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Linuxhater, failed astroturfer?
,----[ Quote ]
| So Linuxhater is gone. That shouldn't come as a surprise. Firstly, because
| most of his purported complaints were not true. And secondly, because he
| realised that he could only fail.
|
| Linuxhater's run-of-the-mill complaints were wide of the mark because:
|
| * Linux isn't hard to install
| * Linux isn't hard to use
| * Linux users aren't all totally weird (not all, anyway)
`----
http://gnuru.org/article/1395/linuxhater-failed-astroturfer
Recent:
Microsoft's Razorfish cuts NYC staff
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft's online ad agency Razorfish laid off 40 staff in its New York
| office this afternoon, citing a dropoff in business from the financial
| services sector.
`----
http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/Microsofts_Razorfish_online_ad_agency_cuts_NY_staff33609649.html
Now Hiring - Astroturfer, apply at Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Evidently, a "Senior Marketing Manager" has the responsibility of:
|
| * "assisting in defining and driving core marketing initiatives – most
| specifically online & offline community-building"
| * "further the dialogue on the value of the Microsoft platform to open
| source audiences"
| * "be a cornerstone for a global thought leadership website and will be
| regularly featured in industry press around the world"
| * "act as a visible external evangelist for Microsoft"
|
| Wow! That's all direct quotes from the job description. It is so blatant, I'm
| beginning to wonder if it's some kind of joke. Particularly the 'evangelist'
| line.
|
| Kind of like the famous Halloween documents, this posting really tips
| Microsoft's hand and shows us exactly what they're thinking. After all the
| smoke and mirrors over the deals with Linux distros Suse, Linspire, Xandross,
| and Turbo Linux, this shows that those distros were in fact acquired in order
| to be killed. It's not Linux that Microsoft wants, it's the customers.
`----
http://penguinpetes.com/b2evo/index.php?title=now_hiring_astroturfer_apply_at_microsof&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
China's Online Persuaders
,----[ Quote ]
| China's webspace is infamous for censorship, but increasingly, public
| relations firms there are helping their clients "manage" online
| conversations. China-based firms such as Daqi, Chinese Web Union and
| CIC "charge $500 - $25,000 monthly to monitor postings and squelch negative
| information or to create positive buzz," reports BusinessWeek.
`----
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7451
Related:
Microsoft Pays $200 for Mentioning Its Tools
,----[ Quote ]
| If you're a professor and you mention Microsoft programming tools in a
| scholarly presentation -- in fact, even if you just use the tools --
| Microsoft will send you a check for $200.
`----
http://chronicle.com/data/articles.dir/art-44.dir/issue-33.dir/33a03001.htm
The Best Enthusiasm Money Can Buy
,----[ Quote ]
| We might think that spending several hundreds of millions of dollars every
| year on commercial speech would be just about enough to allow any company
| to "tell its story" to the public. But we would not be Microsoft, who the Los
| Angeles Times revealed was gearing up a multi-million dollar public relations
| campaign which included planting ersatz letters to the editor in major
| national newspapers. The goal: to create the appearance, if not the reality,
| of "grassroots" support for the company.
|
| "Spontaneous" testimonials penned by hired guns may not be an entirely novel
| idea in the surreal world of public relations, but Microsoft's response to
| having been caught in the act of committing such a crass act was certainly
| uncommon. At first, the company denied their intentions to actually implement
| such a plan. Then, a few days later, company spokespersons announced a new
| spin: Microsoft has a perfect right to engage in public opinion manipulation
| campaigns, if that's what it takes to "tell its story."
|
| Now, what exactly was that story, again?
`----
http://www.vcnet.com/bms/departments/dirtytricks.shtml
Microsoft pays star writers to recite slogan
,----[ Quote ]
| The stodgy old media industry has a rule that newspaper reporters, and TV
| news hosts, shouldn't trade on their public trust to endorse products.
`----
http://valleywag.com/tech/federated-media/microsoft-pays-star-writers-to-recite-slogan-271485.php
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