You can post anything you like....as long as it's positive

An interesting article in today's press about Wikipedia. It turns out that several multi-nationals (who shall remain nameless, until you read The Times tomorrow, or some of the online press today) have been "enhancing" their reputations on Wikipedia by censoring anything negative that appears about them on the site. How do we know this ? Like so many things nowadays, some clever chaps over in the a US University have written a piece of technology. In this case it tracks down the source IP address of the "editor" and matches it off to a published list of those reserved by corporates. Add 2 and 2 and you have a complete view of who is trying to manipulate their own reputations.

Is this a bad thing ? Well, it's probably no different than the strategy of posting false blogs (splogs) to try and divert attention away from negative and towards positive press. And, within the rules of Wikipedia, I doubt very much that anyone could claim it is illegal.

I think the bigger question is, how will people react to this online reputation management strategy ? I see opinion being polarised on this one, but it will be interesting to see how it unfolds. Watch this space (but not on Wikipedia).