Policies

tinyML Foundation Policies

This page summarizes current tinyML Foundation policies:

For any questions about a specific policy, please contact us at info@tinyML.org

Last revised: March 6, 2021

Diversity & Inclusion Statement

We believe diversity drives innovation. The tinyML Foundation’s commitment to inclusion across race, gender, age, religion, identity, and experience is our driving force. It fuels innovation and creates an environment where everyone, from any background, can participate.

tinyML Foundation Code of Conduct

In the interest of fostering an open and welcoming environment, we as contributors and maintainers
pledge to make participation in our project and our community a harassment-free experience for
everyone, regardless of age, body size, disability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, level of
experience, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.

Our Standards

Examples of behavior that contributes to creating a positive environment include:

  • Using welcoming and inclusive language.
  • Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences.
  • Gracefully accepting constructive criticism.
  • Focusing on what is best for the community.
  • Showing empathy towards other community members.

Examples of unacceptable behavior by participants include:

  • The use of sexualized language or imagery and unwelcome sexual attention or advances.
  • Trolling, insulting/derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks.
  • Public or private harassment.
  • Publishing others’ private information, such as a physical or electronic address, without explicit permission.
  • Conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate for the forum in which it occurs.

All tinyML Foundation forums and spaces – physical and virtual – are meant for professional interactions, and any behavior which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting is unacceptable.

Our Responsibilities

Project maintainers and moderators are responsible for clarifying the standards of acceptable behavior and are expected to take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any instances of unacceptable behavior.

Project maintainers and moderators 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, or to ban temporarily or permanently any contributor for other behaviors that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.

Scope

This Code of Conduct applies to all content on www.tinyML.org or any other official tinyML Foundation web presence allowing for community interactions, as well as at all official tinyML Foundation events, whether offline or online.

The Code of Conduct also applies within project spaces and in public spaces whenever an individual is representing tinyML Foundation or its community. Examples of representing a project or community include using an official project email address, posting via an official social media account, or acting as an appointed or de facto representative at an online or offline event.

Conflict Resolution

Conflicts in an open source or other user contributed project can take many forms, from someone having a bad day and using harsh and hurtful language in the issue queue, to more serious instances such as sexist/racist statements or threats of violence, and everything in between.

If the behavior is threatening or harassing, or for other reasons requires immediate escalation, please see below.

However, for the vast majority of issues, we aim to empower individuals to first resolve conflicts themselves, asking for help when needed, and only after that fails to escalate further. This approach gives people more control over the outcome of their dispute.

If you are experiencing or witnessing conflict, we ask you to use the following escalation strategy to
address the conflict:

  1. Address the perceived conflict directly with those involved, preferably in a real-time medium.
  2. If this fails, get a third party (e.g. a mutual friend, and/or someone with background on the issue, but not involved in the conflict) to intercede.
  3. If you are still unable to resolve the conflict, and you believe it rises to harassment or another code of conduct violation, report it.

Reporting Violations

Violations of the Code of Conduct can be reported to tinyML Foundation’s Project Stewards via email to info@tinyML.org. The appropriate Project Steward will determine whether the Code of Conduct was violated, and will issue an appropriate sanction, possibly including a written warning or expulsion from the project, project sponsored spaces, or project forums. We ask that you make a good-faith effort to resolve your conflict via the conflict resolution policy before submitting a report.

Violations of the Code of Conduct can occur in any setting, even those unrelated to the project. We will only consider complaints about conduct that has occurred within one year of the report.

Enforcement

If the Project Stewards receive a report alleging a violation of the Code of Conduct, the Project Stewards will notify the accused of the report, and provide them an opportunity to discuss the report before a sanction is issued. The Project Stewards will do their utmost to keep the reporter anonymous. If the act is ongoing (such as someone engaging in harassment), or involves a threat to anyone’s safety (e.g. threats of violence), the Project Stewards may issue sanctions without notice.

Attribution

This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 1.4, available at
https://contributor-covenant.org/version/1/4, and includes some aspects of the Geek Feminism Code of
Conduct and the Drupal Code of Conduct.

Sponsorship Acknowledgement Policy

tinyML Foundation is a US 501(c)3 non-profit and we need to abide by the US Internal Revenue Service rules in regards to sponsorships. The tax code permits sponsorship acknowledgements but not advertising without significant tax impacts to the organization. The relevant IRS criteria for what is considered advertising is below. So, if you have ever wondered why the sponsor information on public TV or radio are different than a typical ad it is because of the tax code.

Any links on our website(s) to an external website or embeds of external content  – be it a sponsor’s site or third party site (such as YouTube, etc.) – are provided as a courtesy to sponsors who are solely responsible for the content as it is under their control and may change. It is tinyML Foundation’s expressed intent that this external content be sponsorship acknowledgement and not advertising.

From https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/advertising-or-qualified-sponsorship-payments

(Last retrieved January 1, 2021 – any updates to IRS policy or US tax code supersedes this information.)

Advertising

Advertising is defined in Treas. Reg. 1.513-4(c)(2)(v) as any message or other programming material which is broadcast or otherwise transmitted, published, displayed or distributed and which promotes or markets any trade or business or any service, facility or product. Advertising includes messages containing qualitative or comparative language, price information or other indications of savings or value associated with a product or service, an endorsement or an inducement to purchase, sell or use the sponsor’s company, service, facility or product.

Distribution of a sponsor’s product by the sponsor or the exempt organization to the general public at the sponsored event, whether for free or for remuneration is not considered an inducement to buy, sell or use.

Advertising does not include acknowledgements.
Acknowledgements are the mere recognition of sponsorship payments and may include sponsor logos and slogans (that do not contain comparative or qualitative descriptions), sponsor locations and telephone numbers, value-neutral descriptions (including displays or visual depictions) of a sponsor’s product-line or services and sponsor brand or trade names, and product service listing. The effect of an acknowledgement is identification of the sponsor rather than the promotion of the sponsor’s products, services or facilities. Logos or slogans alone are considered acknowledgements as they do not contain comparative or qualitative descriptions.

A message that contains comparative or qualitative descriptions does not meet the definition of a qualified sponsorship and is advertising. A single message that contains both advertising and acknowledgement is advertising.

Sponsorship Refunds

Sponsorships are used to defray the cost of producing tinyML Foundation events and activities. This enables reasonable registration prices and/or free participation permitting a larger audience which is essential to grow the global ecosystem.

As there are substantial costs incurred leading up to each event, sponsorships are non-refundable once committed by the sponsor. If an event is cancelled or postponed by tinyML Foundation, we will either fully refund the sponsorship or apply them to a future event as desired by the sponsor.

However, there may be “Force Majeure” situations such as but not limited to acts of God (flood, earthquake, tornado, fire, disease, epidemic, etc.), war, strikes, civil disorder, terrorism, government restrictions, supply shortages, and transportation disruptions that make it inadvisable, impracticable, illegal, or impossible to hold the event as scheduled. Since these situations are beyond the control of the sponsors, tinyML Foundation, and our suppliers we will do our best to adapt to the situation while continuing to acknowledge the support of the sponsors. In the case the event needs to be postponed or cancelled due to Force Majeure, sponsorships will be transferred in full to the postponed or next edition of the event. Otherwise, the sponsor may request a refund according to this schedule: full refund up to the 90 days before the event, 66% refund up to 45 days before the event, and 33% refund less than 45 days to the planned event. This schedule reflects only a portion of the costs typically incurred pre-event.