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Revisions Committee

The Revisions Committee consists of members of the two prior UCoC Drafting Committees who generously offered their time to help shape improvements to the Guidelines after the conclusion of the community vote on the guidelines in March. The Community Affairs Committee (CAC) of the Board of Trustees asked that several areas of the guidelines be reviewed for improvements before the Board does its final review. These areas were identified based on community discussions and comments provided during the vote. A big thank you to all who voted, especially to all who left constructive feedback and comments! The revisions committee will digest these comments and recommendations for changes and create a revised draft of the enforcement guidelines for community review.

Revisions Committee members

We are happy to announce that the revisions committee consists of the following members:

Revisions Committee Volunteers

Revisions Committee Staff members

Revisions Committee timeline

(will be available in June after Board of Trustees’ Community Affairs Committee has approved)

Phase 2

The Universal Code of Conduct Drafting committee for phase 2 (UCoCDC 2 or “the committee”) is a group of Wikimedians brought together with the purpose of writing the draft for enforcement guidelines for the Universal Code of Conduct for Board ratification as requested in the Board statement on community culture 2020. The committee will consist of volunteer movement members brought in through an open application process, affiliate staff volunteering for it and qualified Foundation staff based on specific skills (including legal experience, diversity & inclusion experience, and translatability expertise). Members will be selected by the Vice President of Community Resilience and Sustainability of the Wikimedia Foundation. Volunteer members for the committee will be respected community members with at least two of the following skills or traits:

* experience in policy drafting
  • experience with the application of existing rules and policies on Wikimedia projects
  • experience in cooperating online
  • empathy
  • experience in collaborating in an international team
  • participatory decision making

They will be selected as much as possible to also represent the diversity of our movement in respect to languages spoken, geography, gender, age, project size of their home wiki, and their roles within the Wikimedia movement. Building on the detailed recommendations made by the movement strategy working group on community health, the Committee will look at the emerging feedback from Wikimedia communities, affiliate groups and functionaries about their needs and desires for application and enforcement of conduct policy. Work will be conducted through a facilitated structure to avoid impasses and maintain focus. One or more people will be selected for their writing skills to do the actual drafting based on input from the group. A dedicated facilitator will provide this structure, lead the facilitation, and provide additional resources as needed.

Phase 2 call for applications

The call for applications for the Phase 2 Universal Code of Conduct Drafting Committee has closed.

Do you care about safety, inclusivity, and friendliness in the Wikimedia movement? Are you interested in the guidelines and policies that guide it? Do you have any experience with how they are applied? Do you have ideas about well-functioning enforcement pathways in general? This is your chance to get involved!

We are looking for volunteers to join the Drafting Committee for the guidelines of enforcement for the Universal Code of Conduct. If you are interested, please read the following important information for candidates and our essay on an ideal committee.

Who will be on the committee?
Eight or nine volunteers, two or three affiliate staff members and three or four Foundation staff members (depending on how many candidates apply)
When will the committee be active?
26 April – 30 November 2021. Please be aware that we will prioritize a comprehensive community review over a hard deadline, so the active period for the committee might get extended. There will be a break in Committee duties for a rest period while community discussions are active. For a more detailed timeline see here.
What will they do?
Understand the current Universal Code of Conduct. Read background material and draft the enforcement strategies for the Universal Code of Conduct that will outline pathways of implementation. See more information here.
How will they work?
They will meet online and work on shared documents. A facilitation team will help them to organize the work, and experts in different areas will be available to provide support. Sessions will include a combination of teamwork and asynchronous work and will have elements of multimedia, facilitated activities, discussion and collaborative work.
How much time should I plan to spend per week?
There will be online meetings (1-2 hours per week), as well as background reading in the early phases resulting in up to 5-8 hours each week. There will be a full break and a period of reduced activity over the summer. For more details see the timeline here.
What skills should I bring to the process?
Ideally you would have experience in policy drafting as well as in the application of policies and enforcement of rules, experience in cooperating online and in writing in English. We would also love our candidates to have empathy; for example, experience in mentoring, resolving difficult disputes, and communicating with compassion are valuable. Experience applying a trauma-informed lens and working within anti-racist and anti-oppressive frameworks would be highly valued.
How will the committee members be selected?
The Trust and Safety Team together with the Legal Team of the Wikimedia Foundation will vet all candidates. Then, the Vice president of Community Resilience and Sustainability, Maggie Dennis, will choose committee members based on the level of skills and experience of candidates in combination with diversity factors.

Applications

If you are interested in applying, please let us know before 19 April by signing up below or emailing Christel Steigenberger. Please include your username and link to your userpage of your home wiki and provide links demonstrating your experience. Let us know about the roles you hold or held in Wikimedia or similar organizations. Feel free to add any additional information that will help us make an informed choice. We are especially interested in hearing why you would like to put your time to this particular work.

Please let any volunteers or affiliate staff members you think might be interested know of this post, and encourage them to apply and help us spread the word. We also welcome your help translating this message.

Please sign up below. Applications can also be sent via email here. Mailing to this address is also the way to provide additional information you do not want publicly onwiki (e.g. proof of work for other organizations that would compromise your anonymity on the Wikimedia projects)
  • (your name and relevant experience)
  • WereSpielChequers (talk) Wikimedian since 2007, mainly active on Commons and EN Wikipedia (crat) but also edit on several other projects such as WikiVoyage.
  • Hi, I'm Kevin; I go by User:L235 on Wikimedia projects (homewiki userpage). I believe I would be a good fit for the committee because of my long-term experience with Wikimedia enforcement processes and community governance, my history of working together with the Foundation, the community, and affiliate communities, and my experience drafting and enacting major policies.
    I have been an active Wikimedia community member since 2014. I am currently a member of the English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee, which is the English Wikipedia's final binding conduct dispute resolution mechanism, a role that also involves working closely with colleagues across the world. In this capacity, I have also collaborated with T&S and other Foundation offices. Before election to ArbCom, I served as an arbitration clerk for five years and I have been an administrator and functionary for several years as well.
    I have experience drafting major policies and closing complex community discussions; for example, I worked with WMF Legal and the community to propose and enact the 2020 RfC on freelance paid editing disclosure, wrote the detailed closure in the September 2019 harassment/OUTING RfC and co-closed the 2020 ArbCom anti-harassment RfC, and am currently serving as a drafting arbitrator for the 2021 discretionary sanctions review and community consultation process.
    I am deeply familiar with community norms and consensus-building processes, and a core philosophy of mine is to be responsive and transparent: since September 2019, I have had a public standing offer for any established Wikipedian who has grievances, questions, or suggestions to have a call with me.
    Beyond the English Wikipedia, I have also been an active member of the global community; I've been a member of the Conference Support Committee for about a year, and I also have experience organizing and attending community events. I am also submitting by email some information about my off-wiki experience. Best, KevinL (aka L235 · t) 20:40, 24 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]
    I know endorsements aren't exactly a thing, but as a fellow applicant I feel the need to say how great it would be to see KevinL on the committee! –MJL ‐Talk‐☖ 23:22, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • Blossom Ozurumba (talk) I am an Igbo language enthusiast and the founding curator of the Igbo Wikimedians User Group. As a professional Igbo language translator, I have executed both commissioned and freelance works for the United Nations, Google Inc, National Agency for the Control of AIDS in Nigeria, Wikimedia Foundation, Global Voices, Society of Igbo Professionals, Lagos Business School etc. I am currently working on an Igbo Language Podcast project; Igbo Proverbs, Idioms, and Phrases. It is a 2-minute quick and enjoyable podcast that will ideally share one Igbo Language Proverb, Idiom, or Phrase, provide the literal meaning and the figurative explanation while also suggesting the most applicable English language equivalent.
  • Bello Na'im (talk) youth advocate, public speaker and activist.I am an editor in Hausa Wikimedians User Group and I edit the English Wikimedia Projects and Arabic Wikimedians User Group as a professional Hausa, Arabic and English language translator, I am a cartoonist, Islamic and western calligrapher, painter, artist printer and translator. I am also a delegates at IMUN and CWMUN.
  • MJL (talk | homewiki) I won't repeat anything that has already been said in global user page, so please read that to get some more information about my history in the movement.
    On English Wikipedia, I have experience co-drafting Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Macedonia) which required coordination with various stakeholders in order to get done. Honestly, it was really fun to participate in that whole process, and it's one of my happiest early accomplishments on Wikipedia.
    Here on Meta, I am one of the only users to successfully launch two global ban discussions. The second one of which is probably one of my favorite accomplishments of all time: Requests for comment/Global ban for Kubura. That user was a known problem on Croatian Wikipedia, and I was more than happy to get him removed from that project.
    Besides that experience, I guess I stand out because I'm LGBT+ and talk to a lot of other LGBT+ people. I'm not exactly an organizer of Wikimedia LGBT+ over here, but I know what it's like to be harrassed.
    Since I am no longer an admin on Scots Wikipedia, I don't hold any significant positions or roles on any project or affiliate. –MJL ‐Talk‐☖ 00:25, 27 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • Ted Chien (talk) I'm Ted Chien, current Chair of Supervisors in Wikimedia Taiwan, former Supervisor (2017/12~2020/1) and former Chairman of WMTW (2012/12~2017/12). Before that I was one of the founders of WMTW and acted as the Secretary of WMTW (2007/2~2012/12). I joined Wikipedia since 2005/11, and I worked mainly on Chinese Wikipedia and currently has been Administrator for 10+ years. I'm also in the Organizer team of Wikimania 2007 as Translation Lead. I was also in the wmfcc-l mailing list to work as International Contact of WMTW in the past. Since 2014 through WMTW, we start the WikiSeed project to help Wikimedia communities in Taiwan to grow and expand, including communities in Taipei, Hsinchu and Taichung. Except Wikimedia, I'm also one of the Organizers of Google Developer Group Taipei. By working on annual event GDG DevFest Taipei from 2016 to 2019, I helped on organizing, leading the program committee, and CoC drafting. For more information on me, you may refer to my About.Me page. If I could help on this UCoC drafting in Wikimedia movement, I will try my best. Thanks! --Ted Chien (talk) 02:54, 29 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • だ＊ぜ (talk) I am Dasze, current Board member of Wikimedia Community User Group Hong Kong, the policy maker and the drafter of the ongoing Articles of our User Group, and the drafter of some parts of the new IRC Protocol in Chinese Wikipedia. I have also communicated with some Wikimedians about the problems involved in the current UCoC before by email and by Telegram. Hope may share my experience in policy making and, my ideas and views on policies in the future. --だ☆ぜ (Dasze) 07:01, 29 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • Wugapodes (talk) I am largely active on the English Wikipedia, where I am an administrator. Recently, the bulk of my work there has comprised RfC closures, page protections, and outreach. Three closures which represent my work: Naming discussion for 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict; Naming discussion for article on the Ukrainian capital; Infobox discussion at Ian Fleming; and Civility-related block discussion for a long-term user. The essay en:w:Wikipedia:Non-sysop closures and my contributions at en:w:Wikipedia:Discussions for discussion contain further reflections on how to read consensus. As an administrator I mainly work at Requests for Page Protection, and frequently need to weigh how best to enforce our policies while staying true to our principle of being the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. These can be viewed at en:w:Special:Log/protect/Wugapodes and my contributions to RfPP. As part of my outreach activities, I have facilitated edit-a-thons at the Linguistic Society of America's annual meeting for three years and most recently with the Linguistic Society's Committee on Gender Equity in Linguistics for International Women's Day. My contributions in that capacity can largely be seen at en:w:User:WugapodesOutreach which also includes essays I have written and curated for participants. I also composed, discussed, and helped implement the logo change for Wikipedia's 20th anniversary on EnWiki, and served as the reserve member of the 2020 Election Committee.
    Off the English Wikipedia, I work sporadically on other projects; in order of activity: MediaWiki, Commons, Meta, and EnVoy. On MediaWiki I am also an administrator for my work on a chess extension. My Commons work is mostly uploading resources, with some occasional editing or restoration. I come to Meta occasionally when a consultation or RfC interests me, and more rarely to read and edit global essays. On EnVoy, I have updated some information on a few towns in Maine.
    Off-wiki, I have some experience serving on committees, most recently serving on our graduate admissions committee. In that role, I read roughly 90 applications and provided summaries and recommendations to the full faculty. The workload of this committee seems comparable. Like grad admissions, the work of this committee and the potential for positive impact excite me. I believe making the Wikipedia movement more welcoming is one of our most important challenges, and drafting a universal document that would be accepted by the communities is critical to its solution.
  • Koala0090 (talk) I'm one of the board member of Wikimedia Taiwan (WMTW). As a active writer on Chinese Wikipedia, I am also experienced in outreach activities, including founding the society in Hualien and one of the directors of Medicine Project of Taiwan. I will try my best on UCoC drafting in Wikimedia movement, thanks!! ---Koala0090 (talk) 07:58, 30 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • M-Mustapha! I am User:M-Mustapha formerly User:The Living love, I'm a community organiser and educator. I initiated and co-founded Hausa Wikimedians User Group and its current Co-ordinator where I organized and carried out various projects individually and for the group. In real life as an educator, I have worked with NGOs to promote education, human rights and peaceful coexistence based on the UN declaration of human rights. Being someone coming from a diverse region hit with violence, hate crimes and political instability, I personally have experienced and understand what it's like to be disturbed, name called, bullied or harassed. I am also involved with Amnesty International and GlobalCitizen. Em-mustapha User | talk 14:30, 30 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • The Foundation obviously did learn nothing. It is unacceptable that we have to apply for being allowed to participate. If the UCoC should apply to all of us then we should all be able to participate in this process without any barriers. Chaddy (talk) 12:33, 6 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • User:Taylor 49 (my global user page, no local pages) I have been active in the wikiworld since 2016-Dec and have made most of my contributions on sv wiktionary and eo wiktionary. Further, on eo wiktionary I coded several modules: example of test page, 85 of 85 tests succeed lemma page using the module lemma page using the module. And my contributions to the "mål", the most broken Swedish word. Among wikipedias, I have been most active on the Indonesian one. I am also active on wikidata and to a lesser degree on commons. I am sysop on 3 wikis now. I have even made bad experiences. Some sensitive details sent by mail. Taylor 49 (talk) 00:57, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • User:Ritchie333 (main home page) I have spelled out further details in private. Ritchie333 (talk) 09:13, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • Hi, I'm Mboix, cofounder of Wikimujeres User Group and Wikipedia editor for more than 14 years, frequent collaborator of several wikiprojects as Spanish Wikipedia's Wikiproject Women, Women Human Rights, Las Imprescindibles and others suchs as terrorism and international policy. As a Wikimedian I wrote 1000 new articles in Spanish Wikipedia and made 48 000 editions. In a general way I'm engaged to defending and promoting rights of Equity and Diversity in Wikimedia movement, Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects. I am Spanish and I have fluent communication with many Latin American wikimedians and persons. Professionally I'm licentiate in Information Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Master's programs on equality, technology, communication, and development with a gender perspective at various Spanish universities. I have professional experience from more than 15 years developing equity policies and conflict resolution on sexual and gender-based harassment. As a result of this experience I'm part of a Media Equity Observatory in Spain, a national organism devoted to promote and foster equity in national media. I'm fluent on Spanish, Catalan and French; I have Italian comprehension and capacity for oral expression. In English I have written and oral comprehension. Mboix (talk) 23:48, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • User:Alhen. Hi, there. I helped set up the admin board on Spanish Wikipedia. I was also part of the only arbcom before we found we had no use for it (ping me if you want more details). Although I haven't been the most active checkuser, I have had the flag for quite some time. I was a mediator back in the day about political issues and some other not so lovable topics. I am an admin and bureaucrat on es.wiki and some other wikis. Also, I have devoted quite some time to welcome new users, and make them feel at home. I co-founded Wikimedistas de Bolivia WUG, and well, I hope I could be part of this iteration for the UCoC drafting committee. alhen Did you call, sir? 01:33, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • Sm8900. I have been editing Wikipedia for almost fifteen years. I have a variety of experiences. I am a lead coordinator at WikiProject History, although admittedly I attained the position simply by volunteering myself for it; the WikiProject is relatively much less active, compared to other more dynamic WikiProjects here. I have a variety of experience with various modes of user conduct, as well as various forms of interactions. I have some specific ideas and priorities that i would like to suggest for group discussion. I would look forward to contributing positively in any way. thanks. --Sm8900 (talk) 14:48, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • Romaine - Long time contributor to the various wikis (in a wide variety of roles) and volunteer for chapters. In various occasions I had to deal with harassment and have been the target of trolls and other people with bad behaviour. Also I have seen how cultural differences, disabilities and having a different neurotypical being can lead to terrible situations that as result of actions and assumptions by others only got worse. The first thing that is needed to solve problematic situations is to understand what the background is, second is to have a proper communication. Communication (or the lack of it) is often a cause in how situations get out of control. To make the community able to better respond to bad behaviour, we (volunteers + support from chapter) organised sessions to better understand how neuroatypical community members work and we developed a training program which is available to the Dutch community. With new guidelines and procedures I evaluate both on forehand and after a trial period their effectiveness, and look for possible discrepancies and issues to avoid that guidelines/procedures lead to worse situations instead of better. My background includes being an analyst and use this background to positive influence bad situations, preferable before they go further out of control and result in personal attacks and harassment. For some situations I have been (confidential) counselor to help victims of harassment and helping them in relieving their situations. Romaine (talk) 17:00, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • Imetsia I'm an admin on English Wiktionary, but have no special experience in the policy-making process. I am experienced in translating texts between English and Italian, and I am most interested in translating the draft. Imetsia (talk) 19:40, 13 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • Raquel Ramírez Salgado Usuaria:Hekatl. Currently I'm Gender consultant for Wikimedia Mexico chapter. Professionally I have a PhD on Gender and Communication by National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and 16 years of professional experience, in which I have worked as a speaker, teacher and advisor on Gender and Human Rights. Among this efforts, I was part of the UNAM's Code of Conduct and Internal Protocols about mechanisms of attention to cases of sexual harassment and abuses. UNAM is the largest university in Latin America and attends near to 250 000 persons. I wish to apply for the Universal Code of Conduct second phase. On the other hand, I coordinate academic and educational spaces whose main theme is the promotion of gender equality and equity. Among my functions as a Gender consultant for Wikimedia Mexico is the development of a diagnostic research on the engaging of Women in Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects. From this exercise, I have gathered very valuable insights about the possibilities and limitations about women experience creating content, and one of the central themes is the interaction between users, My participation in the second phase of the Universal Code of Conduct would be a great opportunity to share research results and strengthen the larger Wikimedia community. I am sure of the need to have an UCOC's deployment from an ethical, human rights and gender perspective. Belonging to the Drafting Committee of the Universal Code of Conduct would be an honor for me and, without a doubt, I would participate actively and fully committed. Best, Hekatl (talk) 02:34, 17 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • Aron Manning. I am a senior software architect and analyst, 2 decades of professional experience. You might recall me from the CR&S office hour questions that Elena Lappen described with the following words: "I love the forward-thinking focus of the questions though and I think let's talk about that later and "let's bookmark it and revisit it" is a great answer for a lot of these questions..."
I've been researching Wikipedia's governance in the last 2 years, gaining an analytical understanding of the sociodynamics and the issues the community faces. I've outlined the workflow design of a reporting and evaluation tool (you can read it here), which provides a user-friendly and private reporting environment for complainants and also ensures transparency and due process for the accused in the evaluation phase. It also allows to choose the noticeboard or committee where the report should be handled, thus sharing the work-load and avoiding centralization of arbitration.
I've designed this process to alleviate the issues of dispute resolution that I've seen and experienced in 2 years: newcomers and casual editors can't contribute safely as they have no standing to report abuse from established contributors. Such reports are ignored in the best case, boomeranged at worst. Newcomers learn early on that it's best to avoid disagreements to avoid repercussions. This is contradictory to the movement's core values, but newcomers seldom survive to tell their story. I have waited two years to tell mine: I've experienced bullying and hounding, which eventually culminated in an indefinite block without a warning or due process. Appeals resulted in further escalation. All paths were exhausted (ArbCom, OmbCom, Trust&Safety), resulting in no answer or refusal to get involved, nobody seems to care about the harassment I've experienced. This is not how DR is supposed to work.
Due to a lack of transparency, effective appeal and complaint processes this issue is unknown to the community. While researching Wikipedia it became clear this is a prevalent issue, many newcomers are driven away with a sour experience. As I understand the CoC is aiming to address this issue as well. My intent is to establish procedures and a culture of accountability that provide more safety and due process for all contributors and a more inclusive experience for casual editors than mine. I have detailed knowledge of policies and DR, analytical understanding of Wikipedia's sociodynamics, experience in mediation and organization of volunteer events involving a CoC with 100+ participants: a unique skillset and insight to provide valuable input towards this goal, that probably only I can give, therefore I hope the vetting process sees my undue block as a reason to include my input, not the opposite. —Aron Man.🍂 edits🌾 20:30, 18 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • I'm Luke from the german wikipedia, I'm member of the arbcom there since almost three years. I have experience in trying to solve complex conflicts, speaking with those who are involved in a case and finding compromises during our calls. I'd like to work at the committee to find a good policy which meets the needs of people searching for help and also gets accepted by the communities itself – two points which I consider as most important for such an enforcement policy. Luke081515 22:04, 18 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Phase 2 drafting committee members

We are pleased to announce that the Universal Code of Conduct drafting committee for phase 2 has been assembled. We had 35 volunteers apply, either by publicly signing up on the Meta page, or by sending an email. Volunteers from at least 20 different countries applied, identifying themselves as working on 26 different wikimedia projects. There was a wide range of roles applicants held within the movement as well as a wide range of experiences on wiki and skills in policy making outside the movement. It was once again very hard to narrow down from this diverse and extremely qualified pool of applicants.

We feel lucky that we could choose from such a broad and exciting candidate pool and form a committee we think will collaborate with one another effectively and create the best possible enforcement guidelines for the Universal Code of Conduct for the Wikimedia movement.

The new committee is a group of people that includes Wikimedians from 9 different countries and who edit our projects in more than 11 different languages. Collectively they hold sysop roles on 13 different projects and 11 higher functionary roles, including two global sysops and 2 sitting arbitrators on different projects. Unfortunately no steward or former steward applied as a volunteer, but we were able to use one of the Foundation staff slots to appoint a member who was a steward until recently. Several members of the committee have been editing since 2008, we have a member who helped organize Wikimania 2007, and we also have someone who joined the Wikimedia movement only in 2021. Collectively the committee members have edited our projects more than 395,000 times with their volunteer accounts. The committee also includes founding and board members of affiliates of different sizes, a sitting AffCom member and several members of the OTRS-Team.

We are extremely grateful to everyone who volunteered and certainly to those who have accepted the responsibility of producing this first document. It will be the inspiring starting point from which enforcement processes and strategies will evolve over time. We know there will be many hard conversations within the committee and beyond, and we hope that everyone with an interest will participate as we work together to try to create fair systems for all.

Phase 2 volunteers

For the time after community review:

Phase 2 staff members

Phase 2 drafting committee timeline

Phase 2 drafting committee timeline
Details Dates Synopsis Time commitment
Onboarding call (optional) April 29 Welcome, overview of reading materials, review guidelines, expectations, timeline, Friendly Space Policy, committee tools and platforms, remote etiquette, Q&A. 1 hour.
Onboarding library + required reading April 26 – May 10 Go through the library for required reading before the first drafting session. 5 to 8 hours.
Drafting sessions May 14 – July 9 Drafting sessions held weekly plus asynchronous work. 2-hour weekly drafting sessions. Up to 4-hour weekly asynchronous work.
Translation of the draft July 10 – July 20 Break for the drafting committee. No time required.
Public review period July 20 – September 20 Committee break with options for 1-2 hours of weekly participation in community discussions. Final decisions to be made when the committee reconvenes. No time required. Optional participation with weekly digest - committee members who do not follow discussions as they are happening expected to read the digests before the committee reconvenes.
Drafting Committee Proposal Refining 19 October ... 2021-11-30 delayed to 2022-01-06 Committee reconvened to work through and implement community feedback. 2-hour weekly refining sessions. Up to 2-hour weekly asynchronous work.
Translation work January 3, 2022 ... January 24, 2022 Started before the committee finalized the document. No time required.
Publication January 24, 2022 Universal Code of Conduct/Enforcement guidelines Phase completed.

The ideal drafting committee paradox - a short essay

Essay by CSteigenberger (WMF)

In an ideal world, the drafting committee would represent the full diversity of our movement and all members would have important insights into how policies are applied successfully on different Wikimedia projects, but also elsewhere in the world. It would have members who have held extended rights for a long time, sat on ArbComs and other committees, as well as newcomers to our projects. Some of its members would be Wikimedians who have been targeted by harassers, others would be people who have resolved incidents around harassment successfully. There would also be Wikimedians who have falsely been accused of harassment. On the committee we would see Wikimedians from different projects from all around the world. Young Wikimedians, old Wikimedians, women, men, non-binary Wikimedians, Wikimedians with different skin tones, different religious backgrounds, working in different topic areas and more.

All those people would interact with each other respectfully and in harmony, making room for the viewpoints of others but also bringing forward their own insights and ideas. They would be flexible in their scheduling and accommodating the needs of other committee members. They would be solution focused and effective in creating a text in English that is easily translatable. They would enjoy creating guidelines for enforcement, taking into account existing community processes and making sure they are in compliance with legal requirements the Wikimedia Foundation has to fulfill.

At the same time this ideal committee would be made up of ordinary, real people, just like you. People who might have work obligations, families, social lives and a wide variety of interests outside the Wikimedia movement and who also need time to sleep, to rest and to do lots of things not connected to the UCoC. People with a limited understanding of the complexity of the task and people with limited energy. People who make mistakes, create misunderstandings, might be moody or even difficult at times and might get sick or experience other unexpected problems.

It will take people with traits on both sides of this paradox to create the best possible drafting committee. We want to encourage you to think about what parts of this ideal committee describe you best and to let us know about them!

Phase 1

Phase 1 Drafting committee recruiting and meeting notes The Universal Code of Conduct Drafting committee (UCoCDC or “the committee”) is a group of Wikimedians brought together with the purpose of finalizing the draft of the Universal Code of Conduct by August 30, 2020, for Board ratification as requested in the Board statement on community culture 2020. The committee will consist of volunteer movement members brought in through an open application process, and qualified Foundation staff based on specific skills (including legal experience, diversity & inclusion experience, and translatability expertise). Members will be selected by the Vice President of Community Resilience and Sustainability of the Wikimedia Foundation. Volunteer members for the committee will be respected community members with at least two of the following skills or traits:

  • experience in policy drafting
  • experience in cooperating online
  • empathy
  • experience in collaborating in an international team
  • participatory decision making

They will be selected as much as possible to also represent the diversity of our movement in respect to languages spoken, geography, gender, age, project size of their home wiki, and their roles within the Wikimedia movement. Building on the detailed recommendations made by the movement strategy working group on community health, the Committee will use the Contributor Covenant as baseline and incorporate feedback gathered as appropriate. Work will be conducted through a facilitated structure to avoid impasses and maintain focus. One or two people will be selected for their writing skills to do the actual drafting based on input from the group. A dedicated Foundation team, Community Development, will provide this structure, lead the facilitation, and provide additional resources as needed.

Phase 1 call for applications

Universal Code of Conduct/Drafting committee/en

Do you care for safety and friendliness in the Wikimedia movement? Are you interested in the guidelines and policies that guide it? Do you enjoy helping improvements in these areas? This is your chance to get involved!

We are looking for volunteers to join the Drafting Committee for the Universal Code of Conduct. If you are interested, please read the following important information for candidates:

  • Who will be on the committee? - five or six volunteers and four or five Foundation staff members and (depending on how many candidates apply)
  • When will the committee be active? - July 22 - September 30 2020
  • What will they do? Read background material and draft a Universal Code of Conduct that will provide a minimum baseline guiding the behaviour of every contributor to the Wikimedia movement. See more information here.
  • How will they work? They will meet online and work on shared documents, starting from the Contributor Covenant as a starting text. A facilitation team will help them to organize the work, and experts in different areas will be available to provide support.
  • How much time should I plan to spend per week? There will be online meetings (2-4 hours per week), as well as background reading in the early phases resulting in up to 8-10 hours each week.
  • What skills should I bring to the process? Ideally you would have experience in policy drafting, experience in cooperating online and in writing in English. We would also love our candidates to have empathy; for example, experience in mentoring, resolving difficult disputes, and communicating with compassion are valuable.
  • How will the committee members be selected? The Trust and Safety Team together with the Legal Team of the Wikimedia Foundation will vet all candidates. Then, the Vice president of Community Resilience and Sustainability, Maggie Dennis, will choose committee members based on the level of skills and experience of candidates in combination with diversity factors. Ideally we will be able to form a competent committee that reflects the diversity of the movement not only in the usual demographic areas like language, geographic location, gender, age, but also in wiki specific areas like the project size of their home wiki, roles in the Wikimedia movement, project type and more.

If you are interested in applying, please let us know before July 15 by signing up below or mail to Christel Steigenberger. Please include your username and link to your userpage of your home wiki and provide links demonstrating your experience. Let us know about the roles you hold or held in Wikimedia or similar organizations. Feel free to add any additional information that will help us make an informed choice.

Please forward this message to any volunteers you think might be interested, and encourage them to apply and help us spread the word. We also welcome your help translating this message here.

Phase 1 applications for the drafting committee

Universal Code of Conduct/Drafting committee/en

Please sign up here. Applications can also be sent per mail here. Mailing there is also the way to provide additional information you do not want publicly onwiki (e.g. proof of work for other organizations that would compromise your anonymity on the Wikimedia projects).

    1. I am the oldest User at Hindi Wikipedia.
    2. I represent Indic community.
    3. I have been Bureaucrat & Admin for a pretty long period.
    4. I have a good understanding for *Code of Conduct* as I have been actively participating in framing of rules and policies for period Long.
    5. I have been actively participating in the Community discussions for long long period.
    6. Done enormous and quality contributions, featured articles, that still features on the Hindi Wiki main page, and also enormous number of pages.
--Ashish Bhatnagar talk 11:09, 3 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • I would like to apply, I've sent more details about myself to Christel Steigenberger via email. --Civvì (talk) 14:01, 3 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Interested, email sent. — Racconish 💬 08:18, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • I wrote the draft for the Living People policy and the RfC that lead to it's adoption on Wikidata. Since May 2017 I'm an admin on Wikidata I have had experience with a lot of on-Wiki moderation. Outside of Wikimedia I spent four years in the moderation team for the StevePavlina forum which was a self-improvement forum. In that time we had a lot of discussions about our forum rules in our moderation team. I was a member of Citizendium Editorial Council.
Offline I did community organizing as well by being one of the people who started the Quantified Self community in Germany. ChristianKl ❪✉❫ 13:46, 5 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  1. I am interested in joining this committee. I have submitted additional information by email to summarise both some relevant on-wiki experience and some professional activity. Nosebagbear (talk) 20:03, 15 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Phase 1 drafting committee members

We are happy to announce that the Universal Code of Conduct drafting committee has been assembled. We had 26 volunteers apply, either by publicly signing up on the Meta page, or by sending an email. Volunteers from 18 different countries applied, speaking 11 different languages.

We had Wikimedian applicants with different levels of experience on-wiki, from someone who started editing only last year to people who have been editing for more than 18 years and/or have more than 300,000 edits. Applicants held a variety of different roles within the movement, and also informed us about interesting and relevant experiences in their real-life careers. It was very hard to narrow down from this diverse and extremely qualified pool of applicants.

For the final selection, two aspects guided the decision making - we want a committee that at the one hand will represent important parts of the movement. Prolific editors as well as Wikimedians whose strength is more in organizing events, Wikimedians from different demographics, contributors from small and large wikis, and people holding different roles within the movement. We also wanted a group of people who will collaborate with one another effectively and create the best possible Universal Code of Conduct for the Wikimedia movement. Experience has taught us that committees that are too large find it difficult to work effectively, so we decided to cap the number of seats to 6 volunteer seats and 3 staff seats. Please note that more chances for engagement are coming up during the community draft review period starting from August 24.

Phase 1 volunteers

  • Civvì
  • ProtoplasmaKid - reserve member, joined Aug. 18 (Founder Wikimedia Mexico chapter)
    • masti member stepped down
  • RachelWex (St. Cloud State University, US, associate professor)
  • Sami Mlouhi (President Wikimedia Tunisia User Group, Secretary Wikimedia Affiliates Committee)
  • Uzoma (Wikimedia Incubator)

Phase 1 staff members

Phase 1 advisory roles

The Universal Code of Conduct Drafting committee is being supported by Wikimedia Foundation staff in terms of logistics and coordination, but also from community members offering insights and draft feedback through Advisory roles. They provided insights about specific processes, such as running content drives, starting new editing communities, keeping real-life events safe, and serving on movement committees. Advisory roles were selected from interested parties who offered some of these relevant experiences during the application period for the Drafting Committee.

How do Advisory members take part in the process?

Advisory members will be supported by staff to provide focused insights, data, and experiences to the Drafting Committee through interviews, written briefs, and informational video call sessions. Their input will also inform Phase 2 of the UCoC project.

Phase 1 advisory members

  • ANKAN, advisor providing insights from the perspective of a chapter in South Asia.
  • Bobbyshabangu, advisor providing insights into the situation of African minority language communities and from the perspective of an African chapter.
  • Joy sagar Murmu, advisor providing insights into the situation of a minority language community with a relatively new wiki.
  • Nattes à chat, advisor providing insights into the situation for female organizers and women editing the projects.
  • Protoplasmakid, advisor providing insights into Latin American communities and connections between behavioural issues and Human Rights issues. Protoplasmakid stepped up to the drafting committee on Aug 18.
  • RFarrand (WMF), advisor providing insights about behavioural issues at events and her experience with the application of relevant existing policies.

Phase 1 meeting summaries

Please see this subpage for summaries of the 9 Phase 1 meetings: Universal Code of Conduct/Drafting committee/Phase 1 meeting summaries.



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