The SharePoint50 Project: Who are the main influencers in SharePoint?
Update:There’s a little wager forming on twitter as to who the top 10 influencers will be. @JanisHall, @DaveColeman and @ToniFrankola want to start a pool.
If you’d like to play, insert your top 10 SharePoint influencer list in the comments section below. I’ll see what I can round up for prizes… (One hint: this is NOT a popularity contest. Think outside the box.) What is your guess of 10 people who will be included in The SharePoint50 Project?
Original Article:
This week at EndUserSharePoint.com, we are starting a series of articles, making public the results of The SharePoint50 Project.
Today’s article is an introduction to the project. Tomorrow we’ll have a guest article by Debbie Rosen, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, from Global 360. She will describe the history of the project and why Global 360 and KnowledgeLake commissioned the study. On Thursday we will layout out the criteria for being selected as part of The SharePoint50. Next week, we begin publication of the list itself with biographies, images, and interviews.
A Little Background
For those working with SharePoint and having to make decisions about purchasing and implementation, who do you trust when it comes to making those decisions? This is a question Global 360 and KnowledgeLake decided to tackle by commissioning a study to find out who the top 50 influencers are in SharePoint: The SharePoint50 Project.
The study was done by Influencer50, a team of independent analysts who find the top influencers in select vertical markets. The initial study found 727 influencers for SharePoint. Using a weighted ranking system, The SharePoint50 were selected from the list.
The results of the study focus exclusively on people who influence SharePoint decision makers in the United States. There are some influencers from outside the US, but their influence is on the audience within the US.
What This Study is Not
The SharePoint50 Project is not a popularity contest.
You will be surprised by some of the people included. I seriously expect to hear “Who is THAT?” and “How come S/HE was chosen and not me!” That’s ok. The results are based upon how well and how far a message goes towards influencing people, not how many “friends” someone has on Facebook or how many “followers” they may have on Twitter.
The study takes into account a series of factors including:
- Market reach
- Frequency of impact
- Message independence
- Online presence
- Peer references
- Expertise
- Persuasiveness
- Thoroughness of role in decision-making
Different weight is given to each factor. These will be explained in detail in Thursday’s article on criteria.
You will not see rankings, placing people in order from 1 through 50. After thinking it through, we decided that would just be a flame war waiting to happen. We have divided the influencers into specific groups and will present names defined within specific areas of the SharePoint Community, such as bloggers, analysts, consultants and journalists.
What you can expect to see in this series
Starting next week, we will begin a series of articles on specific segments within The SharePoint50. The first segment is “SharePoint Systems Integrators and Consultants”, followed each week by a new market segment.
- September 21: SharePoint Systems Integrators and Consultants
- September 28: SharePoint Vendors and Microsoft Solutions Providers
- October 5: Microsoft SharePoint Executives
- October 12: Journalists
- October 17: Industry Analysts
We are providing bios, images and interviews for each member of The SharePoint50. SharePoint MVP Rob Foster, from SharePoint Pod Show, is doing a series of recorded interviews that will be included for each week’s segment. The SharePoint Community Calendar will have a new tab, SharePoint50, listing speaking engagements and workshops where you can meet the main influencers.
How you can participate
This is not a one-off study, but a living resource that will change over time. Global 360 will run periodic updates against the list, including taking into account the comments left on each of the articles.
I fully anticipate people not agreeing with some of the results of the study. That’s why we are making it available in a public forum so you can leave your comments and suggestions about others in the SharePoint Community who might deserve recognition for what they are doing.
We very much value your input and hope you find this resource useful for making business decisions based upon the top influencers in SharePoint, The SharePoint50.
Mark Miller
Founder and Editor, EndUserSharePoint.com
Chief Community Officer and SharePoint Evangelist, Global 360
- The SharePoint50 Project: Who are the main influencers in SharePoint?
- The SharePoint50 Project: Why we did it
- The SharePoint50 Project: Top System Integrators and Consultants
- The SharePoint50: Top SharePoint Solution Providers
- The SharePoint50: Top Microsoft Executives
- Criteria for Selection of the SharePoint50
- The SharePoint50 Project: Top SharePoint Journalists
- The SharePoint50 Project: Top Analysts
on
looking forward to seeing the results!
So what’s your guess for 10 people who will be included in the list? — Mark
Here’s my list, in no particular order as that would take more thought :)
Mark Miller
Andrew Connell
Todd Klindt
Joel Oleson
Jan Tielens
Shane Young
Jeremy Thake
So many more to choose from, those people I definitely think are huge community influencers and have contributed a lot.
Ok, here’s my top of the head stab at top 10…Top 20 might have been easier (hard to eliminate people) In No Particular order ;) Apologies if I know you and didn’t include you. I’m sure I still think you’re awesome!! :)
Mark Miller
Bill English
Dux Raymond
Laura Rodgers
Todd Klindt
Ben Curry
Joel Oleson
Karuna
Gannotti
Amanda Murphy
Oh oh.. Can I also include Susan Hanley and Scott Jamison?
Start a new comment and update your list. You’ll have to take two people off :-)
Doh.. Ok, I’ll leave it as it is ;)
Fun!
Paul Stork
Dux Raymond
Christian Buckley
Gary Lapointe
Becky Isserman
Michael Lotter
Well heres mine
Mark Miller (got to be top ten )
Bill English (The best SharePoint Aurthor)
Steve Smith (One from our side of the pond)
Laura Rodgers
Michael Gannotti (the one and only)
Todd Klindt
Joel Oleson (A must include)
Dux Raymond
Shane Young
Mike Herrity (Only because I work with him)
But seriously some of these people really influenced me
Bill English might find it amusing that you spelled author wrong ;-)
Agree on Dux. Also Christian Buckley
hmmm…*influencer*…interesting term.
I would say Venky V, Arpan S, Tom Rizzo, Ron Markezich, Vittorio Bertocci — not much on the blogosphere (except Vittorrio) but they influence where SharePoint is going and how its being used. The other 5 I would say (for depth of reach):
6. Dan Holme
7. Bill English
8. Ted Pattison
9. Shirley Brothers
10. Richard Riley
Huh this is hard… In random order…
Mark Miller
Bill English
Laura Rodgers
Michael Gannotti
Todd Klindt
Joel Oleson
Dux Raymond
Spence Harbar
Jeremy Thake
Andrew Connell
No particular order…and I’m trying to take in all 5 segments including people who’ve influenced me.. Tough list to make though.
Dux
Gannotti
Mark Miller
Joel Oleson
Paul Culmsee
Gary Lapointe
Inna Gordin
Bill English
Andrew Connell
Jeremy Thake
Yeah this is definitely difficult! Especially since it keeps changing and depends on the topic. Ditto on the above regarding leaving people out and in no particular order:
Heather Solomon
Joel Oleson
Dux
Mark Miller
Bill English
Laura Rodgers
Todd Klindt
Shane Young
Andrew Connell
Ted Pattison
You know.. Alpesh Nakar really needs to be here too..
In no particular order and without in depth explanation each of the following have influenced me in some way, shape or form over the last year. Thanks tio each of them for doing what they do as well as everyone that makes the actual list.
Michael Lotter
Mark Miller
Cathy Dew
Marc Anderson
Christophe Humbert
Dux
Richard Harbridge
Bill English
Becky Isserman
Spence Harbars
Here are mine…
Andrew Connell
Ted Pattison
Asif Rehmani
Spencer Harbar
Todd Klindt
Arpan Shah
Reza Alirezaei
Shane Young
Mark Miller
Oh oh.. Mike Fitzmaurice
here are mine
Andrew Connell
Todd Bleeker
Asif Rehmani
Spencer Harbar
waldek Mastykarz
Shane Young
Mark Miller
Tobias zimmergren
Dux
Wictor Willen
Ya know Janis, you really do have put on one outfit to get out the door. You’ve tried on five so far. Which is it going to be? — Mark
LOL!! You have no idea how hard that outfit commitment is ;) I’ll stay with my first list.. just enjoying playing and throwing out ideas :)
You can get me to stop if you publish the list ;)
My top 10 influencers, no particular order:
Marc Anderson
Mark Miller
Christophe Humbert
Laura Rogers
Heather Solomon
Dux Raymond Sy
Paul Galvin
Natalya Voskresenskaya
Lee Reed
Tom Resing
Mark, only because I know who is on the list, maybe after the 50 are revealed, you could compile a list from the comments above of the top 10 people that were not on the list, that people expected to make the list. Maybe after your 5 weeks of revealing the list, you could add a week 6 that shows the top 10 votes. You did not have enough to do, right?
My guess is:
Bill Gates
Jeff Teper
Charles Ferguson
Joel Oleson
Bill English
Andrew Connell
Heather Solomon
Marc Anderson
Dux Raymond Sy
Mark Miller
1. Joel O
2. Bill English
3. Errin O’Connor
4. Dux R.
5. John Miller
Very hard but here is my list:
Todd Klindt
Joel Oleson
Errin O’Connor
Dux Raymond
Spence Harbar
Bill English
Andrew Connell
Is this just about people who “talk” about sharepoint or about people who actually solve the real problems in the sharepoint world. This social media stuff with who is talking to who is a small circle and nothing new. This has nothing to do with innovation or leadership. This is about people who blog and hang out to talk about software too much. How are they solving the sharepoint problems of companies out there?
The SharePoint50 Project as Mark had explained earlier focuses on those people that influence SharePoint purchasing decisions. That takes into account a number of criteria, including:
■Market reach
■Frequency of impact
■Message independence
■Online presence
■Peer references
■Expertise
■Persuasiveness
■Thoroughness of role in decision-making
Therefore, it is not just about people who “talk” SharePoint. You will see a number of people on the list who are hands-on with SharePoint, who deliver SharePoint based solutions, or provide SharePoint based consulting services.
MMS.312 makes a valid point about the people out in the trenches doing the real work day by day and not seeking recognition from any public audience, and such experts are certainly deserving of recognition for innovation and ingenuity as well in some fashion.
However, in my view it is difficult to have a broad community “influence” if the individual is not communicating his or her knowledge, and sharing achievements and ideas outside of their most immediate set of peers and co-workers.
It would be great to see some sort of method for recognizing truly meaningful, business value-driven solutions as well, for which people could nominate themselves or others, but I don’t think that’s what’s behind this particular list.
I also mean from companies that truly solve business problems. Actually going in to complex organizations, doing the job and sharing the knowledge. Social media about SharePoint and SharePoint Saturdays are all great, but it’s the same people doing the same thing seeking recognition for talking about a software. That is totally bizarre!!!! It’s weird because it’s incestuous. They all to to each other, about each other about the same problems. I stick with experts who actually prove to my organization that they can deliver, not just talk about it. Those blogs fail us time after time.
Much love to all of course, but this is a shot at winning a prize after all! ;-)
Not one of these people would be out of place if they landed in the Top 10, but thank goodness it’s really a Top 50 list, because this doesn’t begin to cover it.
Andrew Connell
Bill English
Dux Raymond Sy
Jeremy Thake
Joel Oleson
Laura Rogers
Ted Pattison
Michael Gannotti
Michael Lotter
Spencer Harbar
My personal top 10 influencers (some of whom, if they may not yet have had broader influence on the SP community, will I’m sure)
Bjørn Furuknap
Bill English
Mark Miller
Dux Raymond Sy
Tiffany Songvilay
Tom Resing
Matthew McDermott
Paul Galvin
Natalya Voskresenskaya
Ted Pattison
Well the first round of results are in.
Paul Galvin and Ted Pattison made the cut, I’m two for 10 so far.
Here are some of the normal names listed so far, actually I think everyone listed on any of these lists will/should be there:
Joel Oleson
Dux Raymond Sy
Bill English
Todd Klindt
Andrew Connell
Ted Pattison
Heather Solomon
And to be a little bit different. The following I think have had more influence on the promotion, learning, and adoption of SharePoint, as well as growing the SharePoint Community:
EndUserSharepoint.com
SharePoint Saturday
Any SharePoint Users Group
Thanks
I think I would say, (with a note to each person)
Joel O (for pure travel and evangelism
Bill English (for years of writing and SharePoint Training)
Errin O’Connor (for the number of Enterprise SharePoint Implementations he works on)
Ted Pattison (for fantastic group training and leadership)
Mark Miller (for bringing the SP user community together in a whole new medium)
Mark Miller
Andrew Connell
Todd Klindt
Joel Oleson
Dux Raymond
Ayman ElHattab
Michael Lotter
Bjorn Furuknap
Ted Pattison
Serge Luca
Only 10 ? Very difficult , let me try …
Bill English
Serge Luca
Andrew Connell
Ayman El-Hattab
Joel Oleson
Jeremy Thake
Tom Resing
Mark Miller
Tom Rizzo
Arpan Shah
OK, I only have one name to add: Mike Walsh!
Hmm. This is too difficult. I’m going to share names I really respect, use when telling my boss about an “expert’s” opinion or recommendation on something, and/or people who have been tremendously helpful via blogs or tweets over the years.
- Todd Bleeker
- Mark Miller
- Arpan Shah
- Asif Rehmani
- Amanda Murphy
- Heather Solomon
- Joel Oleson
- Patrick Tisseghem
- Bil Simser
- Bob Mixon
paul culmsee
mike walsh
mark miller
ayman el-hattab
jeremy thake
david pae
heather solomon
muhanad omar
christina wheeler
heather waterman
Adding to the mix:
- Marc Anderson
- Dessie Lunsford
- Jim Bob Howard
- Christophe Humbert
- Mark Miller
I have gotten so much help and guidance from so many people it’s hard to narrow it. These are top-of-mind from personal experience.
Off the top of my head:
Andrew Connell
Shane Young
Bill English
Dux Raymond Sy
Jeremy Thake
Joel Oleson
Laura Rogers
Ted Pattison
Michael Gannotti
Michael Lotter
Steve Balmer
Andy Milsark (I have to vote for the fpweb guys. They do rock!)
Chris Schwab (I have to vote for fpweb guys. They do rock!)
Jeff Deverter (A little love to our rival)
Here’s my 10: (Using an “and” counts multiples as one.)
Mark Miller, Joel Oleson, and Dux Raymond Sy
Arpan Shah and Tom Rizzo and Mike Gannotti and Christophe Fiessenger (for Project Server)
Spencer Harbar
Asif Rehmani
Dan Holme
Bill English and Ben Curry
Andrew Connell
Shane Young and Todd Klindt
Errin OConnor
Ted Pattison and Jeremy Thake and Andrew Connell and Jan Tielens
Asif Rehmani
Fabian Williams
Agnes Molner
Michael Noel
Ayman El-Hattab
Sahil Malik
Laura Logers
Mike Watson
Mark Miller
Ted Pattison
Bill English
Errin O’Connor
Joel Oleson
Sean Bodner
Dux Raymond Sy
Mike Gannotti
Jeremy Thake
Andrew Connell
Laura Rogers
Fabian Williams
Patrick tiseghem and
Mike fitzmaurice should be at the top of the list.
Most of the most influential people I know are not always visible. Why? Because they are not focused on personal marketing… they are too busy providing solutions. It will be interesting to see who is in this top 50 list.
Fun to see how close we can get – like Bingo! Here’s my stab:
Arpan Shah
Spence Harbar
Bill English
Ted Pattison
Andrew Connell
Joel Oleson
Shane Young
Todd Klindt
Michael Lotter
Mike Gannotti
While not all will show up on the Top 50, I thought I’d add a list fo the top 10 people (in no particular order) who have personally influenced/helped/guided me in my SharePoint career:
1) Joel Oleson (helped get me hired at MS, shared an office with me for awhile)
2) Mike Watson (my go-to technologist and architect)
3) Bill Baer (who continued to answer my calls after I left BPOS-D and helped me fix stuff)
4) Sean Livingston (another BPOS-D teammate, and an excyclodedia of SharePoint knowledge)
5) Charles Ofori (leads engineering on the BPOS-D team, another BPOS-D peer)
6) John R. Durant (Mr. Office Extensibility, which extends into SharePoint expert, great friend)
7) Michael Lotter (for his continuing role in SharePoint Saturday events)
8) Owen Allen (invaluable resource on partners and strategies)
9) Arpan Shah (he was the face of the product team for so long)
10) Mark Miller (he is my rolodex for anyone and everyone in the SharePoint space)
I def think this should be looked at from a company/leadership perspective rather than social media. I recommend Errin O’Connor. I use EPC Group at my organization and know they deliver every time. To me, that means the world…. AND my job!
Amanda Murphy
Andrew Connell
Dux Raymond Sy
Joel Oleson
Mike Gannotti
Arpan Shah
Ted Pattison
Heather Solomon
Spencer Harbar
Shane Young
Roger Spencer
Errin O’Connor
Ted Pattison
Shane Young
Tom Rizzo
These are the top 5 who in my opinion are the best of the best.
Okay,
here’s my top 10 in random order…
Wictor Willen
Bjørn Furuknap
Asif Rehmani
Ton Stegeman
Spencer Harbar
Mark Miller
Jeremy Thake
Laura Rogers
Heather Solomon
Marc Anderson