Code of conduct

Interactions during a CarbonFreeConf virtual conference

CarbonFreeconf conferences encourage interaction via chat and video to exchange freely about ideas or new results. These discussions, be it with a peer, an attendee, the support team, administrative staff (or any other person on the platform) should be orchestrated with respect, tact and mindfulness.

Each person connecting to the video conferencing platform (presenters, organizers, technical staff, ...) should use appropriate and respectful language during the interactions, be it by video, chat, or audio. It is requested to discuss the results of your peers without engaging in personal attacks. Violation of this principle will not be tolerated. As conferences are often international, we ask you to be respectful of cultural differences that may emerge during exchanges. Participants should remain professional and treat each other with mutual respect when interacting on the platform or in any written or oral forms produced and accessible on CarbonFreeConf.

Discriminatory behavior of any kind will not be tolerated (e.g. on origin, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, ...).

If you detect such behavior (discrimination, disrespect, inappropriate language, personal attacks, ...) towards others or yourself, you should contact the conference organizers as soon as possible. Take care to enrich your complaint with evidence such as screenshots for example. The organizers will decide what action to take and depending on the offence, this may lead to the blocking of access to the conference.

Timing of the conference

The time constraints during virtual conferences are much more burdensome than for face-to-face conferences. The virtual platform is scheduled for a certain duration that cannot be changed once the conference has started. For this reason, and out of respect for other participants and organizers, we ask you to respect your allocated time limit. If you go beyond your talk time, there will be less time for the question part. If you go beyond the total time including the questions, the moderators will have the right to disconnect you and move on to the next presentation.

Make sure you are present when your talk starts and that you have tested in advance how to load your presentation on the platform (the organizers have slots before each session for this kind of tests). If you cannot attend, please inform the organizers as soon as possible. If necessary, you can pre-record your presentation on the conference website. This will make your presentation accessible to the chairs who will be able to show it to your peers during your time slot. If it is too late to record your talk on the platform (because the conference has started), you can register yourself and send the video to the organizers who can easily upload it on the platform.

Respect privacy

All conferences take place in a closed environment, which means that you have to register beforehand to be able to participate in the virtual conference, access the posters or the chat. Login information is confidential and should not be shared with others. You must use your real name on the platform and not impersonate someone else's name. Remember to log out of the platform when you are in a non-private area and someone could take control of your session.

Publishing content from the conference

It is easy to make screenshots or even record all or part of the conference from your computer. However, if you wish to use this content to put it online (e.g. social media, websites, applications), you should ask the presenter and the organizers for their approval.

It is possible to post some information or slides from a talk on social media (e.g. Facebook, twitter, ...) if it is for academic purposes unless it is explicitly forbidden by the speaker at the beginning of his presentation. As a speaker, mention it orally or in writing on your first slide if it bothers you that your results and/or slides are shared online outside of CarbonFreeConf.

Good practice for every participant

It's a good use for presenters and chairs to turn on their cameras and try to make sure there's enough light to see the people speaking. This seems more natural and allows non-native speakers of the spoken language to follow better as well as for people who are hard of hearing.

People with questions can ask them on the conference room chat (Q&A) before the end of the presentation. At the end of the presentation, either the chair or each person with a question relays it orally. It is a good idea to activate your camera when you ask a question. In all other cases, please deactivate your microphone and camera. When it is not your turn to speak, please do not interrupt the presenter and do not touch his slides or change any parameter in the virtual room.

If you want to hide your background, there is the possibility to put a red, blue or green background behind you and to load an image-like-background that will be automatically set up if it detects a uniformly colored background behind you.

Try to be in a quiet place during the presentation and close enough to your microphone (e.g., don't walk away from the microphone during your presentation). To make sure that people with visual impairments can follow your talk, please convey all the important elements orally and not just on the slides.

Make your slides legible, preferably with a uniform background and fairly large text with colours that can be seen by colour-blind people.

Good practice for Chairs

We will list several recommendations to enable successful sessions with a climate that participates in the creation and sharing of ideas.

Before each session the chair should remind some rules of decorum, such as respect for other participants in all circumstances. If the conference is recorded, the chair should remind the participants. It should also make participants understand that the agreement of the organizers and presenters is required to publish a recording or complete slides online outside of CarbonFreeConf. There is the possibility of sharing new results on social networks (e.g. one finding, a few slides) if the author has not expressed any opposition at the beginning of his presentation (written or orally).

The chairs must ensure that the sessions end on time because the following sessions are already pre-programmed and the conference will have to be cut at a pre-determined time. As a courtesy for the last sessions, and for the speakers, it is therefore necessary to be able to finish on time. If a presenter is too long, his or her question time will have to be shortened, and if he or she goes beyond the overall time allotted, they will have to be cut off and move on to the next presentation.

Questions should be asked through the Q&A on the chat. The chairs (and moderators) can then choose which questions are posted to the participants. Questions that are personal, aggressive or disrespectful should not be posted by chairs. Then chairs should choose who asks the questions and in what order. A chair should question themselves about their unconscious biases and try not to choose questions from the same people all the time. If the chair asks all the questions, they must remember to mention the name of the questioner.

If someone intervenes (orally or on the chat) disrespectfully or inappropriately, the chair must warn that this behavior cannot be tolerated here. If after a first warning the participant repeats this behavior, the chair may eject the person from the virtual room.