astroturfing n.
The use of paid shills to create the
impression of a popular movement, through means like letters to
newspapers from soi-disant `concerned citizens', paid opinion
pieces, and the formation of grass-roots lobbying groups that are
actually funded by a PR group (astroturf is fake grass; hence the
term). This term became common among hackers after it came to
light in early 1998 that Microsoft had attempted to use such
tactics to forestall the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust
action against the company.
This backfired horribly, angering a number of state
attorneys-general enough to induce them to go public with plans to
join the Federal suit. It also set anybody defending Microsoft on
the net for the accusation "You're just astroturfing!".
The use of paid shills to create the
impression of a popular movement, through means like letters to
newspapers from soi-disant `concerned citizens', paid opinion
pieces, and the formation of grass-roots lobbying groups that are
actually funded by a PR group (astroturf is fake grass; hence the
term). This term became common among hackers after it came to
light in early 1998 that Microsoft had attempted to use such
tactics to forestall the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust
action against the company.
This backfired horribly, angering a number of state
attorneys-general enough to induce them to go public with plans to
join the Federal suit. It also set anybody defending Microsoft on
the net for the accusation "You're just astroturfing!".
Related:
- IBM /I-B-M/
Inferior But Marketable; It's Better
Manually;
Insidious Black Magic; It's Been Malfunctioning; ... - bug n.
An unwanted and unintended property of a program or
piece of hardware,
esp. one that causes it to malfunction. Antonym... - open source n.
[common; also adj. `open-source']
Term coined in March 1998 following the Mozilla release to
describe software distributed in source under licenses guaranteeing
anybody rights to freely use,
modify, and redistribute, the code. The intent... - email: /ee'mayl/ (also written `e-mail') 1. n. Electronic mail
automatically passed through computer networks and/or via modems
over common-carrier lines.
Contrast {snail-mail}, {paper-net}, {voice-net}... - Internet n.
The mother of all networks. First
incarnated beginning in 1969 as the ARPANET,
a U.S. Department of Defense research testbed. ... - Microsoft ActivePromo Campaign: "What Slogan Do You Want to See Tommorrow?"
Microsoft's PR masterminds are planning a massive marketing campaign,
code-named "ActivePromo 2000", to promote the upcoming... - mainframe n.
Term originally referring to the cabinet
containing the central processor unit or `main frame' of a
room-filling Stone Age batch machine.
After the emergence of smaller `minicomputer' designs... - wannabee /won'*-bee/ n.
(also, more plausibly, spelled
`wannabe') [from a term recently used to describe Madonna fans
who dress,
talk, and act like their idol; prob. originally from... - MicroDroid n.
[Usenet] A Microsoft employee, esp.
one who posts to various operating-system advocacy...
