From the readings and the sample white papers, it seems that the general use of white papers is to disseminate information and offer an analysis of that information as a foundation for people to make decisions.
I can see how these papers are very useful for marketing situations, or even to just inform other divisions of a company about the new products the company is offering. I understand that these papers will naturally have a more (possibly overt) positive spin to them, than, say a government white paper. Theoretically, it makes sense to me that a government paper should be neutral throughout, but I wonder how practical this is with every issue.
It seems to me that if the paper is well researched and written well, there will be an obvious decision at the end of the paper. Even if the white paper stops short of confirming the apparent choice, I think it might still end up sounding biased. What if there's only two possible solutions to an issue, and one is clearly the better choice? I think even if you're a neutral party considering what's only best for your audience given their needs, you may have to decide if you want to even include something that's not even a reasonable option.
You can't possibly include all of the information you find on a topic; writers make decisions about what information to include and what information is pertinent to their audience with every piece of writing; so what role does this have in white papers? I think I'm struggling with the idea of analyzing information without coming to a conclusion or making any sort of argument. I think by analyzing information and just by choosing which information to include, you'll implicitly make an argument, which it seems isn't supposed be to a function of our white papers.
Unintentional Bias
It sounds like this paper will be difficult to write, based on the fact that it's hard not to imply that a certain solution is better than another. However, I'm not totally convinced that these papers have to be completely neutral. In regards to marketing, wouldn't the author of a white paper only point out the best features of a product? In the government white papers, drawbacks seem to be commonly listed, but I doubt that a product manufacturer would inform customers of any shortcomings they have. So, in my opinion, these documents don't seem 100% neutral. For this project, I think it would be easier to stay away from any biases by listing pros and cons of our particular topic.