On 21/07/06, Anthere <Anthere9(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
Whereas the board of Trustees of Wikimedia Foundation
regularly receives
some complaints related to abuse of its privacy policy, associated to
checkuser activity or not.
It is hereby resolved that:
The board creates an "ombudsman commission".
The ombudsman commission will offer a sympathetic ear to those reporting
an abuse of the Wikimedia Foundation privacy policy on any of Wikimedia
project.
The ombudsman will take charge of investigating cases of privacy policy
breach or checkuser abuse for the board in an official manner. He will
mediate between the complainant and the respondant (checkuser, arbcom
member, bureaucrat or sysop). When legally necessary, the ombudsman will
assist the legal commmittee or the legal officer or the executive
director to handle the case.
When the case is litigious, the ombudsman will be in charge to educate
checkusers or others about the Foundation privacy policy.
When the privacy policy has been breached, the commission should report
to the Executive Director and recommand a course of action (such as
removal of checkuser status).
Additionnaly, the commission might have a sort of "overview" over the
way the checkuser system works and should offer suggestions of suitable
modifications of policies or recommandations of software changes.
An Ombudsman's Investigation shall be conducted in a manner determined
by the Ombudsman and which will be fair and impartial .
Having read this description of the role, I would say the name
"Ombudsman" is wildly inaccurate. How about something approximating
"User Advocate"?
--
Oldak Quill (oldakquill(a)gmail.com)