WikiPaltz:About
From WikiPaltz: the collective knowledge of New Paltz and beyond
WikiPaltz is a database of information about New Paltz, a small Town and Village in the Hudson Valley region of New York State in the United States. WikiPaltz is a wiki, which is to say that anyone can edit it. WikiPaltz is the most comprehensive electronic source of information about New Paltz.
The server, space, and MySQL database for WikiPaltz are provided by the Student Senate of SUNY New Paltz, a college in the Village of New Paltz. WikiPalz is provided as a free public service to all students, local residents, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, media outlets, elected officials, and whomever else may have a use for the information provided here.
Please note, however, that the Student Senate and the Student Association MAKE NO WARRANTIES, implied or otherwise, about the information provided on WikiPaltz (see WikiPaltz:General_disclaimer).
All information on WikiPaltz may be used by anyone for any purpose, although those using information from WikiPaltz are strongly encouraged to cite either WikiPaltz or the individual contributer whose work they use. Photos on WikiPaltz should always be credited to the photographer / uploader when possible; photographers may claim copyrights over their photographs or artwork but acknowledge their free and unrestricted use on WikiPaltz upon transmission.
WikiPaltz was founded and launched in 2004 by Justin Holmes, who was then Chair of the Student Senate. It has been through several evolutions and redesigns since then, with significant foundational contributions made by Christian Amez, Dan Curtis, Brian Gold, Nicole Javaly, Michael Peters, and Avi Zacherman.
Although Holmes, Amez, Gold, Peters, and Zacherman continue to have administrative power as former Senate Chairs or Secretaries of the Senate, this power has never been used to make content or design decisions - a fact which can be verified by viewing the contributions pages of each of these individuals. Instead, such decisions are left up to the WikiPaltz community. Currently, the legal framework for WikiPaltz is outlined in 42nd Student Senate Bill 8. Another piece of legislation, 45th Student Senate Bylaw Amendment 11, would make the relationship between WikiPaltz and the Student Association more specific. This legislation has been referred to committee.
The Senate Chair is responsible for primary maintenance and upkeep of the various pieces of software which power WikiPaltz, although Holmes has volunteered to continue to assist in this process indefinitely, free of charge. Currently, the Senate Chair is Avi Zacherman.
In April of 2008, Travis Nanek, webmaster of the Student Association, set up a system to backup the MySQL database which contains all the text of WikiPaltz (including talk and other pages). Copies of this backup will be made available to the Sojourner Truth Library on campus and the Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz for public archival and to ensure that the database is not tampered with.
During the Spring 2008 semester, a WikiPaltz News Corps began meeting weekly to create a more personal environment surrounding News Coverage on WikiPaltz.
