Overview
SONiC events and SONiC sessions at Linux Foundation–hosted events or third-party industry events are designed to be community-focused and vendor-neutral. To maintain the integrity of the project and deliver the most value to attendees:
- All SONiC presentations must remain vendor neutral. Presentations should focus on open and non-proprietary SONiC technology, use cases, best practices, and community collaboration.
- Do not include sales pitches. Presentations that could be construed as marketing or promotion for a company’s products, solutions, or services are not permitted and are poorly received by the community. Presentations abusing this policy may be revoked or edited at the SONiC Foundation’s discretion and will not be shared eternally from SONiC resources.
- Highlight contributions, not products. It is appropriate to showcase technical contributions your company has made to SONiC, but not to use the stage as a platform to promote proprietary offerings.
Rule of Thumb: SONiC event sessions are for advancing the collaborative efforts of the community and technology, not for product promotion.
Suggested Do’s and Don’ts
Do’s
- Emphasize community and collaboration. Refer to SONiC as an open, community-driven project.
- Example: “Company X contributes new features to SONiC, an open source Linux Foundation project.”
- Highlight your company’s contributions accurately. It is appropriate to mention your participation, engineering work, or solutions built on SONiC.
- Example: “Company X provides monitoring tools for SONiC deployments.”
- Use approved descriptive formats for products and services (e.g., “powered by SONiC”, “compatible with SONiC”).
Don’ts
- Don’t suggest ownership or control. Avoid possessive or misleading phrasing.
- ❌ “Company X’s SONiC”
- ❌ “SONiC by Company X”
- Don’t use language that could imply endorsement, certification, or sponsorship. SONiC does not certify, approve, or officially endorse third-party products or services (even from member organizations). Please avoid anything that may suggest otherwise.
- For example: Do not include superlatives or declarations that indicate products or solutions are “certified”, “sponsored” or “endorsed” by SONiC (or other similar language).
Violations of Vendor Neutrality Guidelines and Repercussions
Failure to adhere to the Vendor Neutrality Guidelines may result in the following actions:
- First offense: Written warning issued to the speaker(s) and company. The session in question will not be included in SONiC promotional materials or playlists.
- Second offense: All speaking proposals associated with the violating session will be ineligible for acceptance for a period of one (1) year.
- Third offense: No speaking proposals from the company will be accepted for a period of two (2) years.
SONiC/the Linux Foundation reserves the right to apply these repercussions at their discretion based on the severity and intent of the violation. By submitting a proposal to or participating in a SONiC event, speakers and companies acknowledge that they have read, understand, and agree to comply with the above Vendor Neutrality Guidelines and associated repercussions.
The Linux Foundation Code of Conduct
SONiC is a Linux Foundation project; The Linux Foundation and its project communities are dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for participants at all of our events, whether they are held in person or virtually. Linux Foundation events are working conferences intended for professional networking and collaboration within the open source community. They exist to encourage the open exchange of ideas and expression and require an environment that recognizes the inherent worth of every person and group. While at Linux Foundation events or related ancillary or social events, any participants, including members, speakers, attendees, volunteers, sponsors, exhibitors, booth staff and anyone else, must not engage in harassment in any form.
This Code of Conduct may be revised at any time by The Linux Foundation and the terms are non-negotiable. Your registration for or attendance at any SONiC/Linux Foundation event, whether it’s held in person or virtually, indicates your agreement to abide by this policy and its terms.
By participating in a SONiC event, you agree to The Linux Foundation’s Code of Conduct.
Presentation Template
To support consistent and professional communications, the official SONiC presentation template is available for anyone preparing SONiC-related presentations.
