CZ Talk:Policy on Topic Informants

I cannot think of a worse name. Informant implies un-named and undercover-- a gangster who is in contact with a law enforcement officer, a member of the government who is in contact with a spy, a person leaking information to a reporter.

This is intended to be just the opposite--an objective analyst. If it is going to be under-cover, don't emphasize in in the name.

Informant" is the accepted term in human subjects research involving interviews. Stephen Ewen 00:33, 1 March 2007 (CST)

scope

I agree with almost all of this except "that if you aren't really a public figure, it should be up to you whether we have an article about you or not." .--unless you mean a public figure as anyone who has been the subject of several newspaper stories, or something similarly broad. I would hope ,for example, that we would have articles about all the members of the National Academy of Sciences. We needn't go into their personalities, but what is an encyclopedia for if not discussing scholarly work--whether or not they approve of the discussion. That is why we have real editors.DavidGoodman 00:02, 27 January 2007 (CST)

Comments

"Members will be selected by sortition among volunteers" - is this meaning "volunteers for the Topic Informant Workgroup"?

"The workgroup cannot be considered active unless there are at least three members, and should not have more than twelve members." COMMENT: Twelve seems overmuch. How about nine?

"The workgroup itself shall select its own group leader(s)" ADD: "and to apportion member roles and responsibilities as it deems befitting to its functioning."

"Workgroup members will serve yearlong terms" ADD: "that are renewable for up to [number] terms." (This better permits both stability and development of expertise).

The Citizendium will then:

• link to these remarks from the relevant article pages
• take these remarks very seriously, and, as appropriate, cite them

Definition of "topic informant." Persons who give interviews or remarks in this fashion are called topic informants. A person is considered a topic informant only if the Citizendium has published his or her remarks, with his or her permission.

COMMENT: If the entire transcripts are linked to, this could have a chilling effect on topic informants coming forward. As in human subjects research, complete transcriptions of interviews should remain private, except to the Topic Informant Group. Only those portions of relevance to material cited should be published and linked to.

Stephen Ewen 00:33, 1 March 2007 (CST)