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.

Mission statement

The Citizendium is an online environment in which reliable knowledge is hosted and structured collaboratively and made freely accessible to the interested public by polite contributors — henceforth Citizens — who use their real names, recognize expertise and adhere to the principles laid out in this charter. 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.

Fundamental policies

See also CZ:Fundamentals.

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, nor for advertisement.

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.

The Citizendium is a collaborative project, open to contributions by any Citizen on any of its content.

Authors

See also CZ:Author.

Citizens who have made a contribution to the project's content or structure will be considered Authors.

Editors

See also CZ:Editors.

Editors are Authors who — because of their recognized expertise — are responsible for the scope and quality of 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 be taken to the Editorial Council.

In addition to subject specific Workgroups, there will 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).

External Partners

The Citizendium welcomes collaboration with external partners on any matters relevant to the project's mission, provided that the interaction does not lead participating Citizens to a conflict of interest with respect to this charter.

Accessibility

The content provided at the Citizendium is intended for an audience with completed high-school level of education. As far as possible, special needs of visually or otherwise impaired users and of machines will be taken into account.

Fair Governance

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

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.

It shall consist of twelve Citizens, who may not simultaneously serve on the Editorial Council. They may, however, be Constables or Task Managers. A quorum shall consist of seven members.

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.

It shall consist of twelve Citizens, who may not simultaneously serve on the Management Committee or be Constables. They may, however, be Task Managers. A quorum shall consist of seven members. 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.

Oversight of Workgroups

We still have a lack of consensus on the granularity of workgroups. It is clear that many of the existing workgroups have too broad a scope. Are there occasions where a Subgroup should act in lieu of a Workgroup?

Administration

The Citizendium's administration handles the legal, financial and technical operations necessary for the project to fulfil its mission.

Judicial process

In the event of a dispute that cannot be resolved at a level below that of the Editorial Council or the Management Committee, appeal boards may be constituted on an as-needed basis. They will consist of three members nominated by the Editorial Council and three members nominated by the Management Committee, who, as far as possible, shall not have been involved in the specific dispute. A presiding official, not a Management Committee or an Editorial Council,will be appointed by agreement of the two groups from the list of active members; that official shall direct the Board and break ties.

Professionalism

Citizens are required to behave professionally, i.e. to accept the guidance of experts and the wider Citizendium community and to remain polite and constructive even in cases of dispute. A set of persons of mature judgment — hereafter the Constables — shall be specially empowered to enforce rules laid out in this charter or its accompanying documents. The enforcement of these rules--up to and including the ejection of participants from the project--is to be carried out using common sense and leniency if the situation is not covered by the rules.

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 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.

External partners

The Management Council 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 purpose of reviewing content at the Citizendium or providing content to it.

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.