FIR co-hosts Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz host a Google+ Hangout with Stuart Bruce, principal, Stuart Bruce Associates, and Phil Gomes, Sr. VP, Edelman Digital, to discuss efforts to improve the ability of corporate representatives to make ethical, transparent, disclosed and factual revisions that are independently verifiable to Wikipedia entries.

(If you don’t see the video embedded above, watch it on YouTube.)

Currently, a host of communication professionals report having revised entries to reflect accurate financial numbers, spellings of executive names, new or departing board members, employee headcounts and the like. Yet because they are identified as “paid editors” without a neutral point of view, their revisions are often reversed and many are banned from the site.

Gomes posted an open letter to Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales on his blog at the same time Stuart Bruce posted on his. Within days, the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations announced it would engage in talks with UK Wikimedia representatives. At John Cass‘ urging, Gomes created a Facebook group, Corporate Representatives for Ethical Wikipedia Engagement (CREWE), to host a conversation on the subject.

In this interview, Gomes and Bruce discuss the various dimensions of the subject and potential outcomes of the discussion.

Connect on Twitter with Phil Gomes at @PhilGomes; reach Stuart Bruce at @StuartBruce.

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This FIR Interview is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.

Podsafe music – On A Podcast Instrumental Mix (MP3, 5Mb) by Cruisebox.

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)