Microsoft “launched an online forum January 6 for the academic community to participate in a dialogue about policy issues relating to the technology industry,” according to PR Week. The so-called “Technology Academic Policy” [TAP] group “is aimed at journalists, Capitol Hill staffers, think tanks, and other decision makers,” explained Kathryn Neal, academic relations director for Microsoft. Academic institutions that are participating include UC Berkeley, Harvard University, Northwestern University, and Stanford Law School. Microsoft, which hired Adfero Group in summer 2009 to support the program, also created a presence for TAP on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Digg, and Facebook. Academic participants can engage in each medium, including posting videos to YouTube, noted Neal.” Adfero Group says that it helps clients “persuade the powerful.”
Microsoft is playing a game of academic catch-up to Google, which funds scholars and research to help advance it’s own interests. But there should be real independence between the academy and powerful special interests. One will have to examine closely Microsoft’s relationship with the following academic institutions aligned with the new TAP program:
“TAP Centers – The following institutions currently contribute to TAP:
- The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology at UC Berkeley
- The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
- The George Washington University Law School
- The John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago Law School
- The Program in the Law & Economics of Intellectual Property and Antitrust at Stanford Law School
- The Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth at Northwestern University
- Silicon Flatirons — A Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado
- The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR)
- The Toulouse Network for Information Technology, hosted by the Institut d’Economie Industrielle at Toulouse University
- The Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition at The University of Pennsylvania Law School (CTIC)”
