Corporate Representatives for Ethical Wikipedia Engagement
Corporate Representatives for Ethical Wikipedia Engagement (CREWE) is a Facebook group started by Phil Gomes, senior vice-president at Edelman Digital, in January, 2012. Composed of public relations professionals and some Wikipedia editors, the group's aim is to improve the relationship between the PR industry and the encyclopedia. CREWE lobbies for greater involvement by PR professionals on Wikipedia, with the stated goal of maintaining accurate articles about corporations.
Background
In a January 4, 2012, open letter to Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, Phil Gomes of Edelman posted on his blog,
Gomes argued that Wikipedia's prominence as a top search result adds a level of responsibility to be accurate. He said that many articles have inaccuracies or are outdated, and existing channels for addressing these issues—such as leaving a message on the article's "Talk" page—do not receive timely responses. Gomes further argued that allowing PR representatives to fix minor errors, such as spelling, grammar and facts, leaves too much ambiguity about what are acceptable changes to make. He made the comparison between PR editors and activists, challenging that activists seem to enjoy "much more latitude". Finally, Gomes argued that in certain situations direct editing of articles was called for: