CZ:Charter

This page is dedicated to drafting a charter for Citizendium and should only be edited by those eight Citizens elected to the drafting Committee. The talk page is also reserved for them to discuss the evolution of the document. Other Citizens, please comment on the dedicated thread at the Citizen Forum. Non-Citizens can comment in a separate thread at the non-Member Forum.

This is the final version of the document drafted by the Charter drafting Committee. It shall be subject to a public vote.

This draft document shall serve as the basis for public discussion. It represents a compromise amongst the drafters, who may have different individual opinions on some aspects of this Charter.

Mission

The 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

1. Citizendium membership is open to anyone.

1. All members register and contribute to the project under their real names.

1. The Citizendium community recognizes the special role that subject matter experts play in assuring that the site’s contents meet these standards.

1. Contributors must act responsibly and in a civil manner — derogatory or offensive commentary is not tolerated.

Citizen participation

• Citizens have the right to vote in community-wide elections.
• Citizens are given the right to contribute to or modify content of any article draft at any time.
• Citizens may have their rights to vote or to contribute restricted or entirely removed by the Constabulary as a result of misconduct.

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 have the right to:

1. make decisions about the scope and quality of the content in articles;
2. make decisions about specific questions or disputes concerning that content;
3. recommend approval of high quality articles that meet their expectations for the article's subject.

• Editors may abdicate their editorial rights at any time.
• Editors may have their editorial rights removed only by the Editorial Council.

Style

• All entries at Citizendium should engage their subjects comprehensively, neutrally, and objectively to the greatest degree possible.

Comprehensiveness entails providing full explanations of all facets of a subject that experts judge significant. Furthermore, each topic should be represented as a complex whole rather than a simple conglomeration of its parts. A good Citizendium entry will illustrate how different aspects of its topic fit together and highlight applications and connections to other topics. It will also be neutral, which means it will not align with any one position if there is controversy amongst experts concerning some aspect of its topic. Instead, it will remain objective, describing each relevant position without skewing the presentation toward the personal beliefs or positions of the author(s). In short, entries should present the big picture, including all relevant perspectives, and should be carefully crafted and bias-free. Citizendium is not a place for advocacy or for advertisement.

• Unnecessarily complicated presentation should be avoided.

Citizendium material is intended for the general public and should be constructed so as to maximize accessibility. The basic content provided at the Citizendium is intended for an audience with completed secondary education. More specialized material — including original research — is welcome but it should be presented without unnecessary jargon and should be contextualized through prominent links to entries that explain background information and related non-specialist material.

• As far as possible, special needs of visually or otherwise impaired users and of responsibly exercised automated access will be taken into account.

Citizendium encourages contributions on all topics, albeit with sensitivity towards appropriateness and avoiding sensationalism. Exceptionally, Editors and Constables have the authority to intervene at their discretion if article content appears to be inconsistent with criminal or civil law or if content is discriminatory or slanderous against persons or groups of persons on the basis of religion, religious belief, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender. Such decisions are subject to Citizendium's appeal process.

Organizational structure

The Citizendium is devoted to transparent and fair governance at a minimum of bureaucracy. Special roles will not be created without excellent reason.

Editorial Council

1. An Editorial Council will be responsible for guiding content and establishing content policy.
2. The Editorial Council shall initially consist of seven active Citizens.
3. The number of seats on the Editorial Council shall be augmented by two for each completed doubling of the number of Approved Articles with respect to the day of ratification of this Charter, up to a maximum of 25.
4. Half of the number of seats (rounded up) on the Editorial Council shall be reserved for Editors.
5. For voting purposes, a quorum shall consist of (50 minus the number of members) percent of its members, rounded up.
6. The Editorial Council may appoint Task Managers whose activities it will oversee.
7. Members of the Editorial Council may not simultaneously serve on the Management Committee or be Constables.
8. Members of the Editorial Council will be elected by secret ballot vote of eligible Citizens, with two-year renewable terms.
9. The Editorial Council is responsible for developing content guidelines and will publish and monitor the appropriate enforcement of those guidelines.

Management Committee

1. A Management Committee shall be responsible for matters concerned with the non-content policies of Citizendium.
2. The Management Committee shall consist of five active Citizens initially, who may not simultaneously serve on the Editorial Council.
3. The number of seats on the Management Committee shall be augmented by two for each completed doubling of the number of Approved Articles with respect to the day of ratification of this Charter, up to a maximum of 15.
4. For voting purposes, a quorum shall consist of (50 minus the number of members) percent of its members, rounded up.
5. The members of the Management Committee shall be elected by secret ballot vote of active Citizens, with two-year renewable terms.
6. The Management Committee may appoint Administrators and Task Managers whose activities it will oversee.
7. The Management Committee will appoint Constables and confer with the constabulary on matters of Constable activity.
8. The Management Committee is responsible for developing behavior guidelines and will publish and monitor the appropriate enforcement of those guidelines.

Behavior and dispute resolution

Constabulary

The Constabulary shall be charged with upholding the Citizendium's rules of behavior as determined by community policy, covering all Citizens including those with official positions (such as Ombudsman, Editor-in-Chief, or editors). The Constabulary's authority is restricted to matters of behavior and they shall not intervene in matters of content. Constabulary tools include: advice and instruction on wiki or through Citizen email, removal of offensive text, and warning and banning of users according to the guidelines established by the Management Committee. 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. The Constabulary may develop additional tools and will publish and monitor the appropriate use of said tools. Decisions of constables may be appealed through the appropriate adjudication process as determined by the Management Committee.

Ombudsman

An Ombudsman shall be appointed, charged with the task of assisting in dispute resolution, as laid down in this Charter. The role of Ombudsman shall be vested in a Citizen with substantial Citizendium experience and widely respected judgment, who may appoint up to two other Citizens (Assistant Ombudsmen) to support his/her work; their appointment and termination of duties is at the personal discretion of the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman will be elected by simple majority vote of each of the Editorial Council and Management Council, for a term of 2 years, renewable. An Ombudsman may be recalled by a super-majority (75%) of each of the Editorial Council and Management Committee.

Dispute resolution

Disputes will be settled at the lowest possible level, such as by bringing in peer Editors or Constables. If satisfactory resolution is not obtained, the Ombudsman may be contacted for non-binding mediation. Should that fail, the matter will be appealed to the appropriate body — the Editorial Council for content matters and the Management Committee for behavioral or administrative matters. As a last resort, both Councils may appoint members to an ad hoc arbitration panel, for final arbitration as defined below.

In the event of a dispute that cannot be resolved at a level below that of the Editorial Council or the Management Committee, appeals boards may be constituted on an ad hoc basis. The ad hoc appeals board will consist of three members nominated by the Editorial Council and three members nominated by the Management Committee, who shall not have been involved in the specific dispute. An Ombudsman will preside; that official shall direct the Board and will be non-voting other than to possess a tie-breaking vote. Should no Ombudsman be available who is not a party to the matter, the Councils shall appoint a special presider from the Citizenry.

All decisions of the ad hoc appeals board are final. Further, either the Management Committee or the Editorial Council may decline to participate in an ad hoc appeal, in which case the decision of the last appeal will be final.

Elections

1. All Citizens in good standing shall be eligible to vote in any Citizendium election, including ad hoc elections for ratification of and amendments to this charter.
2. Elections to the MC and EC shall be conducted annually. One half of seats of each board shall be open for election as arranged by each body below.
3. The Chief Constable shall chair the CZ elections committee and appoint such assistants as necessary. No member of the Elections Committee should be eligible for election. If members of the election committee accept nomination, it is expected that they withdraw from the elections committee. The Elections Committee shall determine the size of each body as per this charter's rules for each body's organizational structure and accept nominations for any open seat.
4. Timetable: All commencements shall be at 12:00am GMT on the date specified; all deadlines shall end at 11:59pm GMT on the date specified.
5. The Election Committee shall call for nominations beginning January 1 of each year. Nominations shall be open for a period of one week (until the end of January 7). Any citizen may nominate any other citizen for office. Citizens may also self-nominate. Nominations should be sent to the Election Committee. An officer of the Elections Committee shall notify each nominated citizen, and request an acceptance of nomination.
6. Following the close of nominations the Election Committee shall construct the ballot on the Citizendium which will allow for position statements by the candidates. Citizens who have not accepted their nomination shall not appear on the ballot. The ballot shall be prepared by January 14.
7. Voting shall open January 21. Each citizen will be allowed to vote only once. Ballots shall be returned to the Elections Committee. Late ballots shall not be counted. The Elections Committee shall accept ballots from citizens for no more than ten days (until the end of January 31).
8. The Elections Committee shall announce the results of the election on or before February 7 each calendar year. The new elected members of CZ's governing bodies shall assume office on February 14.

External partners

The 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

Content originating at the Citizendium will always be free to use, reuse, and redistribute. Content that originated elsewhere may also be incorporated into the Citizendium if such reuse is permitted by the copyright owners or copyright status.

Legal status

The Citizendium will be owned and controlled by the Citizendium Foundation, a non-profit organization.

Languages

The official language of the Citizendium shall be English. Branches in other languages require approval by the Management Committee and shall have the same legal status as the English language Citizendium (see Legal status above). Non-English Citizendiums shall construct their governance in accordance with this charter or a translation approved by the Management Committee.

Branch language Editorial Councils, including the English language Citizendium Editorial Council, shall be empowered to develop policy regarding non-native language content on their native language Citizendiums.

Consistent with the Citizendium's respect for expertise, the Editorial Council of any branch language version may request the Editorial Councils of other language versions to revise, add, or remove content in the former branch's native language.

All user pages shall be in the native language for that version of Citizendium.

No branch or non-English version of Citizendium shall be permitted at later times to adopt policy that contravenes this charter

Final clause

Ratification

If this 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. For future amendments, a certifying official or officials shall be agreed upon by the joint Management Committee and Editorial Council.

Entry into force

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

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.

Editorial Council and Management Committee

For both bodies, the intention is to elect half of the members each year, so of the first group, a number corresponding to the quorum will be selected, by lot or personal agreement, to serve one-year terms.

The Editorial Council shall vote on each of the resolutions of the previous Editorial Council whether they should continue to be in force or not.

External partnerships

The Management Committee shall elaborate a strategy and policy on 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 the Citizendium.

Research and teaching

The Editorial Council shall elaborate a strategy and policy on incorporation of teaching and research into the 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 steps. First, an applicant will be registered as an Author, so s/he can immediately start editing. Secondly, the application for Editorship will be reviewed by the Editorial Personnel Administrators (to be appointed by the Editorial Council) who will strive to make a decision within one week. CZ:Editorial Council Resolution 0012 shall be extended such that these new Editors will be categorized as New Editors during the first three months after registration or until their first contribution to the project.

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.

Future amendments

This Charter shall be open to amendment at any time subsequent to its ratification. The Management Council is hereby vested with the power to act upon proposals for amendment originating from any Citizen or Citizendium institution. The process of Amendment requires the Management Council initially to consult with Citizens (including via the Forum) and subsequently to draft an appropriate amended text. The decision to accept the amended text will be taken by popular vote of the Citizenry, and requires a two-thirds majority of votes validly cast.

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The following sections are auxiliary to the drafting process and will be deleted from the final draft.

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Storage

General points

• Citizendium is a multimedial collaborative project, open to constructive contributions by any Citizen to any of its content at any time.

We trust members of the Citizendium community to act in good faith and we encourage them to be bold in contributing to the project but we also require professional behavior. This entails acceptance of guidance from experts and from the wider Citizendium community as well as the obligation to remain civil and constructive even in cases of dispute.

• The collaborative environment in which we develop our articles is an important part of the Citizendium community.

Just like other user-generated websites, we rely on the contributions of many different people spread out around the world, working at different times and in different ways. Some of these contributions are very small while others are quite extensive. Some reflect many years of professional experience while others are made by people who are just beginning to learn about a topic. All are important for the project. Cooperation and sensitivity to others are therefore very important and disruptive behavior is not tolerated.

• Citizendium encourages all members to submit constructive criticism on all of its material.

Where appropriate, we encourage members to simply fix any mistakes they find as they browse the site but we insist that potentially controversial changes (such as the deletion of a large block of text or the reorientation of text describing a contentious topic) be discussed ahead of time with any other contributors who are also at work on the article and, if possible, with an appropriate editor. If a dispute arises, we defer to expertise.

• Experts guide the development of Citizendium entries in a transparent manner.

Authors are encouraged to seek out the guidance of subject matter experts and experts are encouraged to offer advice whenever they are comfortable doing so. Experts and non-experts should work together as partners in the development of balanced articles; overbearing behavior by either party is unconstructive and unacceptable.

• Integration of the Citizendium with teaching and research is encouraged as long as it adheres to the principles of this charter.

• Blocks may be appealed through the Dispute Resolution procedure.

Content

Editorial Council

An Editorial Council will be responsible for guiding content and establishing policy. It shall consist of nine active Citizens, with five seats reserved for Editors. The remaining four seats are reserved for Authors that are not Editors. A quorum shall consist of five members.

Members of the Editorial Council may not simultaneously serve on the Management Committee or be Constables. They may, however, be Task Managers. The members of the Editorial Council will be elected by vote of active Citizens, with two-year terms renewable once consecutively. The Editorial Council will appoint one of its members as the Editorial Lead, who will represent the Citizendium externally on matters of content.

During deliberations on a matter covered by specific workgroups, the Chief Editor of that Workgroup, or another member, may be part of a quorum if that individual is not a Council member. If, however, the matter under discussion involves a dispute with such an Editor, that Editor may state positions to the Council but not vote on them unless already a member.

Workgroups

The Editorial Council may create and reorganize workgroups to arrange areas of content, and to encourage collaboration among Authors and Editors in areas of expertise. Workgroup members will build top-level articles and knowledge structures for the articles in a discipline.

The Editorial Council shall elaborate a strategy and policy on topic-specific collaboration, chiefly based on CZ:Workgroups and some accepted ontology or other knowledge categorization scheme. In addition to subject specific Workgroups, there shall be a General Workgroup with jurisdiction over general issues of style and content, and for articles of very wide scope. There may be, in addition, interdisciplinary or specialized Subgroups. In addition, there may be Area Groups, as for (e.g., Science or Science & Technology) to deal with broad issues affecting many but not all workgroups (e.g., units of measurement).

When there are disputes on content issues, assuming there are multiple Editors in a workgroup, they will attempt to resolve the dispute. Failing agreement, the matter will be taken to the Ombudsman, and then to the Editorial Council.

Editor-in-Chief

An Editor-in-Chief shall be appointed, with a term of office of four years renewable once, by simple majority of each of the Editorial Council and Management Committee. The functions of this office shall be:

1. to ensure day-to-day smooth functioning of the Citizendium;
2. to facilitate the practical implementation of the Citizendium editorial policy as defined by its governing institutions;
3. to make interim editorial decisions (in consultation with other editors); and
4. to carry out any other tasks as required by this Charter or decisions of the governing bodies.

Non-content operations

Management Committee

A Management Committee shall be responsible for matters concerned with the non-editorial policies of Citizendium, such as finance, external alliances, communications, administration, and behavior. To this end, it may appoint Administrators and Task Managers whose activities it will oversee. It will also appoint Constables and oversee their activities.

The Management Committee shall consist of seven Citizens, who may not simultaneously serve on the Editorial Council. They may, however, be Constables or Task Managers. A quorum shall consist of four members. The members of the Management Committee shall be elected by vote of active Citizens and Authors, with two-year renewable terms. The Management Committee will appoint one of its members as the Management Lead, who will represent the Citizendium externally on all matters except content.

The Committee, with advice from legal and audit advisers, will designate those members that can enter into contracts or expend funds on behalf of the Citizendium. Substantial expenditures will require more than one signature.

Consultants

The Management Committee may, within the financial rules, consult with professionals such as attorneys and accountants.

Administration

The Citizendium's administration handles the legal, financial, and technical operations necessary for the project to fulfill its mission. It may include contractors or employees, under the policy direction of the Management Committee, who eventually may be directed, on a routine basis, by an employee such as an Executive Director.

Proposed changes

• In "Style", change "All entries at Citizendium should engage their subjects comprehensively, neutrally, and objectively to the greatest degree possible."

into

"All entries at Citizendium should be written as a coherent narrative and engage their subjects comprehensively, neutrally, and objectively to the greatest degree possible."

--Daniel Mietchen 17:22, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

• Change section title "Style"

into

"Content".

--Daniel Mietchen 17:22, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

• In "Mission", change "updated"

into

"curated".

--Daniel Mietchen 15:59, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

• In "Citizen participation", add something of the sort

• Active Citizens shall be eligible into the Editorial Council and the Management according to criteria defined by each of the two bodies.

and this should be accompanied by an interim guidance section defining "active Citizens" for the very first elections.

--Daniel Mietchen 22:28, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

• We need provisions for replacement of anyone with a special role who becomes temporarily or permanently unavailable.

--Daniel Mietchen 23:15, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

• Merge "Electorate" into "Citizens have the right to vote in community wide elections." (under "Citizen participation").

--Daniel Mietchen 23:40, 11 February 2010 (UTC)