brian@dahmer.vistech.net wrote:
From: SMTP%"wikinews-l@Wikimedia.org" "Wikinews mailing list" 29-MAR-2006 14:23:30.23
Anthere wrote:
Tricky issue here.
I have discussed it a bit on the polish irc channel.
I am not entirely sure what had been decided regarding passes on the en.wikinews.
And there is the issue of the editor in chief, which might be tricky.
Could we discuss this together ?
en.wikinews has what we refer to as accredited reporters, and there's a disclaimer in there that people *don't* represent the foundation. We maintain a page for accreditation requests at [[Wikinews:Accreditation requests]], and a list of accredited reporters and verification methods at [[Wikinews:Credential verification]].
There's a template you can stick on your user page, which has a disclaimer... "Accredited Wikinews reporters do not represent the Wikimedia Foundation, but are trusted contributors who the Wikinews community have certified for the purposes of gathering information related to Wikinews articles.", and the key thing that has been mentioned in relation to this is its use for original reporting. This stresses that you can't say you represent wikinews. You're an independent reporter who has been recognised as a journalist by the wikinews community.
From there it's down to individuals, companies, and country-specific laws. In
the US I believe people have been issued press passes to sporting events based on wikinews credentials, if I do not misunderstand the situation then there is nothing like a requirement to be a member of a journalist's union or have qualifications in journalism. Other countries may differ, and if the Polish wiki community has a legal maven they need to speak up.
Moving on to "Editor In Chief", this isn't really the wiki way. One person shouldn't be given specific powers such as (I imagine) suspending someone's credentials. This would more likely be the function of an arbitration committee. That's relatively young on en.wikinews, so you might just be looking to have a group of three or so able to quickly respond to complaints about misuse of credentials, and to organise votes on the issuing of credentials.
Lastly, you need to look to start issuing credentials to people who will test them out. If you have someone like a football fan who reports on his team's matches, let him see if they'll issue him with a press pass for the grounds. If you get one, make sure they see the end result. If you've a print edition, mail them each copy that has an article with reporting from the grounds.
Hopefully some useful information can be extracted from the preceding brain-dump.
Brian.
Hello.
I forward this to internal-l, because I am not sure who in the polish chapter is reading wikinews-l.
I thought the last recommandation interesting.
Apparently, the main difference with what you are doing is the fact Polish are thinking to associate the Wikimedia Poland to the whole concept. It may have legal implications.
How are you giving credentials on en.wikinews ? Vote by the whole community ? Vote by part of the community ? Vote by a committee ? And who is answering the phone and how was it decided they would be authorized to do so ?
Ant
PS : just thinking of it, is there a "signed" logo use agreement ?