IEEE_HumOS_Contributor_Agreement.txt

IEEE Humanitarian Open Source - Participant Guidelines

A key tenet of IEEE’s Humanitarian Technology is that the definitions of humanitarian challenges – and the definitions of solutions to those challenges – are open and public information.  In this context, parts of solutions can be viewed as system requirements, which any or all developers can choose to implement, in all or in part.   Methodologies included as components of solutions are likewise open and public information.

Participants understand that any contributions they make is open and viewable by all other Participants.  Confidentiality of contributions is generally not provided.  However, in special cases, Participants wanting to make a confidential contribution can contact the Sponsoring Parties to see if such an accommodation can be made.

Participants further agree that they will:
   * Make contributions in good faith and with accuracy, to the best of their ability, 
     and not knowingly provide false or misleading information.  
   * Offer ideas that are free of trade secrets and proprietary confidential information.
   * Not submit any ideas which are known to have intellectual property rights by others.  
   * Not have, and do not have, any intellectual property rights themselves to any ideas 
     or comments submitted.  However, developers that produce products from open requirements 
     can have intellectual property rights to details of implementation, as well as any 
     supplier-unique features not specified by open requirements.  Those development
     rights are not precluded by this agreement.

Participants are expected to interact in a variety of ways, including but not exclusively: conference and workshop participation, on-line web forums, email exchanges, phone calls.  Ideas offered during such interactions, comments on ideas offered by others, questions asked, and questions answered are all considered contributions to EEE’s Humanitarian Technology and are covered by these guidelines.

When providing personal registration information for an on-line collaboration tool, conference, workshop or other means of participation, the participants agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information.  Participants also agree to maintain and promptly update any information previously provided to keep it true, accurate, current and complete.  If any information provided is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, the Sponsoring Parties have the right to suspend or terminate participation, and to refuse any future participation.  The Sponsoring Parties agree to not sell, give away, or use for any other purpose, any personally identifiable information provided during registration.  

Any contribution may be traced back to its originating Participant, depending on the type of contribution and the communication medium used.  The Sponsoring Parties recognize that there may be special cases where an individual Participant would like to be anonymous.  Provisions may be made for some contributions to be made by Participants who have elected not to register.  Non-registrants may not have the same degree of access to contributions provided by others, due to their anonymity.  The Sponsoring Parties retain the right to disallow anonymous contributions at any point in the future. 

Participants understand that all contributions made are the sole responsibility of the person from which such contribution originated.  The Sponsoring Parties are not responsible for contributions which are offensive, indecent, objectionable, erroneous, or incomplete, and are not responsible for any loss or damage incurred as a result of anyone using any contributions made by Participants.  

Participants are entirely responsible for the content and language of their contributions and agree to not:
   * Upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any contribution that is unlawful, 
     harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, 
     invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable 
   * Impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a Sponsoring Party employee 
     or officer, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent their affiliation with a person or entity 
   * Forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any contribution 
   * Upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any contribution that they did not 
     have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships 
     (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as 
     part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements) 
   * Upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any contribution that infringes 
     any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party
   * Upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized 
     advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," 
     or any other form of solicitation 
   * Upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any material that contains software 
     viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit 
     the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment 
   * Intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law 
   * "Stalk" or otherwise harass another 
   * Collect or store personal data about other users