[Local-chapters] Arbitration of conflicts

[Katie Filbert]

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 10:00 AM, Serge Wroclawski <emacsen at gmail.com>wrote:

> At the US Protochapter call last night, one issue that arose was that
> of edit conflicts.
>
> For example, if there is an edit which is deemed by some parties to be
> right and others to be wrong, who will make that final decision?
>
> I've been asked to propose that LCs be given a role to play in this if
> the area of dispute is in their territory.
>
>
My view on this is that chapters should not at all play a role here.
Chapters will tend to be associated with countries or geographic areas, and
may have vested interest in one side or the other of a dispute.

For example, do we have the OSM Pakistan chapter be the arbitrating body
over disputes in Kashmir?  Or do we have the OSM India chapter do so?
Rather, perhaps a mediator(s) should come from completely different places
in the world.

Rather, the approach to disputes should follow the approach of:

(1) seeking consensus on the WikiProject talk page
(2) seek mediation, from someone uninvolved in the dispute

Mediators should come from the OSM community, and be completely separate
from chapters activities.  Perhaps we could have a mediators committee,
expanding on what's outlined in the disputes wiki page (
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Disputes)

Would we elect such a mediation committee? or people just volunteer to do
it? or what?  Or would we just assign individual mediators to particular
problems, rather than a committee?

Regarding technical capabilities like locking features, it would be good to
develop those capabilities in the OSM software.  Though, also consider
placing a temporary block on users who edit war, as an alternative to
locking features or areas.

Regards,
Katie


> - Serge
>
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-- 
Katie Filbert
filbertk at gmail.com
@filbertkm
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