Speaker Guidelines

These speaker guidelines are in addition to the Code of Conduct, to help speakers give talks that may be enjoyed by the whole audience.

Background

The GNOME community has people from many backgrounds. Therefore, you might offend audience members unintentionally. These guidelines can help you to avoid this, minimizing disruptions and discontent.

This is not a precise list of rules because the GNOME Foundation cannot predict all circumstances. These guidelines are not to be interpreted as prohibiting the serious raising of a bona fide technical, legal or ethical issue during a presentation.

Enforcement is subject to the judgment of the session overseer.

Guidelines

• The GNOME community is positive and welcoming. Keep in mind that people can have different views than yours. Therefore, please don't criticize people or ideas unnecessarily harshly. Stick to technical points and offer constructive suggestions for improvement.
• Remember the audience outside the room. Many presentations are recorded or discussed on the Internet. So be considerate of everybody, not just those that are sitting in front of you.
• Avoid things likely to offend some people. Your presentation content should be suitable for viewing by a wide range of audiences so avoid slides containing sexual imagery, violence or gratuitous swearing.
• Avoid unnecessary subjects. Your audience has people from various backgrounds, differing in sexuality, ethnicity, gender and religion. Non-topical references to these subjects can easily make someone uncomfortable.
• A successful GNOME event involves everyone having fun. If someone in your audience is uncomfortable with something you've said, you're not doing your job. Apologize to them as soon as possible, and try to avoid the topic that triggered this for the rest of your presentation.
• The GNOME community is collaborative. If you worry that something is inappropriate, ask a wide range of people beforehand.

Dealing With Problems

If you do not respect these guidelines, someone from the GNOME Foundation will raise the issue with you at the next break time. Furthermore, if necessary, the GNOME Foundation might publicly distance itself from your opinions.

Please keep in mind that the GNOME Foundation is not the right forum to debate whether someone should feel offended or not; you should simply avoid offending people even if you do not share their views. These guidelines do not constitute censorship since you have many other forums and opportunities to say whatever you wish.