Ombudsman commission

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki
Jump to: navigation, search

The ombudsman commission investigates complaints about violations of the privacy policy (in particular concerning the use of CheckUser tools) on any Wikimedia project for the board of trustees in an official manner. To file a complaint, please contact an Ombudsman privately.

Contents

[edit] About

[edit] Tasks

In addition to official investigation, they will mediate between the complainant and the respondent (usually a CheckUser, bureaucrat, administrator, or arbitration committee member). When legally necessary, the ombudsman will assist the General Counsel, the Executive Director or the board in handling the case.

When the case is litigious, the ombudsman will be in charge of educating CheckUsers or others about the Foundation's privacy policy. When the privacy policy has been breached, the commission should report to the Executive Director or to the Board and recommend a course of action (such as removal of CheckUser access). Additionally, the commission might suggest suitable changes to policies or software.

[edit] Neutrality

An ombudsman's investigation should be conducted in a manner determined by the ombudsman to ensure fairness and impartiality. As a general guideline, it is best that ombudsmen avoid conflicts of interest as much as possible, particularly by avoiding routine use of CheckUser access and not processing complaints on the projects on which they are very active editors. However, matters that come before the commission are not clearcut, and the language and culture of various projects may pose barriers to outsiders. As such, how the commission investigates complaints is left to the discretion of its appointed members.

[edit] Contact

Ombudsman requests may be made to the following email address (in any language spoken by one of the members):

cu-ombuds-l at lists.wikimedia.org

[edit] Membership

Members of the ombudsman commission are selected by Wikimedia Foundation officials from the Wikimedia community (there is no call for volunteers or elections). They are appointed (assuming they agree) for a period of approximately one year. An ombudsman's real identity must be disclosed to the Foundation legal counsel. A non-voting alternate member may be appointed to serve for one year, with an expectation for a seat as a full member the following year.

[edit] Assigned rights

An Ombudsmen has the following rights globally:

  • Search deleted pages (browsearchive)
  • Check user's IP addresses and other information (checkuser)
  • View the checkuser log (checkuser-log)
  • View deleted history entries, without their associated text (deletedhistory)
  • View deleted text and changes between deleted revisions (deletedtext)
  • View private logs (suppressionlog)

[edit] Current ombudsman users

See also Special:GlobalUsers/Ombudsmen (terms expire February 2012):

Non-voting advisors

[edit] Previous ombudsmen

February 2011 — February 2012:

  • Herbythyme from commonswiki (February 2011 — April 2011)

February 2010 — February 2011:

January 2009 — February 2010:

December 2007 — January 2009:

July 2006 — December 2007:

[edit] See also

User groups
Local: blocked user – unregistered user – newly-registered user – registered user – bot – administrator – bureaucrat – oversight – checkuser – IP block exempt – Importer
Global: locked account – unified account – bot – rollbacker – abuse filter editor – interface editor – new wiki importers - sysop – ombudsman – founder – staff – system administrator – steward
Retrieved from "http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ombudsman_commission&oldid=3396568"
Personal tools
Variants
Actions
Navigation
Community
Beyond the Web
Print/export
Toolbox