Guidelines for NETwiki Content Creation and Editing

General PBEM Volunteer Program Information

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Portland Bureau of Emergency Management

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This article section is a Program Guideline

Part of the whole point of convening NETwiki is to make knowledge and expertise in the NET community participatory, and decoupling the authority of expertise in disaster response from PBEM - a small government bureau with limited staff time and knowledge - and sharing it with neighborhoods. That notion is in line with the expectations of the online culture that built and builds wikis. Many community wikis also have low or no barriers to entry when it comes to editing and content control. Other wikis, such as internal corporate wikis, maintain strict content control.

NETwiki falls between those ends of the spectrum. PBEM does exercise some content control for the following reasons:

1. This is a City of Portland government sponsored resource, and PBEM will not approve or allow any NETwiki content that does not conform with the City of Portland's Code of Ethicsor City of Portland Core Values.
2. PBEM will protect the credibility of the NETwiki since PBEM sponsors it. PBEM staff have heard often from community partners that they rely on us for credible information, and errant NETwiki content will not be permitted to interfere with that reputation.
3. The discipline of emergency management has become a strange place with contradictory information, as political agendas influence awareness and best practices while conspiracy theories burn up staff resources. PBEM will be associated only with information and data that respects the best tested science available.
4. Since NETwiki is a government resource, PBEM must protect taxpayer dollars by reducing legal risk. PBEM staff must look out for information that could cause harm, such as a misguided recommendation for personal protective equipment, for example.
5. We want to make sure NETwiki is accessible and well organized. It is not in the spirit of a wiki to allow an individual to make an incoherent decision using this tool; editors and content creators must be empowered to participate in the way the information system is organized. For that reason, PBEM will exercise some mild control on design and NETwiki's overall organization. PBEM will also set standards for who qualifies as a NETwiki contributor.

Pursuant to the expectations listed above, the following rules are applied to NETwiki:

1. PBEM will evaluate and designate NETwiki editors. PBEM also reserves the right to suspend or revoke access for any editor at any time.
2. PBEM staff have full discretion to reverse edits on any content or delete it entirely.
3. Only PBEM staff may approve edits to:
   • the NETwiki Main Page
   • Any page labeled as a volunteer position description (volunteer position descriptions carry a lot of legal risk)
4. Any page or article labeled as a "Program Guideline" cannot be substantively changed without first going through the community approval process described in the article: Procedure for creation of or significant modification to Community Preparedness Team (CPT) guidelines. If an editor wishes to change a guideline, it is more expedient to email the proposed change to net@portlandoregon.gov to kick off the community approval process.
5. NETwiki will include a page dedicated to content design standards and tips in order to promote better organization of information: the Wiki Code Cookbook.