Inclusivity Statement

This statement is intended to be flexible and iterative. As our practices evolve and improve, so will this statement. We will continue to listen and build on feedback from our community. Community members and event participants with feedback on this statement or actions are encouraged to reach out to the Executive Council at bcc_exec@bitcuratorconsortium.org.

From the outset, the BitCurator Consortium has been defined by knowledge sharing, exchange, and community support. As outlined in our 2018-2021 Strategic Directions document, one of our primary goals is to increase the “range of active voices heard within the community in order [for the BCC] to increase its strength, diversity and relevance to the ongoing development of the BitCurator environment and to the field of digital forensics in general.” This goal is impossible to achieve without the intentionally conscious engagement of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color), students and new professionals, and other practitioners from minoritized communities.

To that end, the BitCurator Consortium strives to cultivate an inclusive and welcoming community and is committed to provide harassment-free spaces during our User Forums, monthly community calls, and other public programming events and internal operational meetings. Below are examples of steps the BCC has, is, or plans to take toward intentional inclusion and inclusive programming to support and facilitate the well-being and participation from all our community members:

BCC Public Programming

  • Held a community call on anti-racism (June 26, 2020) to gather feedback from BCC members on actions that BCC leadership can take to improve inclusivity
  • Extended a practice established at BUF2019 by greeting BUF2020 attendees each day with a land acknowledgement and encouraging attendees to contribute their own land acknowledgement
  • Created a community Code of Conduct, which was proactively highlighted at the beginning of each BUF2020 session; this CoC includes reporting and enforcement procedures in order to destigmatize reporting and hold our community accountable to our values
  • Introduced The Great Question! sessions at BUF2019 and BUF2020, which were community-driven and based on the sentiment that we are all learners and strive to be part of a community that feels safe enough to ask any question
  • Used the progressive stack strategy during the 2020 Great Question! Session as a way to increase equity by prioritizing questions from self-identifying BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color)
  • Included two new closed Birds of a Feather sessions for BIPOC and/or Graduate Students and New Professionals at BUF2020, which provided dedicated spaces to learn more about the BCC and build community and solidarity
  • Ensured accessibility measures were in effect during the virtual BUF2020 by providing live closed-captioning to the majority of our sessions, as well as captions in recordings shared after the event
  • Provided a sliding scale for registration rates for BUF2020, starting with a no-cost ticket, to ensure BUF is accessible to students, new professionals, and practitioners experiencing economic hardship, with plans to provide this option in the future where financially possible
  • Prioritized new sponsor relationships with companies that specifically serve the cultural heritage preservation community over sponsors who primarily serve the law enforcement field
  • Hosted “practice // values : situating digital forensics tools in archives,” a roundtable dedicated to discussing ethical issues related to relying on forensic tools developed for the policing community
  • Broadened access to documentation and availability of tools (implemented revised Bitcurator Wiki) (Documentation & Training Committee)
  • Rearchitected, redesigned and migrated BCC website to WordPress, increasing site accessibility

BCC Administration and Committees

  • Ongoing meetings dedicated to strategic planning that prioritizes inclusivity and anti-racist practices as a means of building an iterative and sustained long-term plan for addressing these issues (Executive Council)
  • Continuing to refine our strategic planning and budgeting processes to allow for responsiveness to emerging community needs, and to ensure that inclusivity efforts led by BCC committees are well-supported logistically and financially (Executive Council)
  • Creating and maintaining this inclusivity statement as as a way to track our progress and hold ourselves accountable to iterative improvements over time (Executive Council)
  • Providing facilitation training to BCC Committee members to ensure the safety and inclusion of all participants and attendees (Community Facilitator)
  • Created an intentional recruitment philosophy for prospective BCC member institutions, highlighting BCC commitment to community-building and support (Membership Committee)
  • Opened up BCC committee opportunities to students and non-BCC members (Membership Committee)
  • Partnering with the BitCuratorEdu project, a three-year effort to study and advance the adoption of digital forensics tools and methods in libraries and archives through professional education efforts, which aims to democratize access to digital archiving tools as a means of providing more accessible pathways for entering the digital archives field. Planned outputs that promote inclusivity in digital forensics education include:
    • Documentation on how assistive technologies interact with the BitCurator Environment
    • At least one learning module addressing the ethical implications of digital forensics tools and methods
    • Discussion questions and other materials to supplement BitCurator screencasts, for educators and students that do not have access to the requisite technology to run BitCurator
    • Remote internship guidance that promotes active mentorship as a key factor in retention in the digital curation field

Additionally, we are integrating into our work the community facilitation tools that Educopia has developed, including:

Future Efforts

In addition to the practices listed above, BCC leadership plans to build on existing inclusivity efforts in (but not limited to) the following ways:

  • Embed inclusivity efforts within future action plans and BCC programming
  • Review attendee survey feedback and programmatically implement inclusive practices from BUF2020 into regular BCC events
  • Make a commitment to keeping BUF affordable for all, possibly extending the sliding scale model to on-site meetings
  • Critically reexamine software, hardware, and terminology commonly used in the digital forensic law enforcement community which have been adopted by the cultural heritage and preservation communities
  • Reevaluate the BCC’s sponsor relationship with those whose primary customer base is law enforcement and its disproportionate criminalization of BIPOC and other minoritized communities
  • Continue to strengthen cultural heritage-specific sponsor relationships
  • Prioritize BCC initiatives related to introductory digital preservation education
  • Perform an accessibility audit on the recently migrated BCC website