Ombuds commission/2016/Report Jan-Jun
Semiannual Report: January 1, 2016 to June 30, 2016
Composition
Members of the Ombudsman Commission are selected by the Wikimedia Foundation, which has continued its practice of appointing members for a term lasting approximately one year. A new Commission was officially announced on February 1. Its members are users Alan, Barras, NahidSultan, Pajz, Polimerek, Rubin16, and Taketa, with users Gnom and Huji serving as advisors. The new members of the Commission received all necessary access rights within one week from February 1, at which point the new Commission was fully operational.
An IRC meeting was held in early February, during which the Commission established a secretary schedule covering the current term. (Members of the Ombudsman Commission alternate in the job as “secretary” for the Commission. The secretary serves for a period of two months and has a set of special responsibilities with respect to the processing of cases.)
Expansion of Scope of Responsibilities
In mid-January, the Board of Trustees’ resolution on amending the scope of the Ombudsman Commission, approved unanimously on November 7, 2015, was announced to the public. It provides, in particular, that
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the Ombudsman Commission shall, in addition to continuing to investigate cases of privacy policy breach or CheckUser abuse for the Board, hear and investigate questions or complaints containing allegations that:
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Accordingly, the Meta page for the Ombudsman Commission has been modified to reflect the expanded scope of responsibilities. As a further result of the publication of the Board resolution, the Ombudsman Commission requested an additional MediaWiki user right (the “viewsuppressed” right) for its members, allowing them, on all Wikimedia projects, to view revisions hidden from any user. Without that right, the Ombudsman Commission would be unable to review suppressed revisions, and therefore could not properly investigate potential violations of the (global) Oversight Policy. The Wikimedia Foundation approved the request, and the right was consequently granted.
Summary of Cases
During the reporting period, a total of 10 incidents were reported to the Ombudsman Commission. They are summarized below:
| CheckUser-related | Suppressrevision-related | Other | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Closed within less than 30 days | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| Closed within 30—60 days | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Closed within 60—90 days | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Closed within more than 90 days | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Not yet closed (as of June 30) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 7 | 2 | 1 |
In addition, one case based on an incident reported in 2015 was concluded during the reporting period. Of the 11 cases brought to a conclusion by the Ombudsman Commission during the reporting period, two cases have led to a report to the Wikimedia Foundation pursuant to the applicable 2006 and 2015 Board resolutions.