Rachel Vacek - Comments

Question: In your opinion, who are the major technology thought leaders? Who do you follow/read to keep up with technology?

July 30, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

Daniel Mietchen, John Dupuis, Anil and 13 other people liked this

[disclaimer: heavy on the library folk, and lots I know personally to some degree. Also generally random order] Walt Crawford, Stephen Abram, David Pogue, you, Michael Stephens, Jessamyn West, Karen Schneider, Jenny Levine, David Lee King, Meg Canada - Michael Golrick

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First name that comes to mind is Clay Shirky. In the library world, I often look to Stephen Abram, Jessamyn West, David Lee King, Michael Stephens, and Karen Schneider. - Toby Greenwalt

Outside of the library peeps, Cory Doctorow, Anil Dash, David Weinberger, Michael Wesch are my faves, although they focus mostly on tech & society/pop culture or edutech. - val, an ominous portent

Good, good, good! More ,more, more! - Libraryman

michael geist, danah boyd, ethan zuckerman - jambina

Leo Laporte & Kevin Rose are a couple not mentioned already. - Scott Childers

Many of the people already mentioned, as well as Jason Puckett (GSU), Jane Hart (Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies), and Stephen Downes (National Research Council of Canada) - αnnα vαȵ scoyoç

Also Tim O'Reilly, David Pogue, MIT Technology Review, John Gruber. Depends a *lot* on what you mean by "technology." I don't really care much about gadgets. - Steele Lawman

Also, Make magazine's attitude toward technology: "Void your warranty, violate a user agreement, fry a circuit, blow a fuse, poke an eye out. Make: The risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things." - Steele Lawman

Jon Udell. Everyone at the Berkman Institute at Harvard. - Stephen le Francoeur

TED talks. Lastly, we pay too much attention to "thought leaders." (Time for me to get my own thread, I know.) - Steele Lawman

Agree with Steve. Especially in these days where the amateur can be an expert, I find I'm learning from a much larger group of people -- and most of them *don't* have "big names." - Meredith

Depends a lot on what you mean by technology thought leaders. Dana Longley is probably the most thorough at discovering new tools and creative about deploying them. henry Jenkins, TED talks, all good. On a more critical note, an awful lot of the big library names mentioned so far fall into a category I call cheerleaders, and I tune out the second their names come up...I want substance from my tech thinkers, and while support and enthusiasm are important, they don't make someone a leading thinker. - RudĩϐЯaЯïan

duh! Dana Longley -- of course! - αnnα vαȵ scoyoç

Lorcan Dempsey - Stephen le Francoeur

Mostly, I am just doing a gut check here. It is very useful to hear who you all pay attention to tho, ty! Honestly, for me, it is my "cloud" of "friends" on ff, fb and twitter that I spend the most time with and pay the most attention too. - Libraryman

I am however, working on a juicy project and I need to talk with 3-4 very well connected industry "tech" types soon. In round one I need to talk to ppl that know ppl and tech, not necessarily the companies or programmers, engineers, etc (yet). That was the other big reason I asked (and really appreciate you all sharing!). So, pls keep the names coming! -and Lorcan ftw, Stephen :) - Libraryman

After Michael G's comment, I'm afraid to say anything--but, well, what Meredith sez and, to some extent, what Rudi sez (after "On a..."). So, sorry, I don't have a neat list, particularly one of Very Well Connected types. (There's Clifford Lynch, to be sure...and he does provide substance, not cheerleading.) - Walt Crawford

I'd say if you think library bloggers are "thought leaders" in the area of technology, you are doin' it wrong. (Edited: Ah, that's too negative of a blanket statement. Blyberg's got a blog.) - Steele Lawman

I don't know if I would call Robert Scoble a "thought" leader, but he does keep up with the newest technology... - Yo Joe. No, go slow.

Don Tapscott, Louis Gray - Yo Joe. No, go slow.

Clay Shirky - Yo Joe. No, go slow.

This thread reminds me of one of the best things about FriendFeed. There are great conversations everywhere in so many different places. In fact, most of these folks, I am not even following, but now I will check them out. - Louis Gray

What, you don't follow 100+ librarians? - Yo Joe. No, go slow.

Get on the librarian train, Louis! :) - holly #ravingfangirl

Librarians Rock!! - Katy S

I try to keep the phrase "thought leaders" out of my phrase book. - anna sauce

Library tech thought leaders? I think of Jessamyn West, danah boyd, Eli Neiburger, David Lee King, John Blyberg, Jason Griffey, Jason Clark, Karen Coombs, Karen Schneider, Marshall Breeding... I could go on. I also love David Pogue (NYT) - not in libraries, but he's cool still. - Rachel Vacek

yup, "thought leaders" is a bit of an overdone/overblown phrase these days, but for me, I do enjoy Clay Shirky, Charlene Li, danah boyd, Beth Kanter. Following Scoble and Leo LaPorte's convos helps me keep up with tech in general. - Laura Norvig

I think Robert Scoble is the only non-spammer I have ever "blocked" because his commentary on FF dives me batshit in a totally irrational way (i.e., it's not just him, it's me). - Steele Lawman

I keep scobles posts in a separate feed from my "librarians" list. That way, I can see his stuff when I have time, but not every day, all day. - Yo Joe. No, go slow. from iPod

It is nbd, but I didn't rlly need library "thought leaders" (agreed a somewhat inaccurate and tired phrase) I asked for *technology* thought leaders (and then clarified that I wanted to hear about ppl who have access to the tru thought leaders aka the ppl that make the stuff we end up talking about and in some cases using). Still, this list is very useful and I am grateful for the feedback and conversation everyone! Thank you? Is there more? - Libraryman

I love this thread! I agree with a lot of the names on this list. I'd like to mention the people who I have learned the most from: Rudibrarian, Sujin Huggins, Ingbert FLoyd, Jenny Benevento, Michael Porter, Iris, David Lee King, David Rothman, my colleague Melissa Records, and when people ask me where they think things are going, I say, I don't know, see what Greg Schwartz is up to - Eric Sizemore

You're very kind, Eric. Wrong, but very kind. :) - David Rothman (☤)

NYT Tech Podcast and Circuits email for the Consumer stuff. Engaget and Lifehacker for the forward thinking tech stuff. - ♫410 I Coach 'em Up♫

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