CZ:Charter drafting committee/Position statements/Shamira Gelbman

I am a relatively new Citizendium author (since February 2009) and editor for the Politics workgroup (since May 2009). I’m also currently overseeing a 35-article Eduzendium project that’s being carried out by the undergraduate students in my U.S. Political Parties and Interest Groups course. My experiences in these three roles within the Citizendium community, as well as my academic interests in the process of constitutional design and the ways in which societies cope with and seek to manage diversity, lend me a unique vantage point from which to participate in drafting Citizendium’s charter.

I’m especially interested in contributing to the charter’s definition of the role experts and expertise play in the Citizendium’s development. While there are a number of features that distinguish Citizendium from other wiki encyclopedia projects, it is the promise of expert guidance and oversight in the development of articles and article hierarchies that I see as the hallmark and essential selling point of the Citizendium project. To this end, I would advocate clear and reasonable role specification for editors, especially regarding their qualifications and performance expectations. More generally, I would favor clearly articulated provisions regarding Citizendium’s governing structure and the rights and responsibilities of the citizenry at large.

Finally, I hope to help establish charter statements and provisions that contribute to making Citizendium as inviting and accessible as possible to newcomers. These might include, but probably aren’t limited to, clarifications of Citizendium’s knowledge- and community-building objectives, improvements to the registration and welcome process, and presentation of Citizendium policies and site information.