WikiVices is an audio roundtable discussion occurring on an irregular basis, usually conducted via Skype conferencing. The purpose of this audio broadcast is to give voice to the marginalized and victimized members of the Wikimedia Foundation project communities. These may include controversial figures who have been reprimanded, blocked, banned, or otherwise censored from participation on any WMF project(s).
Disappointed by unprofessional practices exhibited at Wikivoices, WikiVices will instead adhere to several basic principles that Wikivoices has failed to live by. Namely:
- Every episode will be produced by someone who discloses their real name to the public, and they will take personal responsibility for the successful execution of the episode.
- Every episode will be released promptly to the public in an unedited form, and later (potentially) in an edited form, per the editing preferences of the episode producer.
- Every episode (reasonable space permitting) will be open to various participants; however, it is at the discretion of the episode producer to invite or reject whomever he or she pleases, so long as a public pronouncement of the producer's rationale accompanies the rejection of any guest.
Additionally, the following guidelines will prevail:
- No episode will be longer than 60 minutes of recorded content.
- English will be the language of discussion.
- We will strive to include at least 3 participants per episode (i.e., WikiVices is not intended to be a one-on-one interview dialog).
- A 60% or higher majority of participants in a given episode will have the ability to overrule the episode producer on critical issues. E.g., if 60% wish to have specific content stricken or suppressed from public dissemination, their wishes should be met, regardless of the opinion of the episode producer.
- As the creator of the WikiVices program, Gregory Kohs reserves the right to break deadlocks when consensus (here, considered 60% of agents involved in the debate) cannot be reached on any given WikiVices concern.
- Interested participants who are unable to edit Meta Wikimedia pages are welcome to correspond with the project creator via e-mail (ResearchBiz at gmail.com).
Before we start
WikiVices will endeavor to publish an advance agenda and indicate who is in charge of producing a specific episode, with its key discussion points. Unless otherwise noted by the producer, the producer also acts as the moderator for the conference call. We will reasonably limit the number of participants. Skype has a performance threshold, and we find that discussions with more than 10 participants become unwieldy.
During the roundtable
The moderator welcomes the participants and introduces the agenda. (If the participants don't know each other, we may start with a brief circle of introductions to one another.) We then continue with the first item on the agenda and we might ask a person who is responsible to deliver a brief presentation on the topic. That way, we make sure everybody is on the same page as far as talking points. Conversation may then circulate around the participants in the episode, but all participants must strive not to talk over one another, not to use profanity, and understand that any potentially defamatory claims that might be made are the responsibility of the speaker, not the WikiVices program, its producer, or the Wikimedia Foundation.
If any action plans emerge from the episode, please make sure any new duties are clearly described, and it is made clear who is responsible for them and what are the expectations for delivery timeline.
After the meeting
The moderator will send to every participant a brief summary (no more than 500 words) of the discussion results, inviting them to improve it. The moderator will then publish this summary here, sharing the unedited recorded results with our wider community. If an edited version of the episode is also planned, the producer will make an announcement of this.