Here's why we chose readers outside the IT field: Say Big Name Computer Company finds out that its product is being considered for this award, and suggests to all of its employees, suppliers, and business partners that a smart thing to do would be to be sure to vote for its product. HMMM. What if it even offered a financial incentive to the employee who got the most votes cast. All legitimate votes, of course.
So, after weeding out anyone who works for a hardware or a software company, and after weeding out anyone in the IT profession, we're left with polling readers that don't know anything about the industry.
Hmmm - I wonder what sort of results to expect from such a polling method? Perhaps people voting for the products that receive the most advertising?
It sounds like you've limited yourself by making certain that you don't ask the people who truly know about the products you have in your poll. I work for a software company: ComputerLink Online Inc. I don't remember seeing any of our products in the list (they would have fell under OTHER). Indeed, while our products are generally excellent (heck, I write some of them :), I wouldn't have voted them as "best" of any of the categories (we're small when it comes to software. IBM's OS/2 is a better client OS than any of our client applications, such as NetTrivia). However, because of my association with a software company, where I have exposure to nearly all of the products mentioned, my opinion doesn't count.
And you call this heavy weeding "statistically valid". For shame, InfoWorld!
Brad Barclay,
OS/2 Development Director,
ComputerLink Online Inc. (Internet Direct/TUCOWS/JOYCOM)
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