[Conferences] Trademark policy for "PyCon" conferences

[M.-A. Lemburg]

On 02.06.2014 22:43, Nelle Varoquaux wrote:
> Hello,
> I understand the necessity of protecting the name "Pycon" and "python", but
> being involved in several organization committees of conferences on python
> or scientific python, I'll just comment on the following:
> 
> "It is the policy of the Python Software Foundation to allow the use
> of "PyCon" for conferences that focus on Python the programming
> language, have adopted a code of conduct compatible with that of the
> PSF, and allow anyone to attend the conference subject to a
> reasonable conference fee."
> 
> There are cultures and countries where the concept of a code of conduct is
> not at all welcomed. We discussed about this for EuroScipy (happening in
> the UK this year, but with organizers from all
> around Europe: France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, etc), and we decided not to
> have one. I think this is the type of statement that are "normal" in north
> america, but less so in many European countries, one of the reason being
> that what is stated in the code of conduct is just considered
> normal behavior.

I know... I've had trouble understanding the US movement
around these CoCs myself, but have come to the conclusion
that they are useful, even if they only state the obvious.

There are two important aspects to having a CoC webpage up
on the site, which often don't receive enough attention in
the emotional discussions around these codes:

1. Providing an easy to find place on the site where attendees
   can turn to and get contact information in case of possible
   incidents.

2. Making the conference organizers think through how they will
   react in case of such incidents.

Point 1 is important, since attendees will look for such pages
in case of an incident. Point 2 is important, because the organizers
will have to be prepared for such incidents and how to handle
them. You can think of it as an emergency plan - it's good to have
one, but you don't really want to run into the situation of having
to use it.

The PSF wants to encourage conference organizers to think about
these things and make it easy for their attendees to find
the required information.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
Director
Python Software Foundation
http://www.python.org/psf/