User talk:Peter Schmitt/EditedDraft

Mission

Citizendium is a collaborative effort to collect, structure, and update knowledge and to render it conveniently accessible to the public for free. It is created by volunteers — henceforth Citizens — who contribute under their real names and agree to a social covenant centered around trust.

Membership

• The Citizendium shall invite anyone who is interested to become a member and contribute.
• Membership shall require acceptance of this Charter and registration under one's real name.
• (moved)
• (moved)

Citizen participation

• All Citizens in good standing — as defined by the Management Committee — shall be entitled to vote.
• All Citizens shall have the right to contribute to the project's mission according to their abilities and interests.
• The Citizendium community shall recognize the special role that experts play in assuring that the site's content is reliable and meets high quality standards.
• Content shall be developed cooperatively. No individual credit shall be expected.
• All Citizens shall act responsibly and in a civil manner — derogatory or offensive commentary shall not be tolerated.
• A Citizen may have one's rights to vote or to contribute restricted or entirely removed by the Constabulary as a result of misconduct.
• Feedback by non-Citizens shall be welcome. An adequate means for feedback shall be provided.

Content and style

• Citizendium shall encourage constructive contributions on all topics of human knowledge.
• All entries at the Citizendium shall engage their subjects comprehensively, neutrally, and objectively to the greatest degree possible in a well-written narrative, complementing text with other suitable media.
• Citizendium material shall be intended for the general public and thus shall strive to maximize accessibility and avoid unnecessarily complicated presentation.
• Specialized material — including original research — shall be welcome if accompanied by background information and that relates it to non-specialist material.
• Selected (approved) material that meets high quality standards — both in content and presentation — shall be archived in such a way that it remains available permanently for use in citations.
• As far as possible, special requirements of visually or otherwise impaired users and for responsibly exercised automated access shall be taken into account.
• (deleted)
• Citizendium is not a place for advocacy, advertisement or sensationalism.

Editors

• Editors are Citizens with demonstrated expertise in some field of knowledge, through either education or experience. Official recognition of expertise shall be based on guidelines established by the Editorial Council.
• Within an editorial scope defined by the Editorial Council, Editors shall have the right to make decisions about the scope, quality, and structure of the content, make decisions about specific questions or disputes concerning that content, and recommend approval of high quality articles.
• (deleted)
• Editors may have their editorial rights removed only by the Editorial Council.

Organizational structure

General principles

• Citizendium is devoted to transparent and fair governance at a minimum of bureaucracy.
• All Citizens in good standing and with sufficient experience — as defined by the Management Committee — shall be entitled to hold an office. (deleted)
• The term of office shall be two years and be renewable.
• No Citizen may hold two such offices at the same time.
• Further special roles shall not be created without excellent reason.
• Any definition of a special role shall include provisions for replacement should the incumbent become temporarily or permanently unavailable.
• Each board or official may appoint delegates to perform specific tasks for a specific period of time, who will report to it.
• The responsibility for the actions of a delegate shall always remain with the appointing board or official.
• All decision processes shall take place in a way that allows every interested Citizen to follow the entire process.
  • In exceptional cases, part of the process can be restricted to a smaller audience.
  • These exceptions require public justification by a Constable or the Ombudsman and may be contested by any official.
• No guideline, rule or decision shall contravene this Charter.

Editorial Council and Management Committee

• There shall be two governing boards: An Editorial Council responsible for guiding content and establishing content policy and a Management Committee responsible for matters concerned with the non-content policies of Citizendium.

Common rules

The board shall

• have a quorum corresponding to the simple majority of its members.
• consider any issue brought in front of it by any of its members or by a number of Citizens that meets its quorum.
• develop guidelines on matters within its scope, and publish and monitor the appropriate enforcement of those guidelines.

The board may

• propose a change of its size by an even number of members — this proposal shall be subject to a referendum held together with the next election.

Members of the board shall

• be elected by secret ballot vote of active Citizens, with two-year renewable terms.
• remain active contributors to the project throughout their terms.

Specific rules

• In the Editorial Council, a number of seats corresponding to the quorum shall be reserved for Editors while the other seats are reserved for Authors who are not Editors.
• The Editorial Council shall consist of at least seven members, the Management Committee of at least five members.
• The Management Committee shall appoint Constables and confer with the constabulary on matters of Constable activity.
• The Ombudsman shall be jointly nominated by both boards and appointed by popular vote. (deleted)

Managing Editor

• A Managing Editor shall oversee the development of content and guarantee the site's consistency by supervising if rules and guidelines are observed, making suggestions to the boards and interim decisions if needed.

• In case the Managing Editor shall not be available in time any Editor may act as his replacement.

Director

• A Director shall be appointed, charged with the task to supervise the activities of the officials, initiate decision processes or keep them going, resolve deadlocks, and suggest the replacement of inactive officials.

Behavior and dispute resolution

Constabulary

• The Constabulary shall be charged with upholding Citizendium's rules of behavior as determined by community policy, covering all Citizens including those with official positions.
• The Constabulary's authority is restricted to matters of behavior and they shall not intervene in matters of content.
• The enforcement of these rules is to be carried out with reasonable pragmatism and leniency without prejudice as to Citizen status or position and only in those situations where the applicability of existing rules is clear, or when immediate action is essential.
• The tools available to the Constabulary shall be developed by the Management Committee in collaboration with the Constabulary.
• As an ultimate resort a user may be banned from the Citizendium.
• (deleted)

Ombudsman

• An Ombudsman shall be appointed, charged with the task of assisting in dispute resolution, as laid down in this Charter.
• The role of the Ombudsman shall be vested in a Citizen with substantial Citizendium experience and widely respected judgment. (deleted)

Dispute resolution

• Any party of a dispute on matters of the Citizendium may ask the Ombudsman for mediation.
• If called, the Ombudsman shall review the matter and try to settle the dispute.
• If this attempt fails, the Ombudsmann shall invoke the appropriate Board that shall rule the issue in cooperation with the Ombudsman and the parties in the dispute.
• The decision of the Board may be appealed if this appeal is supported either
  • by the Ombudsman, or
  • by two members of a Board, or
  • by three Citizens not previously involved in the dispute.
• The Appeals Board shall consist of seven(five?) Citizens who have not been involved in the dispute.
  • Three members each shall be nominated by the Editorial Council and by the Management Committee.
  • The Ombudsman shall nominate the non-voting but tie-breaking chair.
• All decisions of the Appeals Board are final.
• (moved)
• (moved)

Community decisions

• Elections and referenda shall be organized by the Managing Committee and carried out by the Constabulary.
• Sufficient time shall be provided for nominations and for discussions of the issues brought about during the nomination period.

Referenda and amendments

• Citizens may demand that contested rules or guidelines are submitted to a referendum.
• A referendum may be initiated by a group of Citizens corresponding in size to the sum of the quorums of the Editorial Council and the Management Committee.
• A referendum shall be decided by simple majority of the votes validly cast.
• Any amendment to and any change of this Charter shall require a referendum and shall be ratified if accepted by a qualified majority of two thirds of the votes validly cast.

Editorial Council and Managing Committee

• Each year, half the members of the Editorial Council and the Management Committee shall be elected.
• For newly elected members, the term of office shall begin on first of January for the Editorial Council, and on first of July for the Management Committee.
• Any Citizen may nominate one or more candidates for a board.
• A nominated Citizen whose nomination is supported by another Citizen becomes a candidate by accepting the nomination and thus declaring the intention to serve for the whole term.
• Any Citizen accepting a nomination shall retreat immediately from any involvement in the election's organization.
• The candidates collecting the most votes shall be elected.
• One to three runners-up may serve as reserve members.
• A board member who becomes inactive or unavailable, shall be replaced by a reserve member, if available; otherwise, an interim replacement shall be appointed by the board concerned.
• Any board may propose a change of its size by an even number of members; this proposal shall be subject to a referendum held together with the next election.

Removal from office

• An official who seriously neglects the office may be recalled by the Combined Board, with exception of an Ombudsman, whose recall shall require a qualified majority of two thirds in a referendum.

Administrative matters

External partners

• Citizendium invites collaboration with non-Citizen partners on any matters relevant to the project's mission.
• The Management Committee shall oversee these activities, collaborating with the Editorial Council on matters of content.

License

• All content and its history (including talk pages and user pages) at the Citizendium shall always be freely accessible.
• All content created at the Citizendium shall always be free to use, reuse and redistribute.
• For all content originating from external sources — in particular: pictures — use and reuse may be subject to individual restrictions.

• ? From the available options that license shall be chosen that best serves the purpose of the Citizendium.
• Any change of the license shall require a referendum.

Legal status

• The Citizendium shall be owned and controlled by the Citizendium Foundation, a non-profit organization.
• This foundation shall be responsible to provide the legal and financial framework necessary for running the project independently.
• ? Deviations from the rules of this Charter shall only be made when forced by law.

Time and date

• Unless otherwise specified, all announcements concerning times and dates shall be in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Languages

• The official language of Citizendium shall be English.
• Branches in other languages require approval by the Management Committee and have to accept the spirit and the fundamental principles of Citizendium as defined by an approved translation of this Charter.
• The branches shall establish a close collaboration with each other on all issues, both of content and administration.

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Final clause -- not part of the Charter

Ratification

• If the above Charter has been ratified by two thirds or more of the votes validly cast in a referendum for this purpose, it shall be certified by the Editor-in-Chief within a week after the closing of the referendum.
• (deleted)

Entry into force

• This Charter shall enter into force on the day following ratification.

Addendum: Interim guidance for the transition period

• As long as the administrative prerequisites for implementing the charter are not entirely fulfilled, the rules listed in this section shall provide interim guidance to the Editorial Council, Management Council, and other bodies.
• Such material may be modified by those bodies by their normal procedures, without a full Charter amendment.

Elections to the Editorial Council and Management Committee

• The first election shall take place as soon as possible after the Charter has been ratified.
• In order to avoid conflicts in case a Citizen is nominated for both boards, the EC shall only be elected after the MC has been determined.
• The initial size of the Editorial Council shall be 7 members, that of the Management Committee 5 members.
• A number of members corresponding to the quorum shall be selected, by lot or personal agreement, to serve shortened terms until the next regular election that is at least half a year after the initial election.

Voting rights

• For the purpose of ratification of this charter and elections to the Editorial Council and the Management Committee, all Citizens with an account that is not blocked shall be considered as being in good standing.

Review of previous policies

• The Editorial Council and the Management Committee shall review all existing policies and vote on each of them which falls under their realm, in view of complementing the general guidelines in this charter with an evolving set of specific policy guidelines.

Constabulary

• Constabulary tools include: advice and instruction on wiki or through Citizen email, removal of offensive text, and warning and banning of users.

Languages

• The Management Committee shall elaborate a strategy and policy on handling the establishment of branches in languages other than English.

Administration

• The Management Committee shall elaborate a strategy and policy on handling the legal, financial, and technical operations necessary for the project to fulfill its mission.

External partnerships

The Management Committee shall develop and implement at its earliest convenience a policy for

• interested external observers to provide feedback on Citizendium content in a manner convenient for them and the project.
• collaboration with external partners, paying particular attention to fostering the collaboration with instructors by way of Eduzendium, and with external experts or professional organizations for the purposes of providing or reviewing content at Citizendium.

Research and teaching

• The Editorial Council shall elaborate a strategy and policy on incorporation of teaching and research into Citizendium.
• Research results that have not been formally published should be clearly labeled as such. So should articles that have been part of student coursework.

Registration of new Editors

To streamline the CZ:Editor Application Review Procedure, applications for Editorship shall be processed in two consecutive steps:

• An applicant shall first be registered as an Author, so s/he can immediately start contributing.
• The application for Editorship shall be reviewed by the Editorial Personnel Administrators (to be appointed by the Editorial Council) who shall strive to make a decision within one week.

Pseudonyms

• Within a month after the entry into force of this charter, all existing pseudonym accounts shall be closed by the Constabulary, and the respective user pages protected.
• The Citizens concerned may reapply under their real name.