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 and recognize expertise. 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 clarity in the presentation of content, to ease in the navigation between content and to simplicity in the 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.

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 anyone (henceforth, "Authors") willing to work collaboratively under the policies and management of the project.

Editors

See also CZ:Editors.

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

Older version: The Citizendium will invite subject area experts to serve as editors. The term "editor" is, however, used in a restricted sense. Editors will be expected to work "shoulder-to-shoulder" with authors in the wiki. Among the things that editors will be empowered, singly or collectively, to do are (1) to make decisions about specific questions, or disputes, concerning particular articles in an editor's area of expertise, and (2) to approve high-quality articles. Editors will not have the right, except perhaps in very unusual cases, to "lock" articles and thereby prevent the collaborative process from continuing. Finally, editors will be expected to share authority with other editors who are expert on the same subjects.

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

Behaviour

The Citizendium will have a set of persons of mature judgment specially empowered to enforce rules, called (at least tentatively) "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 rule of law."

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 Citizendium currently operates solely in English. Chapters started in other languages will have to be based on a direct translation of the then current English version of this charter, and shall be listed in this section thereof.

Electorate

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