Thanks for your comment Tom. I think it's a bit of both of those things.
Wikipedia doesn't want PR professionals making edits without considering NPOV or COI. PRs don't want to end up in the press for "scurrilous editing of Wikipedia." Clients of PRs don't want erroneous or hostile information on their Wikipedia page. The approach taken in the guidelines, if followed, should negate all of those potential negatives. I think the big weakness that exists is the one discussed yesterday, the relative lack of OTRS volunteers.
Hope this is useful, but I'm happy to discuss further. The guidelines will certainly be revised at some point, and any useful changes we can make to them will be universally welcomed, I'm sure.
Thanks,
Stevie
On 15 November 2012 11:44, Thomas Morton morton.thomas@googlemail.comwrote:
I think it's an outcome of PR-types being dragged through the press for editing articles. So, yes, from that angle (a defensive mechanism) it's bad.
The guideline always struck me as coming from the direction of "this is how to avoid making the news" rather than "this is how to engage with Wikipedia".
Tom
On 15 November 2012 11:40, Stevie Benton stevie.benton@wikimedia.org.ukwrote:
Do you think that's a bad thing Andy?
On 15 November 2012 11:36, Andy Mabbett andy@pigsonthewing.org.ukwrote:
Thanks for the additional info; I'm familiar with the history. My point is that - for whatever reason - the CIPR guidelines are stricter than Wikipedia's own, and we need to be mindful of that.
On 15 November 2012 10:58, Stevie Benton stevie.benton@wikimedia.org.uk wrote:
Thanks for your email Andy. I've already requested they correct that
error.
With regards to your point about COI editing - the guidelines the CIPR
refer
to were developed with WMUK, some Wikipedians and some people from
CIPR and
PRCA. The development took place on the WMUK Wiki and was widely
shared and
people were encouraged to participate.
Regardless of whether there is a total prohibition on editing article
spaces
directly in EN:WP policy, we have seen (many, many times) that when PR professionals directly edit article space bad things happen. Even if
edits
are benign and factual, if it comes to light that they were made
directly by
PRs acting on behalf of a client, nobody wins and a COI is
automatically
assumed by many. It's not good for trust in Wikipedia, it's not good
for the
PR industry and it's not good for their clients.
If you'd like some more background on the development of the guidance,
a
good place to start is at
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Draft_best_practice_guidelines_for_PR
Thanks,
Stevie
On 15 November 2012 10:51, Andy Mabbett andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk
wrote:
On 15 November 2012 10:09, Stevie Benton <
stevie.benton@wikimedia.org.uk>
wrote:
PR Week have published another story on this -
http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/1159715/wikipedia-defends-editing-processes-fo...
They have you as "Wikipedia [with a "p"] UK comms organiser". is suspect we may never win that battle.
I note that it is claimed (and I don't doubt) that the "CIPR [...] guidance for PROs [is that] they should not directly edit Wikipedia pages relating to their organisation or a client". I should like people to be mindful that that's not what en.Wikipedia's CoI guidance says; there has never been consensus for a total prohibition (though I acknowledge that some feel strongly that there should be).
-- Andy Mabbett @pigsonthewing http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
--
Stevie Benton Communications Organiser Wikimedia UK +44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173 @StevieBenton
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England
and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513.
Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A
4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation
(who
operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal
control over
Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
-- Andy Mabbett @pigsonthewing http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
--
Stevie Benton Communications Organiser Wikimedia UK+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173 @StevieBenton
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org