CZ:Charter

=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 &mdash; henceforth Citizens &mdash; who use their real names and recognize expertise.

Fundamental policies
See also CZ:Fundamentals.

The Citizendium will be devoted to simplicity, both in presentation of content and 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. Expertise will be recognized through publications (including contributions to the Citizendium), credentials, or employment. The Editorial Council will be empowered to establish other means by which expertise may be recognized.

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.

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.

=Approval Manager
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==Oversight of Approval
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=Editorial Personnel Managers
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==Granting Editor status
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==Granting External Expert status
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=Robots
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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 Authors and one half shall be Editors.

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.