Governance/Foundation/Inclusive Language

Open Infrastructure Foundation Board of Directors Statement of Support for Use of Inclusive Language
[Approved by the Open Infrastructure Foundation Board of Directors November 2020]

The Open Infrastructure Foundation (OIF) Board of Directors supports removal of wording identified as oppressive, racist and sexist by members of our communities from the software and documentation they produce. While we know there will be challenges, both technical and non-technical, this is an action we feel is important.

These efforts are the responsibility of the various technical leadership groups within our communities, and we trust them to make appropriate decisions about applicability, timelines, minimizing impact to users and operators, and choosing the changes that make the most sense for their projects.

Contributors will take care to make changes to software in the least disruptive way possible. While standardized wording is a laudable goal, we recognize that different implementation contexts might require different solutions. In many cases the work is also complicated by external dependencies for these projects, and their capacity to make necessary changes before we can implement ours.

We shall continue to be vigilant for other language areas that cause challenges and work with the community to evolve this policy.

List of recommended inclusive terminology