The Phantom Grassroots: Microsoft Astroturf Tactics
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[ http://lists.essential.org/1998/am-info/msg01529.html ] The Steve Bartko Incident
Rick Segal is an overt on-line Microsoft representative who is quite
active on CompuServe. If you signed onto Will Zachmann's Canopus forum
about this time last year, you would have seen him there resolutely
trying to improve Microsoft's image. Today Rick is in self-imposed exile
from Canopus following an extremely embarrassing episode which has
become known as 'The Barkto Incident.'
98-Apr ZDNet:
[ http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/pcmo/0414/306632.html ] Dvorak on astroturf
"According to the documents, local PR agencies
are scheduled to begin submitting opinion pieces
to the media next week, followed in the coming
months by waves of other materials, including
glowing accounts from Microsoft partners,
consumer surveys and studies designed to show
the company's impact on each region's economy.
Letters to the editor are to be solicited from
regional business leaders. Opinion pieces are to
be written by freelance writers and perhaps a
'national economist, 'according to one document.
The writers' fees would be 'billed to Microsoft as
an out-of-pocket expense.'
98-Apr Info World:
[ http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayNew.pl?/petrel/980420np.htm ] Nick Petreley on astroturf
As an independent Microsoft Windows developer having no knowledge of Edelman Public Relations' program to
manufacture a grassroots campaign in support of Microsoft,
I want to express my heartfelt and unaffiliated concern over
the current effort by the government to stifle innovation in software design.
Let me ask your readers and influential
legislators this question: Do you really want to interfere with Microsoft's innovation?
99-Feb Wired:
[ http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,17745,00.html ] Is MS Preening in Public Posts?
A Microsoft spokeswoman denied allegations Thursday afternoon that the company is encouraging
its employees to lie in public forums.
A message posted to a discussion forum on computer-trade site ZDNet and purporting to be from a
former employee, accuses the company of urging employees to post fake comments supporting the
company's side in the ongoing Microsoft antitrust trial.
99-Dec:
[ http://linuxtoday.com/story.php3?sn=14466 ] Deja.com ballot stuffing?
Rodney Rotifer - Subject: A Smoking Gun ( Jan 1, 2000, 00:28:35 )
This is definately a smoking gun, folks.
I have happened to watch this page periodically. And it was consistantly exactly the
opposite the last time I looked, as it has been for at least the last year.
00-Feb:
[ http://www.techleadership.org/about02.html ] ATL sez
[ http://www.techleadership.org/national.pdf ] 63% like Microsoft
00-Mar EzBoard:
[ http://pub4.ezboard.com/fiwetheynewspicksii.showMessage?topicID=54.topic ] MSFT org'n's poll says DoJ money ill spent
A poll under the headline "Most
Deem Microsoft Lawsuit Bad Use of Tax Dollars", conducted by Zogby and conducted for Americans for
Technology Leadership.
00-Apr SiliconValley:
[ http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/mc042800.htm ] Bill Lockyer's message board bombing
Fishier still, all but a handful of the messages posted Thursday on the California attorney general's site
(http://caag.state.ca.us) are not from California at all.
Only 19 of 100 postings by midday listed a California city in the mandatory hometown field, including one from ``Los Angelese,'' which only raises suspicion in my mind.
00-Sep Wired:
[ http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,38845,00.html ] Windows Outstuffs Linux in Poll
By Friday afternoon, Linux was the leader of the pack and appeared to be
heading victoriously across the finish line when a sudden surge of 50,000
votes catapulted Microsoft's Windows 2000/NT well into the lead.
00-Sep TheRegister:
[ http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/1/13333.html ] Linux Today cries foul over Windows MSNBC poll surge
Strange goings on in an online operating system poll run by Microsoft partner MSNBC have
raised the ire of Linux Today, which has questioned the strange way in which Win2k/ME
surged into the top slot on Saturday, with a surprise 50,000 votes in favour, or thereabouts.
As Kevin Reichard says in an email to MSNBC, "It strains creduility that 50,000 votes were
tallied SOLELY for Microsoft 2000/ME on a Saturday morning."
[ http://www.angelfire.com/nj2/edcurry/astroturf.htmlindex.html ] Ed Curry Main page
Full text at: http://www.angelfire.com/nj2/edcurry/astroturf.html
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