The conflict of interest policy was fleshed out a few months ago after I submitted my article. I think it was a reply to some abuse by corporate PR folks. At the time of my writing, I had seen a few mentions but nothing as developed as it is right now, so that’s why I indicated in my article that it was important to follow the ever-evolving community rules.

I’ll try to contact the volunteers/editors responsible for the WikiUniversity Project to get their take on it. Most university pages available right now have been developed with input from Universities.

Hopefully more in a future post.

In your article, you suggested that “As long as the community rules are respected, institution officials and others are welcome to take part in the editing and updating process of articles about their campus.”

The Wikipedia conflict-of-interest guidelines actually strongly recommend against public relations departments editing their institutional entry.

“In keeping with Wikipedia’s neutral point of view policy, edits where there is a clear conflict of interest, or where such a conflict might reasonably be inferred from the tone of the edit and the proximity of the editor to the subject, are strongly discouraged. Of special concern are organizational conflicts of interest.

“These include, but are not limited to, those posed by edits made by: public relations departments of corporations; or of other public or private for-profit or not-for-profit organizations; or by professional editors paid by said organizations to edit a Wikipedia article with the sole intent of improving that organization’s image.”

I’ve just checked the link, and it works. Please try again and let me know if you can access it.

Good job, Karine.