I’ve been in Aspen all week so missed this announcement from a couple of days ago:
NowPublic announces Silicon Valley "MostPublic Index"
Identifies the Web’s 50 most influential people in Silicon ValleyNowPublic, the world’s largest participatory news network, today announced its second MostPublic Index, identifying the 50 most influential individuals in Silicon Valley/San Francisco.
The MostPublic Index is a detailed (and transparent) barometer of whose voices are most heard in the digital landscape as new channels—Twitter, Facebook, Flick, YouTube and the like—transform how media is created and spread. Last week, NowPublic identified and announced the 50 MostPublic influencers in New York.
NowPublic’s formula gauges influence and “publicness” across four categories:
- Online Visibility
- Presence on User-Generated Content and Social Networking Sites
- Interactivity and Accessibility
- The “R” Factor: Presence on Microblogging Platforms (Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.)
NowPublic examined statistics in each of these categories from Alexa, Compete, Facebook, Flickr, Google, Quantcast, Technorati, YouTube and various other blogs and sites, to create a list of Silicon Valley’s leading influencers. It then narrowed the list to 50 by analyzing and documenting individuals’ presence and popularity in each of these channels, applying a weighted scoring system, determined by the strength of specific traits held in each online community. A detailed account of the scoring system can be viewed here.
Here is NowPublic’s list of the MostPublic individuals in Silicon Valley/San Francisco:
1. Robert Scoble
2. Michael Arrington
3. Jack Dorsey
4. Biz Stone
5. Matt Cutts
6. Pete Cashmore
7. Dave Winer
8. Guy Kawasaki
9. Loïc Le Meur10. Kevin Rose
11. Merlin Mann
12. Stowe Boyd
13. Jeff Atwood
14. Jeremiah Owyang
15. Veronica Belmont
16. Kara Swisher
17. Scott Beale
18. Marc Andreessen
19. Ryan Block
20. David Sifry
21. Emily Chang
22. Om Malik
23. Timothy Ferriss
24. Nick Douglas
25. John Battelle
26. David Cohn
27. Louis Gray
28. Tom Foremski
29. Tim O’Reilly
30. Ariel Waldman
31. Matt Mullenweg
32. Dean Takahashi
33. Philip Kaplan
34. JD Lasica
35. Sarah Lacy
36. Brian Solis
37. Charlene Li
38. Rafe Needleman
39. Dan Farber
40. Howard Rheingold
41. David McClure
42. Margaret Mason
43. Jason Goldman
44. Leah Culver
45. Chris Shipley
46. Jackson West
47. Liz Gannes
48. Owen Thomas
49. Adeo Ressi
50. Max Levchin
Color ValleyWag unimpressed.
Lists are fun, of course. But I’m decidedly not one of the 50 most influential people in Silicon Valley. This is more an indication of popularity on social media networks, and even there I’m not so sure.
JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.
Good point, there is a difference between being popular vs. being an influencer, but even with popularity comes influence because you only have to look at Hollywood celebrities to see that in action. I’m always amazed at “star power” when it comes to products and celebrities. The masses flock to buy products that they use, are seen with, endorse, etc. It’s strange to me, but star power does move product. Especially Oprah.
You could think about using your popularity to gain more influence?
Congrats, JD! But we knew that all along, didn’t we?