Dear WMF Board members,
The Ombuds Commission acts on your behalf as part of the movements governance processes and it is, therefore, the WMF board that authorizes Ombuds policies. The Wikimedia project systems and policies for the commission were established many years ago with rare amendments since, and are not harmonized on the use of the word "ombuds". For example, though the email contact group uses "ombuds", the detailed policy page on Meta uses "ombudsman" and refers to members of the group as "ombudsmen". As a gender-neutral form is in common International English and American English usage and is already used in some places and not others, can the WMF board agree that the gender-neutral term is desirable in line with the goals of the Wikimedia Foundation strategy and should be applied systematically?
With your agreement, this would then harmonize in the names of email groups, the group name configured into the system on Meta and the wording of policies, and help avoid an accidental bias towards identifying ombuds members as men. As this is a question of harmonization, rather than a change in process, policy or scope, this is a style issue rather than a change that required a resolution or a community RfC.
For those unaware, the Ombuds Commission "investigates complaints about infringements of the Privacy Policy, the Access to nonpublic personal data policy, the CheckUser policy and the oversight policy on any Wikimedia project for the Board of Trustees. They also investigate for the Board the compliance of local CheckUser or Oversight policies or guidelines with the global CheckUser and Oversight policies."[1]
Links: 1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ombudsman_commission 2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:GlobalUsers/ombudsman
Thanks, Fae
Sounds perfectly reasonable in my opinion. Have started discussion here
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ombudsman_commission
J
On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 11:15 AM Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
Dear WMF Board members,
The Ombuds Commission acts on your behalf as part of the movements governance processes and it is, therefore, the WMF board that authorizes Ombuds policies. The Wikimedia project systems and policies for the commission were established many years ago with rare amendments since, and are not harmonized on the use of the word "ombuds". For example, though the email contact group uses "ombuds", the detailed policy page on Meta uses "ombudsman" and refers to members of the group as "ombudsmen". As a gender-neutral form is in common International English and American English usage and is already used in some places and not others, can the WMF board agree that the gender-neutral term is desirable in line with the goals of the Wikimedia Foundation strategy and should be applied systematically?
With your agreement, this would then harmonize in the names of email groups, the group name configured into the system on Meta and the wording of policies, and help avoid an accidental bias towards identifying ombuds members as men. As this is a question of harmonization, rather than a change in process, policy or scope, this is a style issue rather than a change that required a resolution or a community RfC.
For those unaware, the Ombuds Commission "investigates complaints about infringements of the Privacy Policy, the Access to nonpublic personal data policy, the CheckUser policy and the oversight policy on any Wikimedia project for the Board of Trustees. They also investigate for the Board the compliance of local CheckUser or Oversight policies or guidelines with the global CheckUser and Oversight policies."[1]
Links:
- https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ombudsman_commission
- https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:GlobalUsers/ombudsman
Thanks, Fae -- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
This is certainly a reasonable request, Fae, and I support it; there's no reason not to forge ahead with this request.
However, for the benefit of anybody on this list who's not familiar, and just to ensure that this point is in the record: there's a more complex problem with the name of the "Ombuds* Commission".
According to Wiktionary, an ombuds* is expected to "investigate complaints, generally on behalf of individuals such as consumers or taxpayers, against institutions such as companies and government departments."
That is complaints rather broadly construed; in the Wikimedia case, however, the remit of ombuds* is actually pretty narrow, as you described in your initial message on this thread. The WMF does not have a clear, unified entity to receive complaints more generally; so having a position that is made up of volunteers, and has a much narrower remit, carry the title "Ombuds" seems less than ideal.
I do not have a clear proposal for a solution at this point; just want to be sure this point is made as long as we're on the topic.
That said, I agree...please go forth and fix the gender problem, post haste!
-Pete -- [[User:Peteforsyth]] on English Wikisource, Wikipedia, Wikidata, etc. etc.
On Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 5:19 PM James Heilman jmh649@gmail.com wrote:
Sounds perfectly reasonable in my opinion. Have started discussion here
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ombudsman_commission
J
On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 11:15 AM Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
Dear WMF Board members,
The Ombuds Commission acts on your behalf as part of the movements governance processes and it is, therefore, the WMF board that authorizes Ombuds policies. The Wikimedia project systems and policies for the commission were established many years ago with rare amendments since, and are not harmonized on the use of the word "ombuds". For example, though the email contact group uses "ombuds", the detailed policy page on Meta uses "ombudsman" and refers to members of the group as "ombudsmen". As a gender-neutral form is in common International English and American English usage and is already used in some places and not others, can the WMF board agree that the gender-neutral term is desirable in line with the goals of the Wikimedia Foundation strategy and should be applied systematically?
With your agreement, this would then harmonize in the names of email groups, the group name configured into the system on Meta and the wording of policies, and help avoid an accidental bias towards identifying ombuds members as men. As this is a question of harmonization, rather than a change in process, policy or scope, this is a style issue rather than a change that required a resolution or a community RfC.
For those unaware, the Ombuds Commission "investigates complaints about infringements of the Privacy Policy, the Access to nonpublic personal data policy, the CheckUser policy and the oversight policy on any Wikimedia project for the Board of Trustees. They also investigate for the Board the compliance of local CheckUser or Oversight policies or guidelines with the global CheckUser and Oversight policies."[1]
Links:
- https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ombudsman_commission
- https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:GlobalUsers/ombudsman
Thanks, Fae -- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
-- James Heilman MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Thanks for taking this forward James.
It's reassuring to find out that at least the WMF board might take this suggestion of a style preference for gender-neutral language seriously.
Fae
On Thu, 18 Jun 2020 at 01:19, James Heilman jmh649@gmail.com wrote:
Sounds perfectly reasonable in my opinion. Have started discussion here
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ombudsman_commission
J
On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 11:15 AM Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
Dear WMF Board members,
The Ombuds Commission acts on your behalf as part of the movements governance processes and it is, therefore, the WMF board that authorizes Ombuds policies. The Wikimedia project systems and policies for the commission were established many years ago with rare amendments since, and are not harmonized on the use of the word "ombuds". For example, though the email contact group uses "ombuds", the detailed policy page on Meta uses "ombudsman" and refers to members of the group as "ombudsmen". As a gender-neutral form is in common International English and American English usage and is already used in some places and not others, can the WMF board agree that the gender-neutral term is desirable in line with the goals of the Wikimedia Foundation strategy and should be applied systematically?
With your agreement, this would then harmonize in the names of email groups, the group name configured into the system on Meta and the wording of policies, and help avoid an accidental bias towards identifying ombuds members as men. As this is a question of harmonization, rather than a change in process, policy or scope, this is a style issue rather than a change that required a resolution or a community RfC.
For those unaware, the Ombuds Commission "investigates complaints about infringements of the Privacy Policy, the Access to nonpublic personal data policy, the CheckUser policy and the oversight policy on any Wikimedia project for the Board of Trustees. They also investigate for the Board the compliance of local CheckUser or Oversight policies or guidelines with the global CheckUser and Oversight policies."[1]
Links:
- https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ombudsman_commission
- https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:GlobalUsers/ombudsman
Thanks, Fae
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org