RE: proposed policy for user names on W3C wikis

Should there be an arbitration policy in the event of name ownership being contested? Names are obviously quite a personal thing, but in most societies the same names are used many times so there may be a dispute over who has claim over a name, or there could be the possibility of the name being in dispute at some later date. For example, my own given name is actually derived from a mathematical equation and unlikely to be seen elsewhere as a given name, but I am aware that it is also a family name in some places (and also the name of a place in Texas), so potentially someone who has my given name as their family name could dispute my use of it as a wiki name. Unlikely, but possible.

Indeed, given the world-wide nature of W3C, almost every name (mathematical or otherwise!) could potentially be disputed at some point in time, so some policy for dealing with such disputes might be wise.

Of course, one could also try "first come, first served". In which case I'm glad to have already set up my account :)

---Rotan.


-----Original Message-----
From: public-wiki-dev-request@w3.org [mailto:public-wiki-dev-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Sandro Hawke
Sent: 28 November 2007 02:00
To: public-wiki-dev@w3.org
Subject: proposed policy for user names on W3C wikis



Some time ago I wrote:
   http://www.w3.org/2007/OWL/wiki/User_Account_Management


I haven't gotten much feedback, but there's been a little, and I've
thought about it some more, and here's my conclusion:

   1. Wiki users may choose their own username. It is suggested, but not
      required, that they use their real name (as below), in a form
      which is likely to be unambiguous within the the larger W3C
      community.  It is okay to use WikiNames.  Use of given names
      (alone) or nicknames is generally discouraged, since they it they
      may well become ambiguous when a new person joins the group.

   2. There should be a wiki page for each member of the group, using
      their real name, redirecting (#REDIRECT) to their user page. Thus
      group members can be referred to like: 

        [[Sandro Hawke]]
        [[Peter Patel-Schneider]]
        [[Markus Krötzsch]]

      as, for example, in the OWL minutes [1].   These redirect pages
      can be set up by the users themselves, or by anyone else with
      write access to the wiki.

   3. Looking forward, we should try to get OpenID working on MediaWiki,
      and w3.org should allow users to enumerate OpenIDs for themselves
      (on [2]).  Then, users should be encouraged (and perhaps
      eventually required) to authenticate themselves to the Wiki using
      OpenID.  That will allow identities to be linked across W3C
      services, so the Wiki will know who is in a Working Group, etc.

This "policy" will be adopted on a WG by WG basis.  I expect OWL will
adopt it, and others are free to follow it or come up with something
different. 

Thoughts?   Concerns?

    -- Sandro


[1] http://www.w3.org/2007/OWL/wiki/Teleconference.2007.11.21/Minutes
[2] http://www.w3.org/Systems/db/memUser

Received on Wednesday, 28 November 2007 08:44:59 UTC