Analyzing the analysts. Here's a new twist. A group called ResearchRate is conducting a customer satisfaction survey of IT analyst firms, such as Gartner, Aberdeen, Cahners, Giga, Meta Group, and Ovum. Of course, the analyst firms are usually the ones who are conducting surveys on others. Although it's nice to see the analysts on the receiving end, I have my doubts about the reliability of the survey. The survey instrument is accessible publicly on the Web, allowing anyone and every one to fill it out. What's to prevent an analyst firm from lining up its friends, relatives, and neighbors to stuff the ballot box? As far as I can tell, one person could even fill it out multiple times, using different email addresses. Nevertheless, if you use analyst research and you have about 15 minutes, you might want to participate in the survey. There's even a drawing for five $100 cash prizes.