The Community Council received a proposal from Monica and the Canonical Community Team on this.
Attached is the original proposal, and the final vote by the CC (and changes to it).
Original Proposal sent to CC by Monica - sent July 7th, 2021 to the Council:
Spurred by a proposal made to the Ubuntu Community Discourse, the Community
Team began its own exploration of alternatives to signing the CoC. We
encouraged further discussion on the issue within the community, and spoke
with internal Canonical employees, especially those involved with
Launchpad, to see if the GPG key was a barrier.After these discussions, we are presenting the following proposal to
provide an alternative signing method that will reduce what we feel are
barriers to membership for valuable contributors whose skills lie in
non-development areas. However, this is a proposal that does not have a
specific solution in mind, as that is best decided by all stakeholders. It
is merely permission to continue this conversation and move towards a
solution - one that ideally combines the proverbial ‘weight’ of signing a
code of conduct with increased accessibility.(We are also in agreement that a Code of Conduct related question should be
added to the membership interview, in light of recent events, but this is a
separate albeit related conversation to have with the membership board.)Thank you for continued patience and time, and we look forward to hearing
how to proceed.Regards,
Monica Ayhens-Madon (she/her)
Ubuntu Community Representative
Final Community Council Vote and Resolution regarding this proposal - sent July 11, 2021:
Monica, et al:
Over the course of the week, the Community Council has reviewed the
proposal and discussed internally.In a +5 vote with no abstentions and no negative votes (two individuals
did not vote), the Community Council has approved the proposal as follows:
- The Launchpad mechanism for accepting the Code of Conduct may be
simplified to being as simple as a ‘check mark’ for signing the CoC
on Launchpad. In conjunction with this simplification of the
signature on Launchpad, though, we will require that…- Applicants for Membership must be asked by the relevant Membership
Board, and must return an affirmation, to the following questions:
- Has the Applicant read the entirety of the Ubuntu Code of Conduct?
- Does the Applicant understand the Code of Conduct they have read?
- Does the Applicant agree to abide by the Code of Conduct for as
long as they are a member?The second requirement is in lieu of the GPG Signature on the Code of
Conduct, as we will receive a binding confirmation that the CoC has been
acknowledged and agreed to be abided by during an applicant’s meeting.
If an applicant is not asked these questions, then the membership boards
may not grant membership without those questions being answered.Non-technical applicants not applying for Developer privileges through
the Developer Membership Board are not required to have GPG on their
account. Developer applicants via the DMB must have GPG signatures on
Launchpad in order for them to execute their upload privileges, as a
requirement of dpkg and apt is gpg-signed uploads.A separate notice will be distributed to the Membership Boards of these
changes as defined by the Community Council.Thomas Ward
on behalf of the Ubuntu Community Council
This is me just keeping you all in the loop. The Community Council has no problem with a reduction in the complexity of the signature (even as simple as a checkbox a user can set), but as a result have added Membership meeting requirements of certain questions which must be asked of, and answered by, the Membership Applicant, technical or otherwise.
However this is implemented in Launchpad or however the Community Team at Canonical thinks is best, the Community Council is fine with the reduction in simplicity, provided that the membership applicants are asked the aforementioned questions in the CC response as stated (or similar).
That part is also added as part of… recent events… but are now a mandatory part due to a simplification of CoC signing/agreement on Launchpad.