[Licom-l] Description of SPI voting process

[Erik Moeller]

Some users are confused by being taken to the SPI server, and we're
not really explaining it well right now. At minimum I think we need a
good Q/A in the Questions & Answers. Something like:

Q: Why am I being transferred to a separate server to vote?

A: To prevent manipulation of the vote and to protect the secrecy of
ballots, the vote is being administered by an independent third party,
Software in the Public Interest, Inc., a non-profit organization. SPI
has also previously administered an election to the Board of Trustees
of the Wikimedia Foundation. SPI runs an installation of the MediaWiki
software with the SecurePoll extension.

The vote results will be tallied by the licensing committee, an
independent group of Wikimedia volunteers. Because the voting server
logs IP addresses of registered users to prevent duplication, the
Wikimedia Foundation has validated the identity of all people
participating in the vote tally, as well as the fact that they are
above the age of majority in their jurisdiction.

---
It might also be helpful to add something about how the session
transfer works, and what information is being sent to SPI.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Erik

-- 
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate