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. The drafting period shall end when November 12, 2009 is over all around the globe.

Charter text begins here

Mission statement

The Citizendium is an online environment in which reliable knowledge is hosted and structured collaboratively and made freely accessible by polite contributors — henceforth Citizens — who use their real names, recognize expertise and adhere to the principles laid out in this charter. The broad audience is assumed to want information filtered by professional expertise, and to consist largely of knowledge workers and trainees in knowledge working professions.

Fundamental policies

See also CZ:Fundamentals.

The Citizendium will be devoted to accessible presentation of content in its context, to easy navigation across content and to simple organization of the community.

Real names

All Citizens must register using their real names, which will define their account. When appointed for special functions in the community, Citizens or robots operated by Citizens may be required to use a separate, dedicated account when they act in this capacity. Limited possibilities may be provided for non-registered users to contribute to the project, in which cases the real name requirement may be dropped.

Objectivity

Information presented objectively is based on expert knowledge, which includes giving the context and justification for substantially supported views of the topic. When multiple responsible views exist, enough information must be given that the reader can understand the merits and weaknesses of the positions. There is no requirement to present every minority view in depth, although deprecated views may be identified. The Citizendium is not a place for advocacy.

Expertise

Expertise will be respected. It shall be recognized through publications (including contributions to the Citizendium), credentials or employment, or through any other means established by the Editorial Council.

Collaboration

See also CZ:How to Collaborate.

Authors

See also CZ:Author.

The Citizendium will be open to contributions by any Citizen. Citizens who made a contribution to the project's main namespace will be considered Authors.

Editors

See also CZ:Editors.

Editors are Authors who — because of their recognized expertise — are responsible for the content presented by CZ. Specifically, in their areas of expertise, they are entitled (1) to make decisions about specific questions or disputes concerning particular articles, and (2) to approve high-quality articles.

Workgroups

See also CZ:Workgroups. The Editorial Council may create and reorganize workgroups to organize 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.

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 escalate to the Editorial Council.

Fair Governance

Special roles will not be created without excellent reason, and bureaucracy will be kept to the absolute minimum necessary.

Management Committee

A Management Committee shall be responsible for matters concerned with the non-editorial policies of Citizendium, such as finance, external alliances, administration, and behavior.

Editorial Council

An Editorial Council will be responsible for guiding content. It will be made up of active Citizens, one half of whom shall be Editors, the other half not.

Professionalism

Behavior

The Citizendium shall have a set of persons of mature judgment specially empowered to enforce rules, the Constables. The enforcement of project rules--up to and including the ejection of participants from the project--is to be carried out using common sense and leniency while following the rules laid out in this charter or its accompanying documents.

Being Bold

See also CZ:Be bold.

Whenever Citizens are unsure whether some contributions they plan are conform with this charter and its subordinate policies, they are advised to seek comments from the wider community. In the absence of negative feedback, they should feel encouraged to proceed.

License

The content of the Citizendium will always be freely accessible and reusable. Content originating at the Citizendium is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Content that originated elsewhere may also be incorporated into the Citizendium if such reuse is permitted by the copyright owners.

Legal status

The Citizendium will be owned and ultimately controlled by a non-profit organization.

Languages

The official language of the Citizendium is English. Branches in other languages require approval by the Editorial Council and have to be based on this English-language charter or an approved translation.

Electorate

All Authors are entitled to vote on the adoption or modification of this charter.

Ratification of this charter

If this charter has been approved by more than two thirds of the votes validly cast in a referendum for this purpose, it shall be ratified by the Editor-in-Chief within a week after the closing of the closing of the referendum.

Entry into force of this charter

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

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.

Citizens with pseudonyms

Citizens currently registered with a pseudonym will be granted up to one year of time to re-register for a new account under their real name. One year after the entry into force of this charter, all pseudonym accounts shall be locked by the Constabulary.

Inactive Editors

CZ:Editorial Council Resolution 0012 will be extended such that newly registered Editors who have not yet contributed to the project shall be regarded as Inactive Editors.

Amending this charter

Any Citizen can suggest to the Management Council specific amendments to this charter. If the proposal is taken up by the Management Council, it shall prepare a set of up to three alternatives to the current phrasing in the charter, and present them to the electorate to express its opinion via a vote. To come into effect, an amendment requires more than two thirds of the votes validly cast.