The “R” Factor stands for “Retarded”
Seems that NowPublic took a break from poaching Flickr photos long enough to assemble a list of… frankly, I don’t know what this list is about. “50 Names We Drew Out Of A Von Dutch Hat” is about the only explanation that makes sense to me.
Let’s do a quick cavity search: Arianna Huffington is what Dina McGreevey would be if she were friends with Ken Lerer; Noah Brier is a very smart and likeable guy who will be relieved to know he’s not the fifth most influential web person in New York (and lucky to crack #100); Anil Dash realistically fell off this list three years ago; everyone PUH-LEASE stop sucking @garyvee’s dick; Alex Blagg? Another guy who will be relieved to know that he’s not influential (just entertaining); Kottke is rarely seen in public, but he runs a link blog!; is Rex one of our top 50 influencers, or has he been here 50 days already?; followed by a group of people who’s names I’ve only seen on email lists; John Hodgman is influential? He’s a goddamn comedian who stars in an Apple commercial, as THE MOTHERFUCKING PC, squaring off against the guy who was dating Drew Barrymore!; Jake Dobkin and Jen Chung, like Anil, have not been relevant since 2005; I love how Scott Kidder is almost as influential as Nick Denton himself! (and Denton comes behind Dobkin on the list! What fucking bizarro Internet are they using?); Meghan Asha makes the list but Julia Allison doesn’t?; Allison Mooney makes the list but Mike Hudack doesn’t?; Laurel Touby is another one from the 2005 time machine; Emily Gould is a writer whose presence on the web is incidental and not influential.
Did I leave out any snide observations? Go for it in the comments.
NOWPUBLIC LAUNCHES THE
“MOSTPUBLIC INDEX”
IDENTIFIES THE WEB’S 50 MOST
INFLUENTIAL INDIVIDUALS IN
NEW YORK
Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube Upend Traditional Elites; NowPublic—The World’s Largest Participatory News Network—Measures Whose Voices Are Most Heard
in Today’s Digital World
Vancouver, B. C. – July 21, 2008—NowPublic (http://www.nowpublic.com/), the world’s largest participatory news network, today announced the launch of the MostPublic Index, a detailed barometer of the most public news influencers of today’s digital world, illustrating how a new breed of influencer is shaping the media environment and what’s heard by the general population. Today, news makers and reporters are increasingly indistinguishable. In fact, a teenage Twitterer may have as powerful a voice as the New York Times editorial board. Therefore, NowPublic has defined this new type as “news influencer.” The first MostPublic Index identifies the 50 most influential individuals in New York.
“Visibility and connectedness define today’s elite,” said Leonard Brody, CEO of NowPublic. “Today, there are innumerable new ways for one’s voice to be heard. The goal of the MostPublic Index is to measure who is currently most effective in broadcasting their own personal brand online, as well as identify emerging players.”
“Our ‘MostPublic Index’ is a leading indicator and benchmark of who is really changing the way in which news is being produced and distributed, a core goal of NowPublic and its army of reporters.”
NowPublic created a formula to measure influence and “publicness” across four categories, including:
o Online Visibility
o Presence on User-Generated Content and Social Networking Sites
o Interactivity and Accessibility
o The “R” Factor: Presence on Microblogging Platforms (Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.)
NowPublic measured statistics in each of these categories from Facebook, Flickr, Google, Technorati, YouTube, and various other blogs and sites, to create a list of New York’s leading influencers. NowPublic 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: http://www.nowpublic.com/
Without further ado, NowPublic proudly presents the MostPublic individuals in New York:
1. Fred Wilson
2. Arianna Huffington
3. Sarah Austin
4. Steve Rubel
5. Noah Brier
6. Anil Dash
7. Gary Vaynerchuk
8. Jeff Jarvis
9. Liza Sabater
10. Loren Feldman
11. Paul Allison
12. Tamar Weinberg
13. Alex Blagg
14. Greg Verdino
15. Jason Kottke
16. Rex Sorgatz
17. Alisa Leonard
18. Brian Morrissey
19. Eric Friedman
20. Jeffrey Zeldman
21. Natali Del Conte
22. Tim Shey
23. Kyle Bunch
24. Anthony Volodkin
25. John Hodgman
26. Nancy Scola
27. Jay Rosen
28. Jen Simmons
29. John Biggs
30. Jake Dobkin
31. Caroline McCarthy
32. Lindsay Robertson
33. Lockhart Steele
34. Nick Denton
35. Scott Kidder
36. Kelly Reeves
37. Rachel Sklar
38. Peter Kafka
39. Jill Fehrenbacher
40. Peter Rojas
41. Robert Lanham
42. Jen Chung
43. Meghan Asha
44. Amy Langfield
45. Josh Levy
46. Allison Mooney
47. Nicholas Carlson
48. Laurel Touby
49. Emily Gould
50. Brian Stelter
The entire list can be viewed here: http://www.nowpublic.com/
The MostPublic Index will issue periodic indexes across a variety of categories, including the MostPublic: American cities; European cities; Asian Cities; Indian Cities; musical influencers; political influencers, pop culture influencers and sports influencers, among others. The next MostPublic Index will identify the 50 most public individuals in Silicon Valley.
About NowPublic
NowPublic is a crowd-sourced, participatory news network that mobilizes an army of reporters to cover the events that define our world. In its short history, the company has become the largest news organization of its kind with contributing reporters in more than 5,500 cities and 160 countries. The Guardian has named NowPublic one of the top five most useful news sites on the Web and Time Magazine named it one of the Top 50 Websites for 2007. The company has received funding from Rho Ventures, Rho Canada, Brightspark, GrowthWorks and members of the New York Angels.
July 20th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Yeah man. That’s a dumb list with a dumb way of “figuring out” who’s influential. It might be a decent way of figuring out who’s “public”, hahaha but what difference does that make if you’re REALLY PUBLIC and not saying jack that anyone cares about?
July 20th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Yeah, I’m with you. How they come up with this stuff is beyond me. (Though I’m still constantly surprised by the lack of transparency.)
With that said, lists are good business. Everybody always writes about them (I was about to write something similar myself).
That said, I did get a kick out of it, I’m not going to lie. It’s cool to see your name near the top of a list, even though there’s no possible criteria that would make me deserving of such a spot.
July 20th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
i’m totally with bill and noah. lists are subjective, arbitrary, flattering, and should always be taken with a grain of salt. i can think of a thousand people who should be there instead of me, Mike especially. And there are tons of lists I’m sure he will top (mine included).
but it’s an interesting question whether public = influential. As with everything in life, I think there’s a balance. If you spout nonsense into a microphone, people will tune you out. But if you whisper your wisdom, they won’t hear you either. It’s probably about the right people hear you say the right things at the right time.
And who are you influencing anyway? Market-movers or the twittering masses? One would inherently get more exposure than the other.
But here’s a thought that’s consoling (if not a bit saccharine): the people with the most real influence will ultimately come out on top where it matters–in life, not a list.
July 20th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I’m on it and I thought it was odd — and not just for that.
July 20th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Jeff Jarvis commented on the Rooster? That’s like Michael Jordan sitting courtside for your pickup b-ball game. I suddenly feel like I should come up with a better game than this, or retire immediately.
Hi everyone! I agree with all of you. As one of the listees mentioned today over email, “LINK BAIT!” (And, it turns out, not just for NowPublic, but for me too. I honestly was just trying to get Rex and Krucoff to comment somehow.)
I think this ties into the Jessica Roy argument from the other day, which I have linked over on the Tumblr (http://brianvan.tumblr.com). Choire made an argument that many of the “Brooklyn scene” writers, borne of blogs, were NOT in control of “the scene” because they could barely get out of bed in the morning and not have a nervous breakdown. (A fact not true of most people on the list, except, hey, look, there’s Emily Gould! And she was one of the most forbidding people at the party where this all started. Anyways…)
I know half the people on this list (as either an observer or a face-to-face contact), and they are all extremely effective communicators due to their hyper-communicative qualities and extensive self-branding efforts. (Scott Kidder? Maybe not. When I think of him, I think, “He’s dating Kate.” Maybe she should be on the list instead.) They may not be ranked in any sort of sensible order, and there are endless omissions, but this is indeed a list of people-to-watch. They don’t have total control over the NYC Internet “scene”, but you’d be wrong to think they have NO power, either. If you don’t own your own well-funded startup, try dating any of the people on this list, having a very messy breakup with one of them, and then see how many parties you get invited to after that!
But I would hope that, if someone’s going to publish a list like this, it has at least the tiniest root in reality. **sigh**
July 20th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
23rd most public in New York?
This is because of my episode with the trenchcoat and the indecent exposure in the East Village, isn’t it?
July 21st, 2008 at 3:31 am
List’s jacked. To prove it, I posit that if they compile a list for SF with the same methodology, I’ll be on it. Or more likely, Ariel Waldman will be in the top ten. I can’t even get a Twitter meme going and my web show has virtually nil viewers. Ariel is mostly known for photographing herself, demanding customer service, and staring into her phone at parties.
I could go on.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:26 am
KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!!
July 21st, 2008 at 10:49 am
Nick: fuck, that’s what I’m known for too!
The rest of you: you’re all wrong. This list is completely valid for one reason: Lock is below me.
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:51 pm
why does everything think it’s okay to use the word retarded as slang?