Hi All!
      The following is from InfoWorlds Editor in Chief Sandy Reed who can be 
reached at sandy_reed@infoworld.com:
Opinions (InfoWorld)
March 31, 1997
Help us reclaim Readers' Choice Product of the Year awards from OS/2
zealots The OS/2 Readers' Choice Product of the Year game is over and
nobody won -- not the OS/2 boosters who stuffed the ballot box again,
not the products that finished a distant second, and certainly not
InfoWorld, whose good intentions came to naught.  But with your help,
our annual Readers' Choice awards will survive.
Long-time readers won't be surprised by the fact that OS/2 "won" the
Readers' Choice polls that we conducted in January and February.  Nor
will you be surprised that it "won" by an overwhelming majority in the
categories of Client, Server, and Overall Product of the Year.  But you
might be surprised by our decision to declare this year's results null
and void.
We didn't make this decision casually, but the facts were undeniable.  In
all three categories, OS/2 received at least six times the number of votes
of its nearest competitors, a definite indicator of ballot stuffing given
the history of Readers' Choice voting.
The first two years that OS/2 won, we attributed it to the product's value
as an enterprise computing solution.
When it won for 1995, my predecessor, Stewart Alsop, predicted that a four-
peat wouldn't occur because OS/2 was being passed on the technology track.
OS/2 advocates interpreted that as a challenge and made a concerted effort
to prove him wrong.  Thus, the ballot stuffing this year and our decision
to invalidate the results.
We're willing to sacrifice this year's results, but we're not willing to
sacrifice the concept of Readers' Choice awards.
That's why I'm appealing to InfoWorld readers to help us resurrect the
contest.  I'd like your suggestions on how to restructure the annual poll
so it reflects reality.
How should we construct the next contest?  Should we abandon the Web-based
voting system we instituted this year?  Should we hire an outside company
to conduct a scientifically based survey?  Should we return to printing
ballots and distributing them with the newspaper?  Should we disqualify
all votes for OS/2 next year?  Should we consider another format entirely
for the contest?  Send me your suggestions.
Regards,
Scott
sdrake@isonline.com
* Crossposted in OS2
* Crossposted in AMU_BETA
* Crossposted in AFIX/2_BETA
* Crossposted in LORA
* Crossposted in QUICKBBS
* Crossposted in QUICKPRO
* Crossposted in TEAMOS2
* Crossposted in OS2BBS
* Crossposted in OS2LAN
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