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To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (18463)	4/14/1998 2:55:00 PM
From: Dermot Burke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

Dan, The arrival of the 'open source' advocates at the netscape campus is an appropriate event--to the 'cut-off their air supply' integrated IE, free IE and exclusionary practices at the ISP and destination web sites initiatives that are open, thank goodness, to public scrutiny. Don't you think?

To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (18463)	4/14/1998 6:11:00 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

Caught in the act! www5.zdnet.com This is John Dvorak weighing in on PR-gate, or should that be PR-Gates? He's cranky as usual. The revelations reported in the Los Angeles Times last week regarding an elaborate Microsoft plan--to snooker both the government and the public with a fake "grass roots" campaign orchestrated by dozens of large and powerful public-relations agencies--sickened me. That's his lead, but I got to paraphrase my old favorite Letterman in return. Some are sickened- others are amused. What concerns me is whether these schemes have been used in the past. Over the years, many of us who generally criticize the industry have found that comments about Microsoft are commonly met with a barrage of mail praising the company--in particular, praising Bill Gates as some sort of folk hero. During the OS/2-versus-Windows era, Microsoft was accused of having "munchkins" inundate BBSs and forums with anti-OS/2 propaganda. Dave Whittle, the ex-IBMer who founded team OS/2, once told me of alleged buy-offs of opinion makers. I thought he was nuts for thinking such a thing. During this era, the code name for Windows was Chicago, and we never knew why. Now we discover that these clandestine PR meetings take place in Chicago. So possibly Chicago is where earlier meetings took place regarding the anti-OS/2, pro-Windows PR campaign. I now find it hard to believe that this tactic is anything new. It will be fun to watch how all these professional opinion makers, who blatantly assume that the American public are fools to be manipulated, will cover their tracks and deny this ever happened. Microsoft has already started. Check out ZDNet News's coverage of the company's response. Well shoot. I thought this stuff was all pretty obvious all along, even though I'd never heard of the famous Steve Bartko episode. Like Fred Moody and Dave Coursey, usually reliable and transparent conduits, except when somebody doesn't return Fred's calls. And of course it's fairly typical in the political realm, lord knows there's a world of pundits out there that know what you got to say to get on the $20k-$50k-$100k a crack corporate speaking circuit. I wish I could remember the date the stealth PR thing came up earlier, Edelman sounds familiar. Cheers, Dan.

To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (18463)	4/14/1998 6:23:00 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 24154

The Clueless Empire? zdnet.com Then we have esteemed ilk sister Mary Jo Foley weighing in, she remembers Steve Bartko anyway. But Microsoft's debacles, such as the Edelman PR campaign exposed in a story by the LA Times last week, whether clueless or evil, aren't helping the company any. Sure, every vendor tries to spin news its way and uses as many tools as it can muster to do so. But some of the tactics for which the Edelman plan reportedly called, such as the use of individuals posing as Microsoft customers and partners to present supposedly "unbiased" views to the public and reporters, is a disgrace. Microsoft says employing people to lie was not part of the proposal, but I have no way of knowing this, as I have yet to scare up a copy myself. Either way, the damage has been done. The sprouting seeds of paranoia are now in full bloom. The Edelman plan is causing some industry historians to drag up the infamous "Barkto" incident that occurred a few years back on Compuserve newsgroup forums. Remember that one? A Microsoft official named Rick Segal posed as ordinary geek Steve Barkto and passed off lots of pro-Microsoft/anti-IBM rhetoric in the process. Folks in this industry, at least the vocal ones, don't forget or forgive. Paranoia strikes deep, into your heart it will creep. . . Or, more contemporarily, only the paranoid survive. Evil? I'd say clueless is even a little strong. Just a little too transparent to do any good. The rapid propagation and persistence of stuff like "the government writing the OS" is a tiny bit obvious. Antitrust only applies to monopolists, I don't see many around in this area. Cheers, Dan.