# About the Accountability & Transparency category

**URL:** <https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/about-the-accountability-transparency-category/30>\
**Category:** Accountability & Transparency\
**Created:** [November 14, 2018, 10:28pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/about-the-accountability-transparency-category/30 "2018-11-14T22:28:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jwf](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sustainoss.org/jwf/32/1093_2.png) [@jwf](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/u/jwf)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2018, 10:28pm UTC](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/about-the-accountability-transparency-category/30/1 "2018-11-14T22:28:15Z")

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Building common language for accounting and transparency in Free and Open Source projects.

## Why should people use this category? What is it for?

This category is home of the **Accountability & Transparency Working Group**. This category is used for discussions, focus topics, facilitation, and other virtual organizing related to accountability and transparency.

See these current Focus Topics:

> [@Principles of Authentic Participation: continuing the Sustain conversation](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/principles-of-authentic-participation-continuing-the-sustain-conversation/284):
>
> Hi folx! This thread is one place to continue the conversation from Sustain 2020 about Principles of Authentic Participation and creating a resource we can take back to our organizations to advocate for authentic contributions in open source communities. Purpose To define a core set of principles of what authentic participation means in multiple contexts (e.g. corporate, individual, humanitarian/NGO, etc.). These principles can be used as a starting place for future work, such as a best practi…

> [@Open Source Accountability Goals: Defining A Transparency Goal](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/open-source-accountability-goals-defining-a-transparency-goal/317):
>
> Continuing a pair of working sessions at Sustain 2020 in Brussels, this working group will define a goal that encapsulates the need for transparency when interacting with the open source community. Context There were two sessions at Sustain that worked to define what it looked like for a company to be a good member of the open source community [NOTES](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ubgdBZUciK_h5p_ZqY8BOdLiKp-_HBd_) The discussion led to the idea of defining a set of Open Source Accountability Goals. By defining a set of goals, companies could then set targets…

> [@Ethics Working Group](https://discourse.sustainoss.org/t/incubating-ethics/301):
>
> Is Open Source ethical? What are the ramifications of bad actors in open source, and how can we work together to move beyond ethical boulders on the path to sustainability? Bottom liner: Chris Chinchilla Issues & Pull Requests: [Add Ethics group #253](https://github.com/sustainers/website/pull/253)

## How exactly is this different than the other categories we already have?

This category focuses our efforts on defining accountability and exploring best practices for transparency.

## What should topics in this category generally contain?

If balancing corporate contributions with individual/community contributions keeps you awake at night, or you are otherwise interested in creating better incentives for Working Open, join us!