Boston.com / Business / Technology / Full disclosure overdue from high-tech analysts

Boston.com / Business / Technology / Full disclosure overdue from high-tech analysts: "The world of the tech analysts is in need of greater transparency, and fast. Over the past four years, as the firms have suffered through the downturn, they've begun to cuddle up more closely to their customers, working on special consulting projects and publishing more research funded by a single company. (Forrester's reputation got dinged last fall when it issued a report, paid for by Microsoft, that found -- surprise -- that Microsoft's tools for building Web portals were better than Linux. Aberdeen suffered harsh criticism in The Wall Street Journal in 2002 for its 'pay for praise' policies; a new chief executive is trying to patch things up.)

'You've got far more disclosure today in the financial industry,' says Ian Campbell, a founder of Nucleus Research, a small Wellesley firm. 'Look at a Gartner `magic quadrant',' a matrix-like diagram that presents the relative merits of different technology vendors, produced by a Connecticut market research firm to help IT buyers make better decisions. How many of the companies included in the quadrant 'are and aren't paying clients of Gartner?' Campbell asked."