User talk:Peter Schmitt/NewDraft

Mission statement

The Citizendium is a collaborative effort to compile a public domain online encyclopaedia that presents a compendium of human knowledge organized and structured in a way to serve as a convenient, reliable, and well-written source of information.

Fundamental principles

The Citizendium shall be an online community where volunteers — henceforth the Citizens — contribute under their real names and with the common intention to create a high-quality online resource covering the full range of human knowledge. Basis of the cooperation is a social covenant centered around trust.

Collaboration

The Citizendium shall be a collaborative project. Everybody shall be invited to participate under his real name.

All Citizens shall be able to freely contribute according to their abilities, competence and opportunities as well as their preferences, in an atmosphere of mutual respect and mutual trust, In order to guarantee high standards of quality, the correctness, reliability and readability of all content shall be reviewed by experts whose advice and evaluation shall be respected.

All Citizens are expected to be considerate and to settle any dispute in a civil and constructive manner. However, Citizens in good faith need not be reluctant to contribute — even boldly — to the project because any accidental mistake can be repaired.

Content

The Citizendium shall be useful for a broad audience, thus its structure shall reflect the various needs and provide both basic and in-depth information on different levels.

Authors shall strive to carefully present all topics correct and comprehensive in a clearly organized way. They shall honestly describe the current state of knowledge and not conceal problems like gaps, unresolved questions, or fundamentally different positions. Equally, the relations among topics and fields shall be shown and explained by appropriate means.

License

The content offered by the Citizendium shall always be free to use, reuse, and redistribute.

All contributions to the Citizendium (including the user pages) shall become a permanent part of the collaborative effort. While no individual credit for contributions shall be expected, their history shall remain available.

Governance

The Citizendium shall be devoted to transparent and fair governance and simple procedures.

The official bodies shall be required to restrict rules and guidelines to the necessary minimum and keep them simple and clear.

Membership

Access to the Citizendium shall be free and unrestricted to all Readers.

All Readers shall be invited to send in comments after an easy process of self-registration as a Visitor.

Everybody interested shall be invited to become a Citizen. A Citizen is a member who has registered under his real name and thereby agreed to honour the principles of this Charter. Only Citizens shall be allowed to actively contribute.

Citizens — who have applied or have been nominated — shall be appointed Editors if they meet the criteria set by the Editorial Board.

Citizens

All Citizens have equal rights, with exceptions only when acting on behalf of an office according to this Charter.

An Author is any Citizen who is contributing content.

A Technician is any Citizen who — because of his recognized experience — contributes to the development and maintainance of the Citizendium's software (templates, scripts, bots).

A Task Manager is a Citizen appointed to take care of a specific duty.

Editors

Editors are Citizens who — because of their recognized expertise — are responsible for the scope, the quality, and the structure of the content presented by the Citizendium.

To this end they shall be — within the limits set by the Editorial Board — entitled to evaluate articles and to make content-related decisions concerning particular articles.

Constables

Constables are Citizens of mature judgement who have been appointed to enforce the Citizendium's rules concerning behaviour and the observance of procedures as specified in this Charter and by adopted guidelines.

Editorial Board

An Editorial Board shall be responsible for content policy. To this end, it shall establish general principles and guidelines on quality, structure and style, define the criteria for granting and revoking editorship, organize the reviewing process, and oversee the work of the Editors. Where appropriate it shall create workgroups in order to encourage, arrange and organize topic-specific or task-specific collaboration.

The Editorial Board shall consist of an odd number (at least seven) of Citizens of whom one more are Editors than Authors who are not Editors. Any decision shall require the participation of more than half of its members.

Managing Editor

A Managing Editor shall have the duty to ensure day-to-day smooth functioning of the Citizendium by making interim decisions (if needed).

Furthermore, he shall represent the Citizendium externally.

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

Management Board

A Management Board shall be responsible for matters concerned with the non-editorial policies of the Citizendium, such as the legal, financial and technical operations necessary for the project to fulfill its mission, and for external alliances and communications.

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

The Managment Board shall designate those members who can enter into contracts or expend funds on behalf of the Citizendium.
Substantial expenditures shall require more than one signature.

The Management Board shall consist of an odd number (at least five) of Citizens. Any decision shall require the participation of more than half of its members.

Supervising Board

The Supervising Board, consisting of the Constables, is responsible for enforcing the rules and procedures of the Citizendium.
To this end it may establish rules and procedures how offences are treated.
As a last resort, Citizens in persistent breach of the Citizendium's spirit may be expelled from the project.

On a temporary basis only, a Constable may act to avoid damage even if this action is not explicitly covered by a rule.

Ombudsman

An Ombudsman shall be charged with the task of mediation in dispute resolution.
The Ombudsman shall be a Citizen with substantial Citizendium experience and widely respected judgement.

Dispute resolution

Any decision of an official or of a body may be appealed.

Disputes

Disputes shall be settled at the lowest possible level.
Each party involved may contact the Ombudsman for mediation, or the Managing Editor for a temporary decision.
Should no agreement be found the appropriate body shall be invoked.

Appeals

If a decision is appealed a panel for final arbitration is formed.

Its members shall not have been formerly involved in the dispute and consist of six Citizens — three each nominated by the Editorial and the Managing Board — and be presided by the Ombudsman or a mediator who shall only vote in case of a tie.

Community decisions

All Citizens who have registered before the start of the voting period shall be entitled to take part in a referendum or an election.

Amendments

Any amendment to and any change of this Charter shall require a referendum and shall be ratified if accepted by two thirds or more of the votes validly cast.

Elections and appointments

The following offices are mutual exclusive(?):
Managing Editor,
member of the Editorial Board,
member of the Managing Board,
Constable,
Ombudsman.

Managing Editor

The Managing Editor shall be nominated by the combined Boards and shall be appointed by popular vote, for a term of office of two years.

Ombudsman

The Ombudsman shall be nominated by the combined Boards (and appointed by popular vote?).

Constables

Constables shall be nominated by the combined Editorial and Managing Board (?and be appointed by popular vote).

Editorial and Managing Board

Any Citizen may nominate one or more candidates for a board.
Candidates for a Board shall have been reasonably active for some time prior to the election and show the intention to serve for the whole term.

For the members of the Editorial and the Managing Board the term of office shall be two years arranged such that each year about half of its member are replaced.

The candidates collecting the most votes shall be elected. One to three close-runners-up may serve as reserve members.

The Editorial Board shall be elected in December. The term of the new members starts the following January 1.

The Managing Board shall be elected in June. The term of the new members starts the following July 1.

Expansion

Any Council may propose a change of its size by an even number of members. This proposal is subject to a referendem held together with the next election.

Replacement

Should, during his term, an official become inactive or unavailable, a reserve member shall replace him, if available, otherwise an election shall take place.

Task Managers

Each board or official may appoint assistants to perform specific tasks, but the responsibility shall always remain with the board or official.

Rules and guidelines

Citizens may demand that contested rules or guidelines are submitted to a referendum.

Legal matter

The Citizendium shall always be owned and controlled by "The Citizendium Foundation", a non-profit organization.

License

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

Languages

The official language of the Citizendium shall English.

Branches in other languages require approval by the Editorial and the Managing Board and have to be based on this English-language charter or an approved translation.
Boards created on branches shall closely cooperate with the English boards.

External partnerships

Collaboration with non-Citizen partners shall be welcome on any matters relevant to the project's mission.

External laws

Restrictions imposed by law, in particular those concerning access by underage persons, shall be obeyed.

Transition rules

This section of the Charter shall be removed from the Charter when it has lost its significance.

Ratification

This Charter shall be adopted in a referendum according the rules of this Charter.

The result of this referendum shall be certified and announced by the Editor-in-Chief within a week after the closing of the referendum.
The Charter shall enter into force on the day following this certification.

Elections

Elections to all offices shall take place as soon as possible.
Since, for both the Editorial Board and the Managment Board the intention is to elect half of the members each year, of the members elected a number corresponding to the quorum shall be selected, by lot or by personal agreement, to serve until the next election only.

The initial size of the Editorial Board shall be nine members.
The initial size of the Management Board shall be seven members.

License

Currently the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license is used.

Guidelines and rules

After the Councils according this Charter have been elected, they shall review all existing guidelines and rules.
Current practice shall remain in force until it has either been confirmed, revised or revoked.

Citizens with pseudonyms

All existing pseudonym accounts shall be closed a month after the entry into force of this Charter, and the respective user pages shall be protected. The Citizens concerned may, of course, register again under their real names.