Last Friday I sent an email to people in our organization 'officially' endorsing the use of Twitter as a way to keep in touch with each other, and as a way to connect with whatever's happening around the world. And now, two days later, upper management still hasn't fired me over it. Which is nice.
However, one question our software developers might ask me is: "OK, I'm using this Twitter stuff, but which people should I follow?" Well, that question is easily answered...
Some time ago I published a Top 50 Twitterers to Follow for Developers. That list contained a number of famous people in the software development business, but it was only based on their number of followers. This time I decided to calculate the results using the rank given by Twitter Grader. It is based on number of followers, updates, profile completeness, and several other mysterious criteria.
And I know you will wonder... how did I decide who to put on this list?
That's easy. I restricted myself to the people I'm following myself. There are probably plenty of heroes and celebrities out there that I haven't found yet. (But if they make themselves know to me, I will be sure to include them in the next edition.) Oh, and I also discarded everyone who was not clearly and directly involved in software development, in some way or another. (If you think I haven't treated you fairly in this, you know where to find me...)
These are the results. I hope you like them...
Note: the Twitter statistics are always changing. The rank column reflects the numbers as I found them on Saturday 31th of January.
| # | name | full name | rank |
| 1 | codinghorror | Jeff Atwood | 34 |
| 2 | shanselman | Scott Hanselman | 298 |
| 3 | al3x | Alex Payne | 307 |
| 4 | wilshipley | Wil Shipley | 307 |
| 5 | elijahmanor | Elijah Manor | 355 |
| 6 | TS_Elliott | T.S. Elliott | 460 |
| 7 | rands | Michael Lopp | 482 |
| 8 | KathySierra | Kathy Sierra | 694 |
| 9 | lazycoder | Scott Koon | 767 |
| 10 | jeresig | John Resig | 773 |
| 11 | bokardo | Joshua Porter | 1139 |
| 12 | jmspool | Jared Spool | 1160 |
| 13 | Carnage4Life | Dare Obasanjo | 1200 |
| 14 | simplebits | Dan Cederholm | 1229 |
| 15 | jasonfried | Jason Fried | 1324 |
| 16 | adactio | Jeremy Keith | 1396 |
| 17 | jongalloway | Jon Galloway | 1396 |
| 18 | robconery | Rob Conery | 1520 |
| 19 | haacked | Phil Haack | 1528 |
| 20 | crazeegeekchick | Dana Coffey | 1775 |
| 21 | judell | Jon Udell | 1775 |
| 22 | migueldeicaza | Miguel de Icaza | 1893 |
| 23 | cspag | Chris Spagnuolo | 1893 |
| 24 | dalmaer | Dion Almaer | 2196 |
| 25 | unclebobmartin | Robert C. Martin | 2205 |
| 26 | twleung | Ted Leung | 2302 |
| 27 | bellware | Scott Bellware | 2302 |
| 28 | meyerweb | Eric A. Meyer | 2433 |
| 29 | rael | Rael Dornfest | 2433 |
| 30 | john_lam | John Lam | 2552 |
| 31 | stevenf | Steven Frank | 2653 |
| 32 | mfeathers | Michael Feathers | 2908 |
| 33 | d2h | David Heinemeier Hansson | 3024 |
| 34 | noradio | Marcel Molina | 3039 |
| 35 | jkottke | Jason Kottke | 3613 |
| 36 | jimweirich | Jim Weirich | 3625 |
| 37 | stevenharman | Steven Harman | 3687 |
| 38 | WardCunningham | Ward Cunningham | 4054 |
| 39 | objo | Joe O'Brien | 4233 |
| 40 | kevindente | Kevin Dente | 4246 |
| 41 | laribee | David Laribee | 4439 |
| 42 | chadfowler | Chad Fowler | 4897 |
| 43 | yourdon | Ed Yourdon | 5234 |
| 44 | davidyack | David Yack | 5776 |
| 45 | spolsky | Joel Spolsky | 5946 |
| 46 | jasona | Jason Alexander | 5962 |
| 47 | ourfounder | Jim Benson | 6093 |
| 48 | nkohari | Nate Kohari | 6108 |
| 49 | pragdave | Dave Thomas | 6702 |
| 50 | tedneward | Ted Neward | 6702 |
| 51 | scottros | Scott Rosenberg | 6848 |
| 52 | jeffreypalermo | Jeffrey Palermo | 7054 |
| 53 | coreyhaines | Corey Haines | 7273 |
| 54 | mcottmeyer | Mike Cottmeyer | 7452 |
| 55 | SteveJobs | Steve Jobs | 7680 |
| 56 | joshholmes | Josh Holmes | 7695 |
| 57 | waku_waku | WakuWaku | 8075 |
| 58 | OdeToCode | Scott Allen | 8431 |
| 59 | qrush | Nick Quaranto | 8450 |
| 60 | jldavid | JL David | 9216 |
| 61 | pro2sell | Dirk Friedrich | 9233 |
| 62 | jblankenburg | Jeff Blankenburg | 9422 |
| 63 | averyj | James Avery | 9450 |
| 64 | renesilva | René Silva | 9468 |
| 65 | Ascendancy | Jake Rocheleau | 9839 |
| 66 | marick | Brian Marick | 9907 |
| 67 | QualityFrog | Ben Simo | 10097 |
| 68 | mraible | Matt Raible | 10105 |
| 69 | pmstudent | Josh Nankivel | 10730 |
| 70 | subdigital | Ben Scheirman | 11323 |
| 71 | askorkin | Alan Skorkin | 11323 |
| 72 | jeremya | Jeremy A. | 11895 |
| 73 | OmarShahine | Omar Shanine | 12959 |
| 74 | robinsgr | Greg Robinson | 13068 |
| 75 | scottcreynolds | Scott C Reynolds | 13266 |
| 76 | tanepiper | Tane Piper | 14467 |
| 77 | KentBeck | Kent Beck | 14726 |
| 78 | engtech | Engtech | 14726 |
| 79 | destraynor | Des Traynor | 15574 |
| 80 | visualrinse | Chad Udell | 15609 |
| 81 | mahmudur | Mahmudur Rahman | 15783 |
| 82 | ntalbott | Nathaniel Talbott | 16123 |
| 83 | RonJeffries | Ron Jeffries | 17052 |
| 84 | burke_eric | Eric Burke | 17080 |
| 85 | venkat_s | Venkat Subramaniam | 17496 |
| 86 | ChrisLove | Chris Love | 18063 |
| 87 | pcalcado | Phillip Calçado | 18146 |
| 88 | robdiana | Rob Diana | 18192 |
| 89 | mastermark | Mark Masterson | 18715 |
| 90 | paul_henman | Paul Henman | 18870 |
| 91 | neal4d | Neal Ford | 19203 |
| 92 | pmarcablog | Marc Andreessen | 19218 |
| 93 | danlev | Dan Leveille | 19448 |
| 94 | robertbasic | Robert Basic | 19683 |
| 95 | skrenta | Rick Skrenta | 19910 |
| 96 | secretGeek | Leon Bambrick | 19923 |
| 97 | pavlozahozhenko | Pavlo Zahozhenko | 21017 |
| 98 | puredanger | Alex Miller | 21890 |
| 99 | jurgenappelo | Jurgen Appelo | 22447 |
| 100 | martinfowler | Martin Fowler | 23018 |
Yes, I barely made it on the list myself as well! (And honestly, I didn't even have to rig the results this time...)
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