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Mike Simons
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Mike Simons is the Editor of ComputerWorldUK and Techworld. He joined IDG in 2006 after almost a decade at Computer Weekly. An award winning IT and business journalist, Mike has a particularly focused on major IT projects and public sector IT. His fascination with the business and social impact of technology began at university, where he obtained an MSc at the Science Policy Research Unit of Sussex University.
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Published 12:45, 22 February 10
Computerworld UK and Techworld have pulled a number of articles by Randall C. Kennedy, a contributor to our US-based sister title Infoworld.
Kennedy last week admitted that while writing for Infoworld he was also working under a pseudonym as the chief technology officer of Devil Mountain Software, a company that sells Windows performance metric software.
In his alter ego, he gave quotes for stories to our US Computerworld title, some of which have been carried on our UK sites. Kennedy is not the first columnist or reviewer and certainly not the first senior person in an IT company to be ‘economical with the truth’.
It is the job of journalists to cast a sceptical eye over the claims made by those with power and influence, those with a vested interest and even those with a hobby horse to ride.
Techworld founder John E. Dunn last week cast just such a sceptical eye over some of the claims made by Kennedy on the performance of Windows 7.
Gregg Keizer, a Computerworld US reporter here explains how Kennedy misled him over a period of two years, before finally coming clean.
Few industries can match IT for hype and opinion passed off as fact. At the same time few industries can match IT in the potential benefits that can be delivered.
That is why the need for high-quality, independent journalism, that questions and evaluates what the industry says and analyses what it means for IT professionals, has never been greater.
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