Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Techies: 2011 directory of who to follow on Twitter


Takeaway: If you're interested in technology and you want to know who to follow on Twitter, here is a directory of leading tech journalists, commentators, and personalities, divided by categories and specialties.

As I've been saying for years, Twitter can be an extremely valuable tool for techies — if you know who to use it. The most important factor in making Twitter useful is knowing who to follow. To help people interested in technology, I published a list of 100 techies on Twitter in 2009 and then updated the list to 140 techies in 2010.

It's time to update the list again, since lots of new tech commentators and personalities have joined Twitter during the past year and I've discovered some new names worth following. My list is up to 180. However, instead of simply adding to the numbers, I've decided to break the list into categories to make it easier navigate. In each category I've listed the people alphabetically.

For updates on the latest tech news you can find me on Twitter at @jasonhiner

If you're new to Twitter, I'd recommend reading my article on the four stages of a typical Twitter user and my quick Twitter guide and glossary for business users. Also, if you're new to Twitter and you're clicking through the names listed below, there's an important thing to note. You should ignore all of the posts that begin with an @username. Those are individual replies. You will not see those in your Twitter stream (unless you follow the user being mentioned, which will be rare). Focus on the posts that simply begin with text in order to get an idea of the kinds of things that the person posts on Twitter. That's the stuff that will show up in your Twitter stream if you follow them.

I wish there was a way to simply let you follow everyone on this list with a single click. There was a utility called TweepML that used to let you create one-click lists, but it is currently down for maintenance. Once TweepML is available again, I will create a version of this list with that tool.

However, I have created this as an official Twitter list called Hiner Tech Directory so that you can also follow the list that way. In fact, if you have a desktop client like TweetDeck or HootSuite or Seesmic, you can simply add the Hiner Tech Directory list in its own column and view it as a feed separate from your main Twitter feed.

Mobile computing

Enterprise

Microsoft

  • Todd Bishop (@toddbishop) Seattle-based Microsoft reporter
  • Ed Bott (@edbott) Microsoft Windows expert, blogger, book author
  • Mary Jo Foley (@maryjofoley) Notable source on all things on Microsoft
  • Bill Gates (@billgates) Microsoft co-founder and former CEO
  • Mark Kaelin (@markwkaelin) TechRepublic editor covering Windows and PCs
  • Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) PR chief at Microsoft
  • Paul Thurrott (@thurrott) Microsoft Windows columnist, editor, and podcaster
  • Stefan Weitz (@stefanweitz) Search chief at Microsoft

Apple

  • Jacqui Cheng (@eJacqui) Apple editor for Ars Technica
  • Jim Dalrymple (@jdalrymple) Editor of The Loop, veteran Apple columnist
  • Philip Elmer-DeWitt (@philiped) Apple reporter for Fortune Magazine
  • John Gruber (@gruber) Author of Daring Fireball
  • Andy Ihnatko (@ihnatko) Apple pundit
  • Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki) Venture capitalist, former Apple employee, former Mac columnist
  • Steven Levy (@stevenjayl) Author and columnist on Apple topics
  • Tim Robertson (@mymac) Podcaster; founder of MyMac.com
  • John Siracusa (@siracusa) Apple writer for Ars Technica
  • Jason Snell (@jsnell) Editorial Director of Macworld
  • Brian Tong (@brian_tong) CNET TV host of AppleByte and Prizefight
  • Seth Weintraub (@llsethj) Columnist covering Google and Apple

Google

  • John Battelle (@johnbattelle) Author and pundit on Google and Internet search
  • Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) Google engineer, blogger
  • Chris DiBona (@cdibona) Open source spokesman at Google
  • Vic Gundotra (@vicgundotra) Google VP of engineering for mobile apps
  • Marissa Mayer (@marissamayer) Google product development executive
  • Andy Rubin (@arubin) Head of Android development at Google
  • Eric Schmidt (@ericschmidt) Chairman of Google
  • Gina Trapani (@ginatrapani) Host of This Week in Google podcast

Open source

  • Matt Asay (@mjasay) Former COO of Ubuntu and open source columnist
  • John "Mad Dog" Hall (@maddoghall) Free software advocate
  • Doc Searls (@dsearls) Tech journalist, author, open source advocate
  • Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (@sjvn) Long-time Linux and open source columnist
  • Jack Wallen (@jlwallen) Linux enthusiast, columnist, and tip writer

Also read


Sent from my iPad
Posted by HCOBs at 12:36 AM

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