Kubernetes Contributors – Community

Community: Kubernetes Community Values

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kubernetes Community Values

Kubernetes Community culture contributes substantially to the project’s success. The following values have evolved over time, pushing our project and peers toward constant improvement.

Distribution is better than centralization

The scale of the Kubernetes project is only viable through high-trust and high-visibility distribution of work, which includes delegation of authority, decision making, technical design, code ownership, and documentation. Distributed asynchronous ownership, collaboration, communication and decision making are the cornerstones of our world-wide community.

Community over product or company

We are here as a community first. Our allegiance is to the intentional stewardship of the Kubernetes project for the benefit of all its members and users everywhere. We support working together publicly for the common goal of a vibrant interoperable ecosystem, providing an excellent experience for our users. Individuals gain status through work. Companies gain status through their commitments to support this community and fund the resources necessary for the project to operate.

Automation over process

Large projects have a lot of hard yet less exciting work. We value time spent automating repetitive work more highly than toil. Where work cannot be automated, our culture recognizes and rewards all types of contributions while recognizing that heroism is not sustainable.

Inclusive is better than exclusive

Broadly successful and useful technologies require different perspectives and skill sets, which can only be heard in a welcoming and respectful environment. Community membership is a privilege, not a right. Community members earn leadership through effort, scope, quality, quantity, and duration of contributions. Our community respects the time and effort put into a discussion, regardless of where a contributor is on their growth path.

Evolution is better than stagnation

Openness to new ideas and studied technological evolution make Kubernetes a stronger project. Continual improvement, servant leadership, mentorship, and respect are the foundations of Kubernetes culture. Kubernetes community leaders have a duty to find, sponsor, and promote new community members. Leaders should expect to step aside. Community members should expect to step up.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” –Peter Drucker

Community: Mentoring Programs and Resources

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kubernetes Upstream Mentoring Programs

This page indexes all of the mentoring initiatives for contributing to the Kubernetes project. For end user mentoring initiatives, check out KubeCon and other CNCF events and programs.

We understand that everyone has different learning styles and we want to support as many of those as possible. Mentoring is vital to the growth of an individual and organization of every kind. For Kubernetes, the larger the project becomes , it’s necessary to keep a continuous pipeline of quality contributors and we want you to hang around!

Current mentoring activities:

Please reach out to #sig-contribex on slack or come to a mentoring meeting to get involved in planning //TODO add contribex README when this is updated

SIG’s office hours / mentoring

Office hours / mentoring

Long Term Contributor Ladder Growth

Through Group Mentoring Cohorts

Role based shadow programs

List of programs

Students

Google Summer of Code

1:1 full-time mentoring

LFX Mentorship

Groups Traditionally Underrepresented in Tech

Outreachy

In person

Videos of New Contributor Workshop
Pod Mentoring! aka group mentoring

Discontinued activities:

Specific topics and activities

The 1:1 Hour

Tech Writers

Google Season of Docs (2019-2024)

Inspiration and Thanks

This is not an out of the box program but was largely inspired by the following:

Thanks to:

the many contributors who reviewed and participated in brainstorming,
founding mentees for their willingness to try this out,
founding mentors (@chrislovecnm, @luxas, @kow3ns, @nikhita)

We welcome PRs, suggestions, and help!

Community: Code Of Conduct

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kubernetes Community Code of Conduct

Kubernetes follows the CNCF Code of Conduct.

Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported by contacting the Kubernetes Code of Conduct Committee via conduct@kubernetes.io.

The text of the CNCF Code of Conduct is available below.

CNCF Community Code of Conduct v1.3

Other languages available:

Community Code of Conduct

As contributors, maintainers, and participants in the CNCF community, and in the interest of fostering an open and welcoming community, we pledge to respect all people who participate or contribute through reporting issues, posting feature requests, updating documentation, submitting pull requests or patches, attending conferences or events, or engaging in other community or project activities.

We are committed to making participation in the CNCF community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, caste, disability, ethnicity, level of experience, family status, gender, gender identity and expression, marital status, military or veteran status, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, tribe, or any other dimension of diversity.

Scope

This code of conduct applies:

within project and community spaces,
in other spaces when an individual CNCF community participant’s words or actions are directed at or are about a CNCF project, the CNCF community, or another CNCF community participant in the context of a CNCF activity.

CNCF Events

CNCF events that are produced by the Linux Foundation with professional events staff are governed by the Linux Foundation Events Code of Conduct available on the event page. This is designed to be used in conjunction with the CNCF Code of Conduct.

Our Standards

The CNCF Community is open, inclusive and respectful. Every member of our community has the right to have their identity respected.

Examples of behavior that contributes to a positive environment include but are not limited to:

Demonstrating empathy and kindness toward other people
Being respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences
Giving and gracefully accepting constructive feedback
Accepting responsibility and apologizing to those affected by our mistakes, and learning from the experience
Focusing on what is best not just for us as individuals, but for the overall community
Using welcoming and inclusive language

Examples of unacceptable behavior include but are not limited to:

The use of sexualized language or imagery
Trolling, insulting or derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks
Public or private harassment in any form
Publishing others’ private information, such as a physical or email address, without their explicit permission
Violence, threatening violence, or encouraging others to engage in violent behavior
Stalking or following someone without their consent
Unwelcome physical contact
Unwelcome sexual or romantic attention or advances
Using CNCF projects or community spaces for political campaigning or promotion of political causes that are unrelated to the advancement of cloud native technology. To clarify, this policy does not restrict individuals’ personal attire, including attire that expresses personal beliefs or aspects of identity.
Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting

The following behaviors are also prohibited:

Providing knowingly false or misleading information in connection with a Code of Conduct investigation or otherwise intentionally tampering with an investigation.
Retaliating against a person because they reported an incident or provided information about an incident as a witness.

Project maintainers have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct. By adopting this Code of Conduct, project maintainers commit themselves to fairly and consistently applying these principles to every aspect of managing a CNCF project. Project maintainers who do not follow or enforce the Code of Conduct may be temporarily or permanently removed from the project team.

Reporting

For incidents occurring in the Kubernetes community, contact the Kubernetes Code of Conduct Committee via conduct@kubernetes.io. You can expect a response within three business days.

For other projects, or for incidents that are project-agnostic or impact multiple CNCF projects, please contact the CNCF Code of Conduct Committee via conduct@cncf.io. Alternatively, you can contact any of the individual members of the CNCF Code of Conduct Committee to submit your report. For more detailed instructions on how to submit a report, including how to submit a report anonymously, please see our Incident Resolution Procedures. You can expect a response within three business days.

For incidents occurring at CNCF event that is produced by the Linux Foundation, please contact eventconduct@cncf.io.

Frequently asked questions

For more information about this Code of Conduct, please see the CNCF Code of Conduct Frequently Asked Questions.

Enforcement

Upon review and investigation of a reported incident, the CoC response team that has jurisdiction will determine what action is appropriate based on this Code of Conduct and its related documentation.

For information about which Code of Conduct incidents are handled by project leadership, which incidents are handled by the CNCF Code of Conduct Committee, and which incidents are handled by the Linux Foundation (including its events team), see our Jurisdiction Policy.

Amendments

Consistent with the CNCF Charter, any substantive changes to this Code of Conduct must be approved by the Technical Oversight Committee.

Acknowledgements

This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant (http://contributor-covenant.org), version 2.0 available at http://contributor-covenant.org/version/2/0/code_of_conduct/

Community: Code of Conduct Committee Incident Reporting and Response Process

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Incident reporting and response process

This document outlines the Code of Conduct Committee’s workflow when receiving and responding to an incident report. As each report is unique, the process is described at a high level.

When and Where does the Kubernetes Code of Conduct apply?

The Code of Conduct applies between all community members when interacting about Kubernetes. This primarily addresses official spaces, but if conduct-related issues are affecting our community in unofficial spaces in ways that are likely also affect interpersonal interactions in official spaces, we may be asked to become involved.

What are the boundaries of the Kubernetes community?

There are no hard boundaries of the community, but common places we are asked to extend guidance to are:

Official Kubernetes communication channels
Kubernetes events and meetups
Media and web presences
Social media
- In some cases, where individual social media messages are not related to Kubernetes but have been reported to the Code of Conduct Committee and are making project members feel unsafe or unwelcome, we might choose to act.

Incident Reports

What is an incident report?

An incident report is a description of an event, interaction, or public statement submitted to the Kubernetes Code of Conduct Committee, which the reporter feels violates the Kubernetes Code of Conduct.

Who can submit a report?

The Code of Conduct Committee accepts reports from everyone who interacts with the Kubernetes project community, contributor or otherwise. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Contributors and maintainers
Members of the Kubernetes Slack instance
Attendees and vendors at KubeCon/CloudNativeCon
CNCF Ambassadors
Vendors/companies/projects which use Kubernetes and need to interact with the community as a result

At times we encourage community members to email us if an incident is ongoing and we have not been contacted.

Where do private incident reports happen?

The Code of Conduct Committee’s primary means of contact is our email address, conduct@kubernetes.io.

We can also be reached via Slack direct messages to individual committee members (see member list) or otherwise, though we might direct you to contact us via email.

How is the privacy of a report protected?

All incident-related discussions happen in private spaces between current Code of Conduct Committee members, and all members agree when joining the Committee to maintain the confidentiality of incidents to the extent permitted by law.

Where incidents relate to unintentionally or non-consensually publicly-visible content or messages, we may, or may request others to, delete that content to help preserve the privacy of involved parties.

Why does this process exist?

The reporting process exists to provide the community with mechanisms to keep people safe, and to ensure that poor behavior, regardless of who the initator is, is not accepted.

The Code of Conduct Committee has unilateral power to address harms as needed and appropriate to restore community safety after any incident(s). We are separate from the Steering Committee and all other bodies in the Kubernetes community to provide a mechanism by which anyone can report, regardless of roles and organizational power dynamics which often lead to systemic underreporting.

Incident report workflow

Initial triage

The Code of Conduct Committee responds to all emails in a timely manner, usually within a few days.

When an email is received, it is reviewed for severity. Based on our training, the initial member(s) review the report and determine severity and urgency. When necessary, we may alert other members and call for an urgent meeting, but in most cases, we discuss asynchronously and develop a response plan.

We maintain a triage rotation schedule so that there are at least two people watching for incoming reports. This allows us to meet our SLA to the community.

Recusal

Before beginning investigation on an incident, members can recuse from (or refuse to pass judgement on) an incident if they feel a relationship with someone in the incident may hinder impartiality or create a perception of impropriety with respect to individuals involved in the reported incident. Some examples of reasons a Code of Conduct Committee member might recuse themselves are:

Direct reporting relationships, or company work relationships that would cause the investigation to appear inappropriate
Close working relationships in the Kubernetes community, for example co-leading a SIG with the reporter or someone else mentioned in the report

If all members of the Code of Conduct Committee felt the need to recuse themselves from an incident, the incident would be handled by our third party mediator.

To reduce the likelihood of recusals, our election process stipulates that we may never have a majority of the Committee from a single employer.

Building a plan

The Code of Conduct Committee will privately discuss the incident report, and may or may not decide that we need more information prior to determining whether to take any action.

We consider the following at this stage:

Do we need clarification from the reporter beyond the initial report?
Do we need clarification from other individuals who may have been involved in, or witnesses to, the incident?
Is there a public record of the incident which we can review, such as a chat log or video recording?
Are there any privacy or safety considerations that we must take into account? For example, if we reach out to an individual named in the report, could this jeapordize the safety of the reporter or other individuals?

Reaching out to involved parties

It is our intention to put as little emotional labor on those who have been harmed as possible, and to protect the safety (both physical and emotional) of all community members. We labor to be supportive and non-judgemental and to make the reporting process as safe and low anxiety as possible.

In all instances these clarifying discussions are confidential.

Clarifying discussions typically take the form of email, Slack DM, or Zoom meeting 1:1 between a member of the Code of Conduct Committee selected during our triaging of an incident report and the individual from whom clarification is sought. The Code of Conduct Committee member will explicitly identify themselves and indicate they are engaging in conversation as a representative of the Code of Conduct Committee. If the individual prefers we will endeavor to make the meeting/conversation not 1:1, but rather also include an observer/scribe agreed by both parties and still with all discussion being confidential.

Incident response workflow

Reconvening the Committee

When we have more information, the Code of Conduct Committee reconvenes, shares all information gathered, and moves on to incident response.

Depending on the complexity and severity of the incident, reaching a consensus may take some time. It may require follow up conversations with affected individuals, or other inquiries.

Deciding on a Course of Action

We do not act recklessly, and in deciding on a course of action, we work as a team to include diverse perspectives, support the immediate safety needs of our community members, and support the long-term health of this community.

When deciding how to address an incident, the Code of Conduct Committee follows a trauma-informed restorative justice framework. Our decisions on a course of action are informed by the following goals:

Continuously working towards a community that is a safe and professional space in which individuals from any background can do their best work, authentically and free from harassment
Preferring non-punitive punishments when possible
Prioritizing the safety of individuals to support the overall health of the community
Prioritizing education and coaching for those involved, when possible
Prioritizing the protection of contributing members of the Kubernetes project over external parties. This does not mean that we protect people with a higher number of commits or more seniority in the project, however.

In general, the committee strives for unanimous consensus before taking an action.

For example, we may choose to do nothing, to issue a private warning, to offer coaching, to recommend organizational changes, or to ban someone from a community platform.

Taking Actions and Communicating our Recommendations

When we have decided on a course of action, we do the following:

We clearly communicate our decision to those who need to hear it, without violating the confidentiality of those who requested it during an investigative process (if one was undertaken).
If and only if it is needed, we work with other leadership bodies (e.g., Steering Committee and the Linux Foundation)
- This may be necessary if the incident extends to other communities or event spaces, particularly if we feel there is elevated risk of harm to members of those communities
- In rare cases, we might find it necessary to issue a public statement, either jointly or separately