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Access Levels for n1 Action database
The Action ministry will be holding tremendous amounts of information in its databases. Much of this information, such as contact info for politicians and corporation representatives, is quite important, and not necessarily something that they want given out to everyone.
We need to have certain levels of access to this information, and carefully define who has access to what, and how others can gain this access. Our goal is to aid in effective activism - by withholding this contact info from Nation1 general users we certainly wouldn't be that useful!
There are other areas where extra access would be needed. This includes list moderators, editors, content reviewers, and other volunteers who would help sort through the tons of daily additions to the databases and make sure that the material is appropriate.
We will have three levels of access. The first level will be for general n1 users or simply those making use of our Action tools. The second level of access will be for all editors/moderators - they will be given permission to sort through all additions to the databases and the discussion on bulletin boards and mailing lists -> these moderators will be able to delete and/or edit inappropriate material. The third level of access will be given to everyone in the Action Ministry Council (as defined in the Constitution). These elected officials (up to 20 people) are at the top of the hierarchy and will have full permission. It is they who have access to change/update the Action web pages and who have full access to the contact info database.
On a side note: in the future we may decide to have appointed webmasters to maintain the Action web pages. The Tech Steering Committee will be able to grant 'webmaster' access to certain individuals. The access will be limited to specific directories. At any time the Action Ministry Council may request the Tech Steering Committee to grant certain individuals 'webmaster' access for the Action website.
There are two ways for an item to be submitted into the database. When a user wants to add himself to the People Finder database, he will choose what information should be kept private and what information can be released to the general public. However, if a user would like to add someone else into the database, they must use a different method - it is unlikely that a general user will know what items the individual would like to be kept private. An email will be sent by the server software to the email address of the individual being added to the People Finder database. After receiving the email, that individual will go to the specified web page and easily edit the user's addition - changing the contents of any fields and declaring them private if necessary. Another problem arises if the individual doesn't bother reading the email. In this case we will leave judgment of public/private fields up to a moderator.
When a n1 user uses the People Search or clicks on a name mentioned in an article, that n1 user is taken to an "info" page on the individual. Most likely that info page will provide the full name, geographic location, and email address of the individual - possibly some more information depending on privacy issues. Any info marked in the database as private is listed as 'private' to the user. If the user needs that info to aid in an action project he may request it by using a simple to use 'info request form'. The n1 user will fill out a few fields explaining why he needs the given information, and what he plans to use it for. After the user clicks a checkbox agreeing not to publicize the private info, he clicks "submit" and the request is sent to a queue on the server. At least once a day a member of the Action ministry council will review these requests. All he will have to do is click on a checkbox if the request seems valid. The server program will then automatically retrieve the desired info from the database and email it to the user who requested it.
To make the process even easier, there can be a special exception for the case when a user only wants to email an individual in the People Finder database. If the email address for the individual is listed as "private", next to the email field there will be a link saying "click here to email ___". Clicking on that link would take the user to a web page where he can type out his email. When the user submits the email it will be stored on a queue on the server. A moderator will see this email and shall decide to #1> edit and/or "send", #2> reply to the user with comments on how to improve the email first, or #3> refuse to allow the email to go through due to inappropriate material. Some advantages to using this system are:
- email will take the look of a standard n1 email (with a note on the top saying that it was sent through Nation1 and that it doesn't necessarily reflect the ideas of the organization)
- censorship of email by n1 moderator before it is sent
- the contact will know exactly which user sent the email (as we, not
the user, will add the 'from' info directly from our database)
- since no email address is actually given to the user the contact can decide to disregard the email without getting SPAM'd again, can reply personally and continue the conversation, or can reply through a link in the email which would again provide anonymity to the contact.
All changes by moderator/editors will be stored in the database... So, if they decide that an item should be deleted, that item will simply be marked as 'deleted', but won't be removed from the actual database. It will be invisible to the n1 users but will still be around if it needs to be 'undeleted'. This is one protection against the possibility of having a vicious moderator. All actions should be able to be undone.
David Sontag (david@nation1.net)
April 12, 2000