OI has been inactive for the last few months due in part both to OI’s founder Jen Kotila’s worsening PTSD (a result of the brutal harassment, mobbing and character assassination she’s faced from those inside of Labitat and Biologigaragen (it is normal for those who have suffered harassment/bullying and whistleblowers to develop PTSD)) and also due to her fighting hard starting after landing back in Copenhagen in October to get a fair outcome in Labitat regarding the situation.

Labitat did finally issue a decision in November, which was to expel all of the involved parties– both Jen and the perpetrators Mathe Borch, Søren Borch and Emil Polny.

This is, of course, an unfair decision, but it IS better than what typically happens to harassment targets and whistleblowers. Normally ONLY the complainant/survivor/whistleblower is punished, not the perpetrators. (See here, here and here for more info.) We at OI want to acknowledge that there were some good, ethical people at Labitat who fought tooth and nail for justice but who were defeated by its wretchedly dysfunctional organizational structure and culture and the opposing side’s superior power and politicking skills.

Now that that’s done with and 2014 comes to a close, we at OI look forward to following up on the promising work that was done on the trip to the States in the fall in 2015. We want to prevent this kind of thing from every happening in hacking, citizen science or open knowledge again. This movement has the potential to be much better than the dominant paradigm and we’re committed to helping keep the organizations we intersect with healthy, thriving and, of course, inclusive.