[Foundation-l] Stalking Article

[Dennis During]

Because I am late to the discussion and the list, I may be stating the
obvious. Please forgive me if I am.

1. One useful thing that WMF can do that no individual project can is
to provide some kind of authentication for any criminal threat
conveyed using any wiki function. That would mean a personal contact
(name, e-mail, phone #) for a law-enforcement agency to contact to
verify that a person saying they were threatened was actually
threatened.

2. If the threat is made on-wiki I believe that WMF has to provide any
assistance possible to locate the person making the threat.

3. If the threat is off-wiki WMF ought to be able to provide
information useful to connecting the actual criminal threat made to
on-wiki behavior, if there is any connection.

4. I am not sure at what point in this last case, WMF would have an
obligation to help locate the person making the threat.

5. Finally, it might be nice if WMF could put together a webpage of
information, including links, about on-wiki and off-wiki criminality
to help any victims or potential victims of criminal behavior or even
just those who feel threatened though there is no overt illegal
behavior.

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 7:49 PM, Nathan <nawrich at gmail.com> wrote:
> With all due respect to its participants, I think this discussion has
> reached a plateau of usefulness. We've established that there are varying
> uses of the word "stalking" with similarly varying definitions. We've
> established what serious stalking looks like, and the effects it can have on
> our editors and our community. We've established that we are not dealing
> with this problem effectively, because of limitations in what we can with
> the tools available to us. The Foundation has been asked what resources it
> can lend to assist in this area - perhaps silence is the answer we can
> expect for the moment.
>
> In order to prevent the traditional devolution of Foundation-l discussions
> into irrelevancies, the next step ought to be concrete suggestions regarding
> what we can actually do (if anything). If the Foundation can't establish
> procedures for handling serious events of stalking, can the community do so
> in its stead? What would these procedures look like? Is there enough
> community experience and interest for a Wikimedia Stalking Action Group?
> Clearly the dispersed and disorganized attempts to deal with stalking in the
> past have been inadequate - can that be overcome with increased
> centralisation and organization?
>
> Questions that need to be answered, I think, in order to move this
> discussion forward.
>
> Nathan
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-- 
Dennis C. During