v3.md
- SAA: https://www2.archivists.org/statements/saa-core-values-statement-and-code-of-ethics