Wikipedia:Community Panel

Outline of the proposed body

The Wikipedia Community Panel is proposed as a decision-making body comprised of twenty elected representatives of the Wikipedia community. This is intended, amongst other things, to replace the Arbitration Committee, provide advisory to the community on policy decisions, work on engineering solutions to recurring issues affecting the community, and provide a liason between the community and the Wikimedia Foundation board. It should be noted that although this body is planned to be elected by a vote, and it serves to deliberate Wikipedia decision-making issues, it is not a democratic body and is ultimately under the direct control of Jimbo Wales and the Wikimedia board.

Election process

• Panelists have a term of twelve months, which may be renewed indefinitely should they stand and be re-elected.
• Elections are staggered to half the seats being elected once every six months, and operate according to an approval voting system. In the event of a tie, Jimbo Wales will make a discretionary decision on which of the two candidates to admit to the panel.
• The presiding individual over this body will be the panel Chairperson, who is chosen at the start of every newly-elected term by a secret ballot amongst the panelists, which will be conducted according to a preferential voting system. In the event of a tie in this election of the chairperson, Jimbo Wales will decide which of the two tied individuals will be given the role.
• The community vote on panel members will be voted as a secret ballot via a modified Special:Boardvote set-up, as will the internal secret ballot to determine the Chairperson.
• Jimbo Wales will maintain final executive discretion over this body and may, at his discretion, veto members who are elected or appoint individuals of his own choosing. It would, however, be agreed that these powers would only be used where it is determined by Jimbo Wales that no such intervention would lead to detriment to the Wikipedia community.

Dispute resolution functionality

• On the successful appointment of the initial panel once this proposal is implemented, the Arbitration Committee will be dissolved, and the panel will take over final-stage dispute resolution. Alternatively, an incremental hand-over process may be considered preferable.
• Cases will be brought by community members via a Request for Arbitration page, similar to the existing Arbitration Committee page (except that case proceedings will, as outlined below, take a different form). Cases may also be placed into the system by panel members themselves.
• One or more assigned panelists will be allocated to a particular case by the Chairperson. Those individuals assigned to the case will carry out investigation, findings-of-fact, dialogue with the users affected by the dispute and propose final remedies to the case.
• The case is entirely at the discretion of these assigned members, and any one of those members is permitted to place interim remedies into force where the Chairperson has given authority to them to implement such remedies.
• Once the case proceedings have been completed, the proposal will be placed before the panel as a whole, and a publically-viewable debate will be conducted to determine panel consensus to either adopt, amend or rewrite the proposed arbitration proceedings.
• Upon the determination of consensus by the Chairperson, the actions specified in the case proceedings will be enacted by those individuals assigned to the request. Enforcement will be made on direction of the assigned panelists, and in the community by Wikipedia administrators.
• No formalised arbitration process will be implemented aside from these aspects outlined above and cases may be handled at the discretion of those individuals assigned to it by the Chairperson.

Community policy

• Proposed policies may be deliberated by the panel via a Requests for panel Review page. Input will also be collected from Jimbo Wales and the Wikimedia board on their planned executive-level decisions (at their discretion, or alternatively via the Chairperson being made a member of the Wikimedia board; this would have to be determined at the Board's decision). The panel will collaboratively produce reports on their recommendations regarding those policies.
• Proposed changes to policy made by fiat (or other issues affecting the community) proposed by Jimbo Wales or the Board will be deliberated by the panel, and the opinion of the panel will be made available to both the community and the Board. However, the Community will remain in ultimate control of the enaction of policies (except where directed by the Board or Jimbo Wales, when they will be in eventual control).
• Where issues have been identified by the community, requests for investigation may be made to the panel. In such circumstances the panel will decide, by means of their own enaction, whether or not to take up the request. In the event the panel decides to do so, the panel will collaborate towards creating possible solutions to the issues outlined in the request by investigation and proposition. Any new measures recommended will be presented to the Community for ratification.
• The panel will also make continuous efforts to help resolve problems which are affecting the community on its own volition.