Beware Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is all about user generated content, of which wikis are one of the most important and controversial elements. A wiki, of which Wikipedia remains the original and most famous, is basically a collaborative website that allows anyone to edit it. Other examples are internet forums, where people create topics and other members respond to them. Or blogs, where readers from all over the world can comment on someone's daily posting.

Therefore companies have minimal control of the information posted about them on the internet. Even if they create their own Wikipedia page themselves, there is nothing to stop other internet users, anywhere in the world, from changing it, adding to it and deleting material they consider to breach Wikipedia's 'NPOV' - neutral point of view - guidelines. This means that a company describing itself in grandiose fashion as 'the world's best manufacturer of best of breed mobile phones' will rapidly find themselves more plainly restyled as 'a mobile phone manufacturer' by a more impartial Wiki user.

Losing control

False and actually defamatory material apart, those that try to whitewash their entries find it quickly backfires, as many politicians have discovered to their cost. Even the CIA and the Vatican have been exposed as altering entries. Democratic and Republican party members have been found out vandalising one another's entries. Corporations have been caught red handed defacing their rivals' pages. PR firms have been caught out trying to gloss up their clients' pages. Wired has a extremely lengthy list of 'WikiWatch' submissions of the most shameful spin-jobs, whitewashing and vandalism.

What many of the whitewashers don't seem to realise is that every single change or edit made in a wiki is logged in a History section, along with the editor's IP address or username. Any entry can be compared to an earlier version at the click of a button, and it can be reverted to that version as well. So deleting an entire section on 'Controversy' is particularly crass behaviour: it just arouses suspicion and encourages someone to investigate the editing. Those posting false information on forums will be caught out by forum administrators who have their IP addresses. Those trying to surreptitiously advertise their products on blogs will be rapidly banned as spammers.

Surviving The People's Internet

So what can companies do if they are getting negative exposure on Wikipedia, or on other forums and blogs? There is only one solution. They have to admit their mistakes, correct them, be as transparent as possible with their business, and win back consumer confidence. This takes courage, honesty and humility. But the good publicity and sentiment generated from this is the only way to offset the bad.

A good way to do this is also with online dialogue: establishing corporate blogs where users can respond; providing forums allowing customers to post technical problems and receive help; or creating FAQs based on on common queries.

The key is being welcoming and openly responsive to customer feedback, which the internet makes very easy. There is also no reason that a company which makes camcorders can't go to a forum about digital cameras and answer user questions. Such participation is generally hugely appreciated, and creates enormous good will for the company that took the time to do it. And then there's the chance to leverage the negative feedback by producing better products in future.

The folly of suppression

But you cannot suppress information about your faulty products when thousands of users are sharing their poor experiences of them. You can't claim that your company is 100 per cent environmentally friendly when a dozen or more studies suggest it is destroying the earth. And you can't hide previous criminal convictions and controversial private behaviour if you are a public figure and have already been exposed by the media.

You can sue, but even if you win - which with the free speech ethos of the American constitution is never a sure thing - the information is still out there, along with the new information that you tried to cover it up.

Web 2.0 is about accountability and about truth. It's about the power of the individual: not the government, not the corporation, not the religious organisation. With the right tools and know how, any single person with internet access can be as powerful and disruptive as any newspaper investigation or court of law.