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| 《PC World》互联网最具影响力的50人 |
那么,谁才是当今互联网上最具影响力的人呢?为了得出这个答案,我们对互联网上的很多人都进行了详细的了解,其中包括有经纪人、博客和网站创建者等.以下是便是我们评选出的2007年“互联网最重要五十人”,下面就让我们一起来看看他们在互联网领域的影响力吧!
1、Google三巨头:施密特、佩奇、布林
当一家公司的股票达到500美金,现金流有330亿,并且成为全球流量最大的搜索引擎,你能不投他们一票吗?佩奇和布林将一家原本在斯坦福大学的网络实验项目发展成为世界的“发电厂”,这还不够惹人关注?在2001年离开Novell并加入Google公司担任CEO的施密特,带领Google占据了全球在线广告市场的大半江山,而且去年更是以16.5亿美元买下视频网站YouTube,几乎成为全球互联网的主宰者,有这样的业绩施密特当然应该排在头名.
2、苹果公司首席执行官:乔布斯
也许你会嫉妒乔布斯的网络之路太过平坦,但毫无疑问,当乔布斯振臂高呼希望开放DRM音乐版权的时候,任何人都不能忽视他的力量.通过各种方法乔布斯让音乐和有版权的视频或TV节目下载逐渐普及,虽然在MacWorle演示的iPhone有可能在未来五个月内仍旧无法上市,但我们有理由相信这款产品有可能像iPod一样成为多媒体网络市场最流行的移动设备.
3、BitTorrent联合创始:Bram Cohen
其实,像Kazaa和电驴这样的P2P系统已经成为过去式,未来属于数学和编程奇才Cohen的杰作BitTorrent.2001年开发的BT软件已经成为下载大型文件的主流工具,它的特点是通过互联网共享资源、硬件和带宽.BT软件的强大功能给Cohen带来了好莱坞的官司,他们要求Cohen从BT 网络当中移除所有盗版内容.不过,这些挫折并未减缓BT的发展步伐.据统计,互联网上三分之一的流量来自BT文件交换.最近,BT和一些娱乐巨头联合组建了“BT娱乐网”,并且已经获得了许多正版电影、电视剧、游戏和歌曲的下载授权.
4、Blizzard娱乐公司总裁:Mike Morhaime
如果提及全球在线游戏市场,不知道《魔兽世界》肯定会被人笑话,因为这款游戏已经出现在世界每个角落,全球八百万用户每年为暴雪公司带来了15亿美元的收入,而且每个玩家还在感谢Mike Morhaime带给他们如此美妙的体验.《魔兽世界》在商业开发和游戏开发上几乎做到了完美,例如当前流行的“第二人生”游戏的全部真实商业交易都是基于其这款游戏而成.
5、维基百科创始人:吉米-威尔斯
很多用户都在参与这套在线百科全书的编纂工作,从开始到现在依旧在不断的更新,甚至美国著名的《自然》杂志也在部分文章中引用其资料并注明“基于 Wikipedia”.它甚至集中了很多2004年后的法庭资料,但内容越来越广泛丰富的Wikipedia并非没有任何问题,恶意修改和垃圾邮件散布者一直也在困扰着它们,比方说中东国家“卡塔尔”的相关数据就已经被禁止编辑,原因是为了避免宗教或国体问题引起更多争议.同时与Google的合作使得 Wikipedia一直都处在数据搜索的输出结果前列,因此它在2007年的成长也是必然的.但是Wikipedia还只是其创始人Wales的开始,他目前正致力于开发一套完全适用于Wikipedia的搜索引擎系统WikiSeek,这才是他引人瞩目的关键.
6、硅谷风险资本家:John Doerr
John Doerr是KPCB风险投资公司的合伙人和Google公司的董事.作为全世界最具传奇色彩的风险投资家之一,从1980年开始,John参与了众多硅谷成功企业的早期投资,包括Google 、SUN、康柏、亚马逊、网景、Intuit、Lotus、赛门铁克、Cypress 、S3、Millennium Pharmaceuticals等.他同时也担任多家上市公司的董事,包括Google 、Intuit、亚马逊、Homestore.com、和Sun.同时他还热衷于参与民主政治和干细胞的研究等.
7、Craigslist创始人:Craig Newmark
他的网站不摆放广告,只向用户收取微不足道的费用,有着一个ORG域名,雇佣了二十三人.尽管有一个谦虚的外表,打扮Craigslist去年十二月的流量却高达1410万,是全世界流量排名五十二的网站.这个网站让许多用户上了瘾,这些人不断刷新网页,以求获得免费的东东.最重要的是,网站几乎摧毁了报纸分类广告市场.一个研究发现,在旧金山海湾地区,这个网站每年几乎夺走了将近6500万美元的报纸分类广告市场.
8、福克斯互动媒体公司总裁:Peter Livinsohn
这家默多克新闻集团旗下的公司也是互联网上最有影响力的实体之一,它控制了十三个知名网站,其中包括第一大社交网站Myspace、引发新闻争议的 Foxnews.com.根据统计,去年十二月,这家公司旗下网站资产的访问量已经进入了全世界前十名.未来,他们的排名还会提高,因为福克斯互动媒体公司手里还有二十亿美元的收购资金.
9、Google负责搜索产品和用户体验副总裁:Marissa Mayer
这个Google的产品沙皇主管着公司日益膨胀的产品线,比如Google地图、Google桌面、Google Base.这个Google的“第一夫人”1999年成为Google的第一个女工程师,并帮助开发了Google简洁的用户界面.不过不要猜想她是一个只会工作不会玩耍的女性,根据Google网站介绍,她还经常组织员工电影晚会.
10、Youtube联合创始人:Chad Hurley和Steve Chen
虽然Youtube网站被Google收购,但是两位创始人似乎在未来一段时间将对公司进行重组.最近,他们宣布将向视频创作者支付报酬,此外, Youtube最近还和许多内容出版商签订了授权协议,比如MTV、NBC、华纳唱片等.另外一个创始人卡里姆已经离开公司,在斯坦福大学攻读计算机硕士.
11、美国联邦通信委员会主席:凯尔文?马丁
此人看上去很纯朴,且不高调,不过他或许是整个互联网最有权力的官僚.他在2005年的FCC主席选举中几乎毫无争议的当选,而且没有其前任 Michael Powell那样的丑闻,温文尔雅、毫无官僚作风是人们对他的评价,但这并非意味着Kevin J. Martin不会切断你的网络连接.
12、隐私权利组织“电子阵线基金会”主席:Brad Templeton
如果你发现你的资料,或是一些比较隐私的东西都已经共之与众,成为了众多所共享的,也许这个时候你应该找Brad Templeton和他的电子阵线基金会,因为他们可以帮你处理好这些事情.在过去的时间内,他们就辩护文件共享起诉了美国唱片工业协会;另外,他们还因搜索条款,跟美国在线有过一些争执;而近日,Brad Templeton又和他的电子阵线基金会在和解除束缚的博客们闹别扭,因为这些博客们出版了泄露的文件.
13.韩国Cyworld公司首席执行官 :Henry Chon
不要以为Cyworld是韩国的MySpace,事实上应该说MySpace才是美国的Cyworld.在实施互联网实名验证的韩国,25%的人都有 Cyworld帐号,我们从Cyworld上看到的不是虚拟的人物,而是实实在在的韩国人.2006年就进入美国市场的Cyworld至今还没有正式发布产品,但是MySpace却一直盯着Henry Chon,随时准备展开激烈的竞争.
14. IAC公司策略与并购事务高级副总裁:Shana Fisher
IAC/InterActive公司首席执行官Barry Diller热衷于扩张其在线事业部,在挥舞过一段时间的金钱大棒之后,Ask.com, Citysearch, Expedia, Match.com, Ticketmaster以及其他一干站点被贴上了IAC标签.但当有人提醒他应该收购某家公司的时候,他会更多听从Shana Fisher的意见,了解何时才是下手的最好时机,是否值得收购.因为她掌握了IAC的“钱包”,也被人们成为最有权利的网络女强人.
15. Skype和KaZaA创始人:Niklas Zennstrom和Janus Friis
从很多事情来看,好像都阻止不了Niklas Zennstrom和Janus Friis前进的脚步.之所以这样说,主要是因为他们的传奇经历不得不让我们对他们刮目相看.从早期的P2P文件共享软件KaZaA;再到之后的VOIP 软件Skype,最终以26亿美元出售给了eBay;再到最近或将正式推出的Joost,这是一项P2P视频发布服务,目前还只是测试版本.两人联手创造的奇迹,以及以后将创造的奇迹,都值得我们的期待.
16.博客程序WordPress作者:Matt Mullenweg
Matt Mullenweg在其22岁时开发了WordPress,这是一款博客建站的开源软件,如果你也是个博客,别告诉我你不知道WordPress是指的什么!由于WordPress的成功,Mullenweg在2004年被Cnet纳为旗下,主要是让他来研究WordPress和其他工程项目.不过在 2005年,Mullenweg宣布离开Cnet,全心全意开始研究WordPress.就现在看来,WordPress已经更像是一个内容管理系统,因为它包括有丰富的模板、插件、工具、反垃圾程序,这些使得丰富的模板、插件、工具、反垃圾程序.
17.菩提树实验室首席执行官: Philip Rosedale
Philip Rosedale创建了大型多人在线角色扮演游戏(MMORPG)概念,并把该概念成功地带入了网络的虚拟目的地:《第二人生》.但是,我们并不仅仅认为这就是一款游戏,对于“居民”而言,该游戏已经成为一种生活,在这个虚拟的世界里他们可以做任何事情,从结婚到做生意.而很多现实生活中的商务也开始和《第二人生》挂钩.事实上,《第二人生》已经越来越流行,这也将成为一种趋势.
18.Jon Lech Johansen:DeCSS破解程序开发者
其实,他的真实姓名是Jon Lech Johansen,但如果把他称为DVD-Jon,也许大家会更加熟悉.DVD-Jon是一个挪威黑客,他在15岁的时候就破解了传统DVD上防止拷贝的加密系统,从此以后,DVD上的内容就允许复制了.在2002年,DVD-Jon发布了DeCSS解密程序,并因此被人起诉,但很快便以无罪释放.之后, DVD-Jon便声称他已经破解苹果的iTunes加密软件,这时DVD-Jon正在美国的一家软件开发公司任职.不仅如此,最新的HD DVD和蓝光碟片解密系统也被DVD-Jon破解.
19. Yahoo三巨头:杨致远、大卫-菲罗、塞梅尔
Google由于其产品创新精神和以16.5亿美元的巨资收购YouTube而更引人关注,将Yahoo在互联网的光芒给遮住了,但网络巨人Yahoo仍旧在创始人杨致远、大卫?菲罗和CEO塞梅尔的领导下进行着反击.在过去两年Yahoo收购了著名的图片分享站Flickr,以及书签站 Del.icio.us等众多web2.0公司和服务.Yahoo不仅在收购方面进行了反击,在产品分布方面也不敢怠慢,推出了像Yahoo Food和Yahoo Pipes这样的新产品.近日,Yahoo又开始实施Panama广告品平台计划.从这些迹象来看,Yahoo从Google手中夺回失地也许只是早晚的事.
20.马云:阿里巴巴董事局主席兼首席执行官
其实,想和中国人做生意,并不一定要买去上海的机票才能够实现.之所以这样说,是因为阿里巴巴帮很多外国商人实现了这个目标.1999年,马云创建了阿里巴巴电子商务公司,提供了最好的B2B平台,是线上商务交往、交易提议和产品提供的最佳场所.在2005年,Yahoo向阿里巴巴投入数十亿美元,之后雅虎中国便纳入了阿里巴巴旗下.
21、 Internet Archive创始人:Brewster Kahle
在1996年之前,Internet Archive都一直处于非盈利状态.但从1996年之后,Internet Archive便开始收集了相当多的数据,而这些数据主要来自于旧书、电影、音乐和收音机节目.之后,便有了提供用日期检索的WayBack Machine网页数据库检索.这之后Internet Archive会定期收录并永久保存全球网站上可以抓取的信息.对于不同的网站,其收录的网页数量和收集周期也不相同,一些大型网站可能每天都会被“备份”一次,每次可能收录数十个以上的网页,而一些小型网站可能每年收录几次,每次只有几个网页.对网站不同时期的历史资料进行研究,是互联网档案馆最大的价值所在.
22、微软首席软件架构师:Ray Ozzie
2006年,Ray Ozzie从比尔.盖茨手中接下软件架构长的职务,众人都对此给予掌声,对Ray Ozzie给予了极大的肯定,同时也承接了微软技术架构与产品监督的重责大任.Ray Ozzie一直被视为是个相当有远见的工程师,他在1984年创立Iris Associates,并相继推出了Lotus Notes和Groove协同软件.现在,Ray Ozzie已经成为了微软的一员,并在工作岗位上发挥了应有的工作激情,并提出了微软如何在这个网络威胁将取代传统台式电脑时代保持强劲的竞争势头.作为基于电脑协作软件的开创人,Ray Ozzie绝对能胜任微软软件架构长的职务.
23、知名博客:Markos Moulitsas Zuniga
Markos Moulitsas Zuniga撰写的博客内容主要跟政治有关,不过他所反映出的正是很多人的心声.他的博客内容涉及到自由主义者的评论,并写到了Nancy Pelosi和Jimmy Carte.Moulitsas甚至还召开了一次政治激进分子的会议.虽说,Moulitsa的认可并未总是得到胜利,但他的后盾Ned Lamont却相当有影响力.不过,Moulitsas从未表明任何欲望可让他为办公室跑腿.
24、亚马逊首席执行官:Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos创建了亚马逊网站,并把它的目标定为打造成最好的线上书店.但Jeff Bezos始终认为出售书籍和CD只是亚马逊网站的第一个行之有效的方案.之后,亚马逊网站便开始出售玩具、恤杉和电动工具.而现在,Jeff Bezos又有了新的想法,那就是让亚马逊网站向网络服务靠近.为开发中的网站提供一个新的框架,其中包括有效计算服务,即让你以每小时10美分来购买服务时间.不过更让我们期待的是他新建的网格计算战略.
25、 PodTech.net副总裁:Robert Scoble
当很多大型商务都开始进入博客时,大家都意识到了草根运动的成功.曾经有一度,微软也开始了这样的做法,这主要是得益于Robert Scoble.在微软的工作期间,Robert Scoble就微软的一些人和事都写入了博客当中,其中还包括微软内部的工作、制造工艺和团队.Robert Scoble的这一做法得到了微软的认可,并宣布把微软博客作为公司与员工交流的正式平台.在2006年,Robert Scoble宣布离开了微软,投身到PodTech.net旗下,在那里,他的视频播客Robert Scoble特色采访小丑得到了大家的热捧.另外,Robert Scoble还成功采访了2008年的总统候选人John Edwards.
26、 Federated Media Publishing董事长:John Battelle
企业家兼记者John Battelle有一个供Webs 1.0, 2.0和3.0伸展拳脚的竞技场;另外,John Battelle还创建了被众人称着Vanity Fair 和People Magazine的互联网时代.而近段时间以来,John Battelle和他的Federated Media Publishing又开始有了新的动作,那就是呈现网上内容的A-list,涉及的网站超过了50家,其中包括43 Folders、Ars Technica、BoingBoing和 TechCrunch.
27、 Creative Commons首席执行官:Lawrence Lessig
由于Lawrence Lessig在互联网上的种种表现,《连线》杂志曾经把他称为“Elvis of Cyberlaw”.现在,Lawrence Lessig不仅是斯坦福大学的教授,同时也是Creative Commons (CC)的创始人兼首席执行官,这是以促进线上工作的免费,但不可废除的许可系统,但它完全是免费的.如果你想和版权持有者一同共享内容,一张CC许可证就能让你实现这一愿望.有了CC许可证就意味着你共享该内容,但前提是不能拿去商用.
28、 eBay首席执行官:梅格-惠特曼
如果要说出eBay没有涉及到的工业领域,我们实在找不出来.如果你想在PS3上市后就能拿到货,或是得到你心仪已久的东西,你都可以访问这个线上拍卖界国王——eBay.自从梅格?惠特曼接手eBay首席执行官以来已经有9个年头了,梅格?惠特曼为eBay出谋划策,同时还打理着网站的最大线上支付系统 ——PayPal.更让梅格?惠特曼自豪的时,在她的任职期间,成功地收购了VoIP系统——Skype
29.美国俄勒冈州参议员:Ron Wyden
Ron Wyden是美国俄勒冈州的高级参议员,是一个民主党,曾经提出的“互联网反歧视法案2006”,强调网络运营商“不得干涉、阻碍、降级、修改、削弱或者改变任何通过该运营商传输的比特、内容或服务”,也不能“按照有利于自己或任何其他人”即《网络中立法案》.
30、美国知名博客兼出版商:Michael Arrington
Michael Arrington以前是一个企业家兼创业型律师,但由于网络的启动,Michael Arrington也开始自己的博客生涯,由于其博客独具特性,引起了很多人的关注和媒体的报道.特别是TechCrunch属性现在已经横跨了6个域,这更使Arrington成为了一个技术型博客.
31、密码学专家:Bruce Schneier
不管Bruce Schneier是不是把他的主要精力放在Transportation Security Administration最新的安全产品上,或是在研究如何实现12道密码的安全性,但Bruce Schneier都一直在为大家提供有关电脑安全的明晰密码资料.而现在Bruce Schneier正在撰写一个跟国际恐怖主义相关的安全问题,但在家的大多数时间,Bruce Schneier都在进行必要的阅读.
32、 Digg创始人:Kevin Rose
谁在网络上有一个故事,如果想挖掘一下的话,可以找Digg的创始人Kevin Rose.Kevin Rose在2004年创建了Digg.com,Digg的运算法则让用户提交他们喜欢的新闻故事,然后进行投票.由于Digg这一概念被广告互联网用户接受,Digg也得到了广泛的开展,从首先单纯的技术新闻到现在的主流新闻种类.虽说我们并不知道Kevin Rose有没有数百万家财,但Kevin Rose和他的Digg.com确实在互联网史上留下了难以抹出的一笔.
33、Interesting-People.org创始人:David Farber
从上世纪90年代早期开始,David Farber就已经开始运营Interesting-People邮件序列了.但是最开始,这仅仅是为其朋友和同事而建的一个小型的电子邮件序列,之后便广泛用于线上邮件序列.但Interesting-People被众人认可还是它所发起的一些主题,从9/11到Digital Millennium Copyright Act,再到Net中立性,而对于某些有影响力的人,Interesting-People也进行了武断的评论.另外,Farber现在还是 Carnegie Mellon大学的计算科学和公共政策的教授.Farber曾经还是Federal Communications Commission的首席技术专家.
34、 PowerLine网站创始人:John Hinderaker、Scott Johnson和Paul MirengoffAuthors,
现在,很多政治候选人都不敢再忽视政治博客的力量了,而PowerLine就是政治博客中的一个.这个政治博客是由三个新保守派的律师所组建的,他们是在出席某次活动时达成的一些同盟.因为那时你们就Killian文件形成了争论同盟,该文件是被Dan Rather引用在《60分钟》新闻广播中,其实这都是凭空捏造的.但在最首先,Rather和CBS并不惧怕PowerLine博客,可到了最后, CBS不得不向PowerLine博客低头,并承认了伪造的事实.
35、ICANN董事,Google副总裁:Vinton G. Cerf
由于他在TCP/IP协议中所扮演的角色,Vinton G. Cerf成为了互联网之父其中的一员.其实,Vinton大部分在协议上的贡献都是在上世纪70年代和80年代早期,那是他还是DARPA的一员,属于国防部的Advanced Research Projects Agency.后来,他便跳到了ICANN.在2005年,Vinton成为了Google的副总裁和首席互联网传道者.Vinton的一生都在提倡 Net的中立性,特别是在Senate Judiciary Committee上.另外,他还和NASA的Jet Propulsion Laboratory一起在Interplanetary Internet工作,主要是做空间通讯系统的研究.
36、O’Reilly Media创始人:Tim O’Reilly
O’Reilly不仅发明了Web 2.0这个短语,同时还举办了Web 2.0 Summit会议,该会议引起了极大的关注.这个曾经在美国哈佛大学读书的年轻人,现在已经在计算机领域有相当大的影响力.而他的公司也在不断地壮大,并成功地合并了很多新型媒体博客、播客和线上新闻站点.
37、Fark.com创始人:Drew Curtis
在解剖当今新闻故事的时候,Fark.com的评论员通常都是采用诙谐的手法,其中也有一些比较下流且粗鲁的话语.但正是因为这种诙谐的手法,使得 Fark.com所剖析的新闻内容也成为了大家争先报道的新闻.当近日Fark.com在描述这个标题“Anna Nicole Smith的环境已经接近了死亡的边缘”时,路透社和其他国际性的新闻媒体还对此进行了跟踪报道.而Fark.com网站一直都是由一个家伙所掌管,这就是Fark.com的创建者和精明的运营者Drew Curtis.在2007年1月份,Drew Curtis还宣布在SuperDeluxe喜剧视频网站发布了FarkTV.
38、Techmeme发明人:Gabe Rivera
Gabe Rivera创建了功能强大的内容分析运算法则,利用该法则来浏览传统的新闻媒体和博客,就能鉴别出那些新闻是重要的,然后还能把这些重要的新闻组织成一个容易阅读的文件档.而Gabe Rivera的目标是找到下一个大的新闻故事.这就是为什么那些有影响力的博客、制造者和新闻工作者把Gabe Rivera的网站Techmeme作为一个必看的站点.
39、 RSS 2.0发明人:Dave Winer
如果你每天要耗费几个小时来细读播客的话,那么你或许要感谢,或是谴责(看你怎样看待这件事)Dave Winer,因为Dave Winer就是播客发明者其中的一个,同时也是第一批博客.Dave Winer写博客是从1997年开始,叫着Scripting News博客.另外,Scripting News还是SOAP协议的作者,这是操作系统独立网络服务的一个重要的元素.不过,Dave Winer真正为众人所认识还是他专注的RSS——网络内容收集后面的技术.正是因为Dave Winer的影响力,才说服了《纽约时代》也开始使用RSS,而Dave Winer也在对RSS进行修正,以便能支持媒体文件.
40、Mozilla技术副总裁:Mike Schroepfer
在现在进行浏览器战争中,Mozilla的副总裁Mike Schroepfer扮演着一个重要的角色,因为他就是负责火狐浏览器的研究,而他的任务就是打造世界上最好的浏览器.事实上,Mike Schroepfer已经成功了,因为现在火狐浏览器已经得到了大家的广泛认可.这种开源浏览器软件结合了众多的特性,且有了一定的安全保障.其实,火狐浏览器的成功并不是空穴来风,不然的话,微软的IE7也不会采用火狐浏览器的特性——标签浏览.
41、好莱坞博客:Perez Hilton
爱他,或是恨他,这些我们都是有准备的,因为这是一个非常有争议的博客,因为他已经改变了名人新闻的面目.在Hilton受欢迎的网站上可提供很多名人的闲谈和照片,但这些并不足以让Hilton成为互联网史上最重要的50人之一.不过,Hilton卷入的一场和照片代理机构X17的官司,让Hilton 有了更多的名气.X17起诉Hilton未经允许就擅自使用了他们的版权照片,不过Hilton声称他所使用的照片都是合法的.这场官司让大家更多地认识了Hilton,同时也让众人意识到了在网上使用数码照片的严重性.
42、Y Combinator创始人:Paul Graham、Trevor Blackwell、Robert Morris和Jessica Livingston
到处撒网,总会有一处会捕到鱼,这就是奉风险投资公司Y Combinator的宗旨,也许这样会浪费很多的资源,但也许也会捧出下一个Google,这也就是Y Combinator为什么到处投资的原因.Y Combinator一般会向一些有潜质的公司注入一定的资金,作为回报,Y Combinator会要求所投资的公司给予2到10%的公司股份.从Y Combinator成立至今,已经向很多公司投入资金,其中包括Reddit、Kiko和Weebly,也许这些名字听起来都相当陌生,但是当我们第一次听到YouTube这个名字时,我们谁又记住它了呢?
43、F-Secure安全专家:Mikko H. Hypponen
F-Secure的安全新闻博客,都是其反病毒研究主管Mikko H. Hypponen进行撰写的.该博客是很多互联网用户常去的地方,因为在这里可以获得很多最新安全威胁的信息.但是,索尼BMG并不买Hypponen的帐,这也导致后来的错误.之前,Hypponen就已经在博客上说索尼BMG音频CD的反盗版软件中隐藏了Rootkit,但索尼BMG不顾 Hypponen的警告,未对此有所防范.尽管F-Secure并未把此事当作新闻一样发布出去,但之后Windows安全专家Mark Russinovich便在其博客上公布了Rootkit的发现过程.这一举措促使索尼不得不在以后的日子认真地对待Hypponen的博客.
44、 Slashdot.org创始人:Rob Malda
1997年,Rob Malda创建了Slashdot,这是最原始的对新闻内容进行优先次序进行区分的博客,但这些进行区分的新闻的读者大多数是技术人员.事实上,原始新闻故事仅仅只是一个跳板,让读者跳到注释和评论上.也许你现在更喜欢Digg、Techmeme、Technorati,或是其他的新闻聚合博客,但千万不要忘记Slashdot才是它们真正的鼻祖
45、Gawker Media创始人:Nick Denton
Nick Denton的博客帝国相当有影响力,这主要是因为他的博客内容丰富,有特色,访问者在他的博客逛上几个小时不会感觉到乏味.他的博客按很多内容进行划分,标题类包括New York City,除此之外,还有另外其他的选择,其中有Washington, D.C.、Wonkette、Defame和科技新闻望网站Gizmodo.Denton的博客帝国无疑是一个相当成功的独立博客.
46、W3C主管:Sir Tim Berners-Lee
当你有了一个新的发明,你是否会免费把它发布出去.也许创建一个协会是一个更为行之有效的方法.在Sir Tim Berners-Lee任职于CERN时,这位英国科学家设计了首个网络浏览器,还包括有编辑和语言协议(HTTP).在1994年,Berners- Lee创建了W3C.而最近他又对Net独立性表示了极大的兴趣.而就像大型金融公司E.F. Hutton也对Berners-Lee相当的尊重,当Berners-Lee在演讲时,很多人都会把他的话牢牢记在心中.
47、播客TwiT制作人:Leo Laporte
TWiT的前身是Tech TV,是Leo Laporte、Patrick Norton和John C. Dvorak几个人合作的一个播客网站,主要播报每周的科技领域的新闻.TechTV最初是叫ZDTV,是1998年创办的一个有线网络电视频道,在 2004年,当时已经改名的TechTV宣告解散.2005年1月,现公司总裁Leo Laporte,在他的广播电台网站播放了他与前TechTV20分钟的谈话记录,没想到取得了意想不到的效果:以前TechTV的电视观众疯狂迷恋这段谈话记录,几个月以后,TwiT诞生了.根统计,TwiT每个月有50万的听众,而且这些听众都是软件购买大户,是网上最能消费的一个群体.到目前, TwiT 已经跻身于美国播客网站的前10名.
48、伊拉克之声博客作者:Mohammed和Omar Fadhil
尽管对于伊拉克战争进行报道的博客作者有很多,并都提出了相关的观点,但这些作者的博客普遍未引起很大的关注.但是,Fadhil兄弟的关于伊拉克战争的博客却引起了广泛的关注,他们所提出的一些看法是其他博客作者所不能媲美的.Fadhil兄弟之所以看问题这样透彻,主要是因为他们都是伊拉克人.其实无论你有什么政治倾向,你都会发现Fadhil兄弟的博客对伊拉克战争的报道是多么的到位,通过他们的博客,你对这次战争也会有更深的理解.另外,除了这个例子之外,还没有出现哪个草根英雄可以改变这个世界.
49、Adaptive Path总裁:Jesse James Garrett
Garrett是旧金山用户体验咨询公司Adaptive Path的总裁,并提出了Ajax概念,Ajax可提供与服务器异步通信的能力,一个最简单的应用是无需刷新整个页面而在网页中更新一部分数据.这种技术可为基于网络的应用程序,例如Zoho的应用程序架构和Google Map桌面软件实现快速大打开.其实Ajax早就存在,只不过没人对此定义罢了,直到Garrett的出现,才结束了这个局面.Garrett不仅是 Ajax的倡导者,同时也在积极地对此进行创新,并作为一项有效的技术用于很多好的Web 2.0网站和服务中.
50、MySpace名人:Tila Tequila
如果你是歌手/模特/女演员Tila Tequila的朋友,那你将不会有孤独的感觉.其实,MySpace的160万用户都用极为相似的方式来鉴定自己.而Tila Tequila证明了MySpace友谊是可以产生能量、名望和财富的.事实上,Tila Tequila还对“朋友”这个单词进行了重新定义,即以从来没有见面的个体组成的.不管你承不承认Tila Tequila的才能,Tila Tequila都是那样的出色,她甚至能在这个新网络经济时代讲授一节课程.Tila Tequila过去当过模特儿,还签有广告合约,也有自己品牌的时装产品,而她的MySpace页面已经有超过5600万页面浏览,以及173万多条评论.
The 50 Most Important People on the Web
Here's who's shaping what you read, watch, hear, write, buy, sell, befriend, flame, and otherwise do online.
Christopher Null, PC World
Monday, March 05, 2007 01:00 AM PST
Artwork: Chip TaylorDespite what Time magazine would have you believe, you are not the most powerful or influential person on the Web. At PC World we love online personals, social networks, and videos of people falling on their keisters as much as the next person, but without the folks who create the Craigslists, MySpaces, and YouTubes of the world, much of the Web's potential would be lost among spam sites and other online detritus.
So who's making the biggest impact online? We considered hundreds of the Web's most noteworthy power brokers, bloggers, brainiacs, and entrepreneurs to figure out whose contributions are shaping the way we use the Web. We whittled the list down to the top 50--well, actually the top 62--people, but as you'll see, there are some you just can't separate. And don't despair: Get a little more traffic on your Web site, and you may show up on the list next year.
Important People #1 through #5
Photograph: Courtesy of Google1. Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin
Executives, Google
When your stock price can top $500 a share, you're collectively worth $33 billion in cash, and you run the most trafficked search engine on the Internet, you can afford to do, well, pretty much whatever you want. Sergey Brin and Larry Page's little project from Stanford has grown into the Web's most talked-about powerhouse, and one of the few names on this list to have morphed into a verb. Schmidt left Novell to join the board of directors at Google in 2001 and soon became the company's CEO. Having conquered the online advertising world, Google seems to be gearing up for an acquisition spree, its headline-grabbing purchase of YouTube marking a big step toward complete domination of the Web.
Photograph: Courtesy of Apple2. Steve Jobs
CEO, Apple
No doubt you're sick of the media bonanza surrounding the every move of Apple's CEO, but when one man's appeal for DRM-free music reverberates around the world, it's hard to ignore the power he wields. Jobs popularized legal music downloads and legal TV and movie downloads. And though the iPhone won't be released for five months, its demonstration at Macworld Expo suggested that this product might finally popularize Internet browsing on a mobile device.
Photograph: Courtesy of BitTorrent3. Bram Cohen
Cofounder, BitTorrent
P2P systems like KaZaA and eDonkey are so last year. The future is all about BitTorrent, the brainchild of math wizard and programming wunderkind Bram Cohen. BitTorrent, developed in 2001, has gained in popularity as a way to download large files (like movies) by sharing the burden across hardware and bandwidth. The technology's adeptness at handling large files got Cohen in trouble with the Motion Picture Association of America, which ordered BitTorrent to remove copyrighted content from its network. But that setback hasn't slowed it down. Reportedly, more than a third of all Web traffic now comes from BitTorrent clients. BitTorrent and the entertainment heavyweights have since joined forces. The newly released BitTorrent Entertainment Network launched recently with thousands of industry-approved movies, television shows, games, and songs for sale and rental.
Photograph: Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment4. Mike Morhaime
President, Blizzard Entertainment
In the world of online gaming, there is World of Warcraft and there is everything else. With 8 million players worldwide, Blizzard earns about $1.5 billion a year on WoW. And each player is breathlessly beholden to Mike Morhaime for the chance--if it ever comes--to obtain that Blade of Eternal Justice. As with Second Life (see #17), entire real-world businesses are based around the game. Unlike Second Life, though, these businesses--which exploit the WoW economy and gameplay--are not entirely welcome.
Photograph: Andrew Lih5. Jimmy Wales
Founder, Wikipedia
Many onliners treat Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia as their first and last stop in researching a topic; and its user generated content has become so reliable that Nature magazine declared it "close to [Encyclopaedia] Britannica" in accuracy. The site has been cited as a source of information in more than 100 U.S. court decisions since 2004. But its popularity has also made Wikipedia a target for spammers--so much so that Wikipedia temporarily blocked the entire country of Qatar from making edits. To thwart spammers, Wales decided to slap "nofollow" tags on external links, telling search engines to ignore the links in order to avoid artificially inflating the search engine ranking of the link targets. This strategy ensures that Wikipedia's prominence in search results will continue to grow. But Wikipedia may just be the beginning for Wales. He recently launched his own search engine, Wikia Search, which searches only sites mentioned in Wikipedia.
Important People #6 through #10
Photograph: Courtesy of KPCB6. John Doerr
Venture capitalist, Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers
A former salesman for Intel, John Doerr has been the king of Silicon Valley venture capital for 27 years, investing in tech businesses ranging from Sun Microsystems to Amazon.com to Google. Jeff Bezos (see #24) once described Doerr as "the center of gravity in the Internet." He has also put his money behind his politics, backing controversial state ballot initiatives in California involving alternative energy and stem-cell research.
Photograph: Gene X Hwang of Orange Photography7. Craig Newmark
Founder, Craigslist
His Web site has no ads, charges absurdly low fees to a small fraction of its visitors, has a ".org" domain, and employs 23 people. Yet despite its humble appearance, Craigslist racked up 14.1 million page views last December and was the 52nd most viewed site last December according to comScore Media Metrix. Newmark's Craigslist has become an addiction for many, who impulsively refresh the listings of free stuff, "rants & raves," and personal ads while shirking their day jobs. Most importantly, it has almost singlehandedly demolished the offline classified advertising business. (In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, one study found, the site drains up to $65 million annually from local newspapers' help-wanted ads.) Take that, old media!
8. Peter Levinsohn
President, Fox Interactive Media
Fox Interactive Media, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, is one of the Web's most powerful entities, controlling 13 sites that range from uber-popular MySpace.com to controversial FoxNews.com. A complement to News Corp's array of traditional film and television properties, this Internet-focused division ranked among the top 10 visited properties in the world in December 2006, according to comScore World Metrix. And there will probably be more to come, as Fox Interactive still has $2 billion in acquisition money to play around with, according to TechCrunch (see #30).
Photograph: Courtesy of Google9. Marissa Mayer
Vice president for search products & user experience, Google
Google's product czar oversees the search giant's increasingly diversified list of Web services and tools, such as Google Maps, Google Desktop, and Google Base--an eBay-esque e-commerce service. The first lady of Google joined the company as its first female engineer in 1999 (she was approximately employee #20) and worked on developing Google's now-familiar minimalist look. But don't accuse her of all work and no play; according to Google's Web site, she organizes employee movie nights.
10. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen
Founders, YouTube
Despite Google's acquisition of the company, YouTube founders Chad Hurley (CEO) and Steve Chen (CTO) look like they'll be shaking things up for some time to come. The Internet video kingpin announced plans to pay users for videos, and it has signed several big-media content partnerships (with MTV, NBC, Warner Music, and others). Fellow co-founder Jawed Karim left the company to pursue a master's in computer science at Stanford University.
Important People #11 through #15
11. Kevin J. Martin
Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
He may look innocent and unassuming, but Martin is arguably the most powerful bureaucrat on the Web. He took over the reins of the FCC in 2005, and to date he has encountered minimal controversy and none of the scandals that predecessor Michael Powell suffered. But that doesn't mean he couldn't cut off your Internet connection like that if he really wanted to.
Photograph: Courtesy of Electronic Frontier Foundation12. Brad Templeton
Chairman of the board, Electronic Frontier Foundation
If you've ever found yourself on the wrong side of an electronic copyright or privacy scuffle, you know that Brad Templeton and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are your friends. They've defended file-sharers sued by the Recording Industry Association of America and filed complaints against America Online for disclosing subscriber search terms; currently they're fighting to unmuzzle bloggers who published leaked documents related to Eli Lilly's alleged misrepresentation of side effects of the drug Zyprexa. Templeton's passion about copyright and free speech is not surprising. The Web publishing veteran got his start back in 1989 when he founded ClariNet, a company that published what Templeton calls "the Net's first newspaper."
13. Henry Chon
CEO, Cyworld
Don't call Cyworld a Korean MySpace; MySpace is an American Cyworld. In South Korea, an estimated 25 percent of the population (and 90 percent of people in their teens and twenties) have Cyworld accounts, where individuals design miniature animated avatars to represent them in its unique online space. In 2006 CEO Henry Chon brought Cyworld to U.S. shores. Though Cyworld hasn't yet achieved comparable success here, MySpace shouldn't rest easy if Chon's track record is any indication of future competition.
14. Shana Fisher
Senior vice president for strategy and M&A, IAC/InterActiveCorp
IAC/InterActiveCorp chairman and CEO Barry Diller loves his online enterprises. After a buying binge, IAC now owns Ask.com, Citysearch, Expedia, Match.com, Ticketmaster, and a host of other service-oriented Web businesses. But who tells Diller where to plunk down the cash? That would be his mergers and acquisitions advisor, senior VP Shana Fisher, who determines exactly where and when IAC should invest. Her control over IAC's purse strings makes her arguably the most powerful woman on the Internet.
15. Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis
Founders, Skype and KaZaA
It seems like Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis just can't stop themselves. First they built the popular (though malware-addled) peer-to-peer file-sharing network KaZaA; then they followed that endeavor up by building the amazingly popular VoIP software Skype. After selling Skype to eBay (see #28) for $2.6 billion, the duo has gone back to the drawing board to produce Joost (formerly "The Venice Project"), a P2P video distribution service that is currently in private beta form. Will Zennstrom and Friis pull off a trifecta of killer apps? After being forced to settle an RIAA lawsuit over KaZaA for more than $100 million, they are negotiating directly with content providers as they prepare for Joost's official launch.
Important People #16 through #20
Photograph: Courtesy of Photo Matt16. Matt Mullenweg
Developer, WordPress blogging site and software
Matt Mullenweg can barely buy a drink, but this 22-year-old open-source enthusiast developed WordPress, the open-source publishing software favored by blogging diehards around the world. In 2004, WordPress became well-enough known that Web publishing powerhouse CNet hired Mullenweg to work on it and other projects. Mullenweg quit in 2005, however, to work full-time on WordPress, which today is more like a content-management system, with various templates, widgets, and plug-ins, and Askismet antispam protection (we reviewed the service in January 2007.)
Photograph: Copyright 2007. Linden Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.17. Philip Rosedale
CEO, Linden Lab
Philip Rosedale took the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) concept and spun it into the Web's most talked-about virtual destination: Second Life. But don't call it just a game. For more and more "residents," Second Life has become a first life, where they can do everything in the virtual world from getting married to launching businesses that function exclusively within the site's confines. Many real-world businesses have opened Second Life branches, too. In fact, Second Life has become so popular that the inevitable backlash has begun: Nick Denton's Valleywag (see #45) has compared the game's economy to a pyramid scheme
Photograph: Copyright 2006. Jon Lech Johanse18. Jon Lech Johansen
Creator, DeCSS decryption program
Better known as DVD-Jon, Jon Lech Johansen is the Norwegian hacker who broke the encryption system used on DVD movies, thereby allowing them to be copied. He released the DeCSS decryption program in 2002 and was promptly prosecuted in his homeland. Eventually acquitted, Johansen went on to crack Apple's iTunes DRM (repeatedly) while working as a software developer in the United States. Beaten to the punch in cracking high-definition DVD formats by the still-anonymous muslix64, who created "backup" programs for HD DVD late last year and for Blu-ray Disc in January, Johansen nonetheless remains the renegade that big media fears most.
19. Jerry Yang, David Filo, and Terry Semel
Executives, Yahoo
Google's product innovations and its blockbuster purchase of YouTube for $1.65 billion may have pushed Yahoo out of the limelight, but the Web giant led by founders Yang and Filo and CEO Terry Semel are fighting back. In the past two years, Yahoo has acquired online photo-sharing site Flickr and social bookmarking site Del.icio.us. It also continues to launch new properties such as Yahoo Food and Yahoo Pipes (for creating custom data feeds). Yahoo's recent switch to the Panama advertising platform represents another attempt to recapture ad revenue from Google. (Full disclosure: The author of this story writes a blog hosted at tech.yahoo.com.)
20. Jack Ma
COO, Alibaba.com
Want to do business in China without springing for a plane ticket to Shanghai? Alibaba.com is your best bet. Founded by Jack Ma in 1999, this massively successful business-to-business e-marketplace is the best place online to meet people and trade proposals and product offers. (Ma has been quoted as saying that the firm got its bizarre start when he was kidnapped in Malibu and released on the condition he help his captor start a business in China.) In 2005, Yahoo (see #19) made a multibillion-dollar investment in Alibaba, which now runs Yahoo China. The venture recently became mired in scandal, when it provided information that led to the imprisonment of a Chinese journalist accused of leaking state secrets.
Important People #21 through #25
21. Brewster Kahle
Director, Internet Archive
Since 1996, the nonprofit Internet Archive has been collecting terabytes of data--old books, movies, music, and radio shows. Meanwhile, another feature, called the Wayback Machine, has been quietly taking snapshots of Web history to memorialize where we browsed. Take a look at the Internet Archive's old snapshots of your favorite Web sites and you may be shocked at how different they used to be. Kahle cofounded the Internet Archive with the goal of "preserving our digital heritage," but don't let the humble curatorial pose fool you: Kahle has also challenged changes to U.S. copyright law in Kahle vs. Gonzales, a high-profile First Amendment legal case.
Photograph: Courtesy of Microsoft22. Ray Ozzie
Chief software architect, Microsoft
In 2006, when Bill Gates abdicated the position of chief software architect at Microsoft after 30 hands-on years, observers applauded his choice of successor: software visionary Ray Ozzie. The creator of Lotus Notes and Groove collaboration software is now charged with ensuring Microsoft's technological relevance in an age in which the Web threatens to replace the traditional desktop OS. A pioneer in computer-based collaboration, Ozzie seems well equipped to do the job. One piece of unsolicited advice, Ray: You might consider updating your blog as a first step.
Photograph: Courtesy of Kos Media, LLC23. Markos Moulitsas Zuniga
Blogger, Daily Kos
The left's most high-profile voice on the Web, Markos "Kos" Moulitsas, is a political powerhouse without equal online. His blog draws comments from liberals ranging from Nancy Pelosi to Jimmy Carter, and Moulitsas even launched a conference (broadcast in part on C-Span) for like-minded political activists. Kos's endorsements haven't always triumphed, but his backing of Ned Lamont was influential in opponent Joe Lieberman's loss of the Democratic Senate primary in Connecticut last year, though Lieberman eventually won the general election as an independent. Kos has not indicated any desire to run for office himself as yet.
Photograph: Courtesy of Amazon.com24. Jeff Bezos
CEO, Amazon
He may have launched Amazon.com with the goal of developing it into a big online bookstore, but Bezos proved that shlepping books and CDs across the country was just a first act. The next round: adding toys, T-shirts, and power tools. And now, for scene three, Bezos has thrown himself into Web services. What does it mean? Just the start of a new framework for developing Web sites, including "utility computing" services that let you buy server time at a rate of 10 cents an hour. While we wait to find out how his newfangled grid computing strategies pan out, don't forget that Bezos will sell you a Barbie Fashion Fever Grow 'N Style Styling Head for 50 percent off.
Photograph: Thomas Hawk, Zooomr, Inc.25. Robert Scoble
Vice president of media development, PodTech.net
You know a grassroots movement is a success when big business wants to join in. And for once, big business--namely Microsoft--did it right. This was largely due to Robert Scoble. At the time a Microsoft employee, he blogged about the company and revealed a human--and sometimes egg-covered--side of the Redmond empire. The glimpse into Microsoft's inner workings, cool technologies, and smart people shattered (or at least dented) the Microsoft stereotype. Microsoft blogs have subsequently become an integral part of the company's communication with users. In 2006 Scoble left Microsoft for PodTech.net, where his video podcast Scoble Show features interviews with geeks. Recent guests include PC World's editor in chief Harry McCracken, who stopped in to debate the eternal question: Mac or PC? Scoble has also interviewed 2008 presidential candidate John Edwards, whose outspoken bloggers got him into hot water.
Important People #26 through #30
Photograph: Michelle Battelle26. John Battelle
Entrepreneur and chairman, Federated Media Publishing
Entrepreneur and journalist John Battelle has had a ringside seat for the unfolding of Webs 1.0, 2.0 (he cohosts the Web 2.0 Summit conference with Tim O'Reilly--see #36), and (in its preliminary stages) 3.0. In addition, he founded what some would call the Vanity Fair and the People Magazine of the Internet era: Wired Magazine and The Industry Standard. His most recent venture, Federated Media Publishing, represents the A-list of online content. Its slate of more than 50 sites includes 43 Folders, Ars Technica, BoingBoing, and TechCrunch. Battelle's 2005 book The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture and his blog Searchblog are required reading for anyone who wants to understand the constantly evolving landscape of the tech industry.
Photograph: Courtesy of Lawrence Lessig27. Lawrence Lessig
CEO, Creative Commons
Acknowledging his kinglike status in the field, Wired once called him the "Elvis of Cyberlaw"--and the name stuck. Lawrence Lessig is a professor at Stanford University Law School and founder and chair of Creative Commons (CC), a nonprofit initiative that promotes a free but nonrevocable licensing system for online works. Designed to enable copyright holders to share content and yet still control it, a CC license spells out whether the holder wants to require attribution, restrict commercial use, or allow derivative works under specified circumstances. Musical acts such as DangerMouse and David Byrne have made songs available under the CC's Sampling Plus license for noncommercial sharing and commercial sampling, while restricting advertising uses of it. A wealth of Creative Commons-licensed media is stored in searchable form at the Creative Commons Search page.
Photograph: Corbis28. Meg Whitman
CEO, eBay
If there's an industry that eBay doesn't touch, we haven't found it yet. Whether trying to score a PlayStation 3 on opening week or laboring to complete your set of Thundercats action figures, you have probably visited the venerable king of all auctions. But Meg Whitman, whose tenure as CEO of eBay is now approaching nine years (an era by dot-com standards), has more on her mind than just vintage GI Joe dolls and state quarters. She's also boss of the Web's largest online payment system, PayPal, and proud new owner of the most popular VoIP system, Skype (see #15).
Photograph: Courtesy of Ron Wyden29. Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator, Oregon
Oregon's senior U.S. Senator, a Democrat, has long ranked as one of Capitol Hill most influential voices on technology issues. During his tenure, Wyden has authored or co-authored the Science and Technology Emergency Mobilization Act, the Cyber Security Research and Development Act, and the controversial CAN-SPAM Act. (Hey, they can't all be winners.) More recently, Wyden has introduced a bill called the Internet Nondiscrimination Act, which would prevent telecom companies from charging more for delivering content faster.
30. Michael Arrington
Blogger/publisher, TechCrunch
An entrepreneur and former attorney who cofounded Canada's answer to Netflix (Zip.ca), Michael Arrington turned his attention in 2005 to blogging about Web startups. Almost overnight he became a sensation, eliciting the kind of fawning attention from dot-com wannabes that is normally reserved for the likes of men with surnames like Gates and Jobs. With TechCrunch properties now sprawling across six domains, the often-irascible Arrington is indisputably the most powerful technology blogger working today.
Important People #31 through #35
31. Bruce Schneier
Cryptographer
Whether his focus is the Transportation Security Administration's latest boneheaded security procedures or the question of how secure a 12-character password really is, Bruce Schneier offers the most lucid (and most profoundly influential) musings on computer security you're likely to find online or off. Schneier's recent writings on security problems associated with the war on terrorism--abroad, at home, and online--are required reading.
32. Kevin Rose
Founder, Digg
Everyone who has a story on the Web wants Kevin Rose's users to "digg it." The former TechTV host (and colleague of Leo Laporte--see #47) founded Digg.com in 2004, bringing the power of social networking to the news. Digg's algorithm lets users submit their favorite news stories and vote them up (or down). Digg's expansion beyond technology news to mainstream news categories in June 2006 prompted BusinessWeek to slap a goofy-looking picture of Rose on its cover along with an eyebrow-raising valuation estimate of $60 million. Whether Rose is a multimillionaire or not, his site has plenty of clout on the Internet.
33. David Farber
Founder, Interesting-People.org
Since the early 1990s, David Farber has been running the Interesting-People mailing list. It started as a small e-mail list for friends and colleagues (the interesting people) and turned into the mother lode of online mailing lists. Interesting-People takes on topics from 9/11 to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to Net neutrality and is rife with highly opinionated commentary from some very influential people. Farber is currently a professor of computer science and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. His past positions include a stint as chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission.
34. John Hinderaker, Scott Johnson, and Paul Mirengoff
Authors, PowerLine
Political candidates can no longer afford to ignore political blogs, and PowerLine is among the most influential political blogs out there. This neoconservative triumvirate--three lawyers who met while attending Dartmouth College--gained their street cred during "RatherGate," when they assembled compelling arguments that the Killian documents, which Dan Rather used in a 60 Minutes newscast on George W. Bush's National Guard service, were fake. Initially, Rather and CBS News poo-pooed the PowerLine bloggers; but in the end, CBS admitted the forgery and Rather resigned.
Photograph: Courtesy of Google35. Vinton G. Cerf
Chairman, ICANN Board of Directors, and vice president and chief Internet evangelist, Google
Owing to his role in developing the TCP/IP protocols on which the Net depends, Vinton G. Cerf is one of the founding fathers of the Internet. Much of his work on the protocols occurred during the 1970s and early 1980s while he was employed by DARPA, the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency. (In honor of their work, Cerf and partner Robert Kahn received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.) Currently, Cerf chairs ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), and in 2005 he became Google's vice president and chief Internet evangelist. He has been a strong advocate of Net neutrality, notably in an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He is also working with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on an Interplanetary Internet for more-robust space communication systems.
Important People #36 through #40
Photograph: Courtesy of O'Reilly Media36. Tim O'Reilly
Founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media
O'Reilly coined the phrase "Web 2.0," and he continues to cohost (with John Battelle--see #26) the industry's must-attend Web 2.0 Summit conference. The Harvard-educated publisher laid his foundation in computer manuals. (Many a computer enthusiast would immediately recognize the intricate black-and-white line drawings of animals that grace the covers of O'Reilly books.) But his company has grown to incorporate the new media--blogs, podcasts, and online news--he espouses.
37. Drew Curtis
Founder, Fark.com
Lewd, crude, and traffic-generating, Fark.com invites its community of ad hoc commentators to participate in an ongoing brutal but frequently witty dissection of current news stories that sometimes turns into news itself. When the site recently greenlighted a news item under the descriptive headline "Anna Nicole Smith's condition downgraded to dead," Reuters and other international news outlets reported the crack. The enterprise is still primarily run by one guy: founder and smart-ass Drew Curtis. In January 2007, he launched FarkTV on the SuperDeluxe comedy video site. He is also scheduled to release a book titled It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News in May 2007. (Yeah, but your media watchdog wants crap!)
Photograph: Gabe Rivera38. Gabe Rivera
Creator, Techmeme
Gabe Rivera has created a powerful content-analysis algorithm that scans traditional news media and blogs, identifies the important stories, and organizes them into easy-to-read clusters. His goal: to find the next big news story so that you don't have to. That's why influential bloggers, decision makers, and news junkies find his site Techmeme a must-read. Whereas Digg (see #32) ranks stories by vote, and Slashdot (see #44) does so by editorial opinion, the technology underlying Techmeme--and sister sites WeSmirch, Memeorandum, and Ballbug--may prove to be the most powerful way to harness the blogosphere's investigative power.
39. Dave Winer
Blogger and author of RSS 2.0
If you are wasting hours a day perusing podcasts, then you have Dave Winer to thank or blame (depending on your point of view). He was one of the inventors of podcasting--and one of the first bloggers. Winer started his Scripting News blog, which is still well read, back in 1997. He also co-authored the SOAP protocol, an instrumental element in operating-system-independent Web services. Nevertheless, his work on RSS--the technology behind Web content feeds--is what really earned him his fame. That, plus his ability to persuade the New York Times to use RSS and his work in amending it to support media files (giving birth to the podcast), makes him the father of modern-day content distribution.
40. Mike Schroepfer
Vice president of engineering, Mozilla
In the ongoing browser war, Mike Schroepfer is a five-star general who leads a massive but decentralized open-source army of staff and volunteer engineers. Its mission: to improve what is right now the best Web browser on the planet, Firefox. The open-source nature of Firefox permits a faster development cycle for incorporating new features and security fixes. The proof of its success is Internet Explorer 7's adoption of FireFox features such as tabbed browsing. See our recent comparative review, "Radically New IE 7 or Updated Mozilla Firefox 2--Which Browser Is Better?"
Important People #41 through #45
41. Perez Hilton
Hollywood blogger
Love him or hate him, this controversial blogger (real name: Mario Lavandeira) has changed the face of celebrity journalism. Hilton's hugely popular Web site offers around-the-clock access to celebrity gossip and photos, but that's not the only reason that he's on our list. Hilton is involved in a legal battle with photo agency X17, which has accused him of using its copyrighted photos without permission. Hilton claims that posting the photos on his site is legal, amounting simply to fair use of newsworthy images. The $7.6 million federal lawsuit could have lasting effects on how bloggers everywhere use digital photos online.
42. Paul Graham, Trevor Blackwell, Robert Morris, and Jessica Livingston
Founders, Y Combinator
Rather than sinking a whole lot of money into a handful of companies that may (or may not) turn into the next big Google, venture capital firms like Y Combinator dole out smaller sums to potential mini-Googles. Y Combinator commits to two rounds of funding and dispenses less than $20,000 (expense money, really) to coders so they can work, work, work on a prototype to parlay into more funding. In exchange, Y Combinator asks for 2 to 10 percent of the company's stock. Startups that these guys have funded include Reddit (acquired by CondeNast), Kiko, and Weebly. The names sound funny, sure, but do you remember the first time you heard the name YouTube?
43. Mikko H. Hypponen
Director of antivirus research, F-Secure
F-Secure's security news blog, written by director of antivirus research Mikko H. Hypponen, is one of the Internet's go-to places for learning about the latest security threats. Too bad Sony BMG didn't think so. When directly approached by F-Secure, Sony BMG ignored Hypponen's warnings about a rootkit hidden within the antipiracy software used in certain SonyBMG audio CDs. Though F-Secure didn't initially go public with the news, Windows expert Mark Russinovich detailed the rootkit discovery process on his blog. The resulting embarrassment (and a third-party lawsuit over the rootkit) might encourage Sony to take Hypponen more seriously next time.
44. Rob Malda
Founder, Slashdot.org
In 1997, Rob Malda (aka CmdrTaco) created Slashdot, the original blog with prioritized news content discussed in posts by snarky (and often highly technical) readers. In fact, the original news story often serves as a mere jumping off point for the site's meaty comments and discussions (fodder for links to more news stories). Even if you prefer Digg (see #32), Techmeme (see #38), Technorati, or some other news aggregation blog, don't forget that it all started with Slashdot. Authors and editors still consider it a badge of honor when their news story is "slashdotted," though increased competition from other sites has stolen a bit of Slashdot's thunder.
45. Nick Denton
Founder, Gawker Media
Nick Denton's blog empire is so influential and so blogged about that you probably visit at least one of his 15 properties every day through one route or another. With titles that include New York City page six alternative Gawker, Washington, D.C., gossip rag Wonkette, L.A. equivalent Defamer, and tech news site Gizmodo, Denton's empire is unquestionably the most successful independent blogging venture on the Web right now, holding considerable sway over industries from automobiles to Hollywood to high tech.
Important People #46 through #50
46. Sir Tim Berners-Lee
Director, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
What do you do after you invent the World Wide Web and give it away for free? Start a consortium that works on making it better This British scientist designed the first Web browser, editor, and language protocol (HTTP) while employed as a scientist at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), and he founded the W3C in 1994. He has recently spoken in favor of Net neutrality. And like the old financial firm E.F. Hutton, when Berners-Lee talks, people listen.
Photograph: Courtesy of Leo Laporte47. Leo Laporte
Creator, This Week in Tech (TWiT) podcast
For at least the past 15 years, the man behind Leoville has created, hosted, and written radio and television shows, most notably the former TechTV show Screen Savers. His personality-driven style demonstrated to the world that tech media could be fun. His most recent venture is the TWiT.tv podcast network, a listener-funded enterprise that has gathered some of the old TechTV crew and put them to work creating more than a dozen podcasts, including the eponymous "This Week in Tech."
48. Mohammed and Omar Fadhil
Blogging voice of Iraq
Countless bloggers are filled to the bloviating point with opinions about the Iraq War. But the brothers Fadhil, who blog at Iraq the Model bring a perspective that few others can match--because they're Iraqis, based in Baghdad. Whatever your political leanings, you'll find it impossible to read the Fadhil's posts without acquiring a deeper understanding of the war, its implications, and its after-effects. There's no better example anywhere of how citizen journalism is changing the world.
49. Jesse James Garrett
President, Adaptive Path
Garrett, the president of San Francisco Web design boutique Adaptive Path, didn't invent Ajax, the assemblage of technologies and programming techniques that gives Web-based applications such as Zoho's productivity apps and Google Maps desktop software-like interactivity and speed. But Ajax didn't really take off until Garrett identified and named it in an influential essay--and he remains one the most eloquent advocates for the innovative, effective techniques used in many of the best Web 2.0 sites and services.
50. Tila Tequila
MySpace Personality
If you're friends with singer/model/actress Tila Tequila (nee Nguyen), you're hardly alone. Some 1.6 million MySpace users identify themselves similarly. Tequila proved that these MySpace friendships can generate power, fame, and wealth. In fact, she redefined the word "friend" to encompass an individual you've never met. Despite what you may think of Ms. Tequila's talents, she could certainly teach a course in the new Web economy, having channeled her online popularity into A-list (well, C-list) fame. She has posed for Stuff magazine, she has a part in an Adam Sandler film currently in production, and her MySpace page currently boasts more than 56 million page views and 1,734,374 comments.
PC World's Danny Allen, Liane Cassavoy, Stephen Compton, Harry McCracken, and Narasu Rebbapragada contributed to this story.
