Wikiversity/Draft Charter

<font=+1>DRAFT CHARTER FOR WIKIVERSITY

Legal status

Wikiversity is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. It does not have any independant legal personality. It relationships with external organizations are governed by the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation (hereinafter referred to as "the Board of Trustees"). It is not a postsecondary education institution in the sense of the Florida K-20 Education Code, and does not deliver degrees or diplomas of any kind in any jurisdiction.

Objects

The objects of the Wikiversity are:

1. The provision of Internet-based learning materials to enable its members and other users to study any subject of interest at any possible level of interest or participation.
2. The collaborative development of Internet-based learning materials in a wide variety of human endeavers, limted only by interest of participants and applicable regulatory authorities.
3. The promotion of the collaborative development of Internet-based learning materials.

Wikiversity does not aim to certify to external authorities the prowesss of its participants, rather to assist its users in achieving whatever personal goals of validation, certification, or accreditation they specifiy and pursue. Thus an initial Wikiversity participant studying Systems Engineering would receive no Wikiversity Diploma at the completion of a self specified curriculum, rather they will have helped develop and utilized specific tools to assist with external certification and testing. Obviously some of these tools, materials, elearning environments, texts, lesson plans, and tests will be useful in the future should the governing authority of the Wikiversity choose to seek specific accreditation with specific external regulatory authorities consistent with the ability to confer actual credentials or certificates of achievement.

Rector

The Rector of Wikiversity is chosen by a procedure approved by the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees may perform any or all of the functions of the Rector.

Proposed alternative: The Wikiversity shall be a self governing meritocracy with a published constitution transparently operated via information technology grids with no single external entity or cabal capable of dictating to the collectively sovereign participants how its resources shall be developed, maintained, delivered or censored for the benefit of all responsible sophonts residing within the civilized reaches of the Solar System or having specifically authorized grid access at levels deemed appropriate for the benefit of all sentient civilization within utilization range. No participant in good standing shall be denied access to the Wikiversity's resources by any action of the Wikiversity body politic or staff without due process demonstrating the necessity of restricting an individual's access for the overall benefit of the entire rest of the community or body politic.

Members

The members of Wikiversity are those individuals who have completed a registration procedure as prescribed by Wikiversity Policy. The membership of an individual may be suspended or terminated in accordance with Wikiversity Policy. No restrictions may be placed on membership without the express approval of the Board of Trustees.

Proposed alternative: Members of the Wikiversity are those sentients who have participated by leaving an information trail behind them. No participant shall be denied access without due process as specified and published.

Proposed alternative: Wikiversity is established for the benefit and equal opportunity of all civilized sophonts and no actions shall be taken by the Wikiversity administration to withold access from any person, alien, software entity, animal, or collective institution without due process demonstrating specific justification in accordance with published procedures and regulations as per the Wikiversity constitution.

Policy

Wikiversity Policy is the body of rules necessary for the acheivement of the objects. Policy is made:

1. by decision of the Rector; or
2. by decision of the Board of Trustees; or
3. by decision of the members.

The decision of the members cannot overrule the decision of the Rector or of the Board of Trustees.

The above is completely inverted and nonsensical. Rewrite is left as an exercise for some other discerning reader considering local participation. I have already implicitly proposed policy is predetermined by participants in the above constitutional approach proposals.