First, since when did a magazine become the arbitrator of who are the “50 most important people on the web“? And yes, like most such lists that appear on magazine websites, PCWorld makes you click through a lot of pages to see who is on the list. That aside, it’s an interesting take on who is important in the geekosphere. I’m happy to see several friends on the list, including, #39, “the father of modern-day content distribution.” Ironic, isn’t it, the person who created the web is #46 and the guy most credited with creating the Internet is #35. However, I’m glad they at least are still considered important on the web, not just to the web. Personal favorite for someone who is very low-key, but deserving of inclusion: Gabe Rivera, #38.
Prediction: This list is going to come under some major fire for several reasons, however the most controversial issue will be that it is nearly exclusively white males.
Update: This post is getting some celebrity comments. First, to Harry McCracken, the editor of PC World — that “magazine” comment was an inside joke as I blog constantly about the continuing significance of magazines — and their web presences. Second, the 7th most important person on the Web (and a legend), Craig Newmark, comments below that he would have included Ellen Miller of the SunLight Foundation.
If you’d like to see the list on one page, here it is (Later: the list and descriptions can also be found on the Yahoo! News version of the story.):
PCWorld’s 50 Most Important People on the Web
1. Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin
Executives, Google2. Steve Jobs
CEO, Apple3. Bram Cohen
Cofounder, BitTorrent4. Mike Morhaime
President, Blizzard Entertainment5. Jimmy Wales
Founder, Wikipedia6. John Doerr
Venture capitalist, Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers7. Craig Newmark
Founder, Craigslist8. Peter Levinsohn
President, Fox Interactive Media9. Marissa Mayer
Vice president for search products & user experience, Google10. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen
Founders, YouTube11. Kevin J. Martin
Chairman, Federal Communications Commission12. Brad Templeton
Chairman of the board, Electronic Frontier Foundation13. Henry Chon
CEO, Cyworld14. Shana Fisher
Senior vice president for strategy and M&A, IAC/InterActiveCorp15. Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis
Founders, Skype and KaZaA16. Matt Mullenweg
Developer, WordPress blogging site and software17. Philip Rosedale
CEO, Linden Lab18. Jon Lech Johansen
Creator, DeCSS decryption program19. Jerry Yang, David Filo, and Terry Semel
Executives, Yahoo20. Jack Ma
COO, Alibaba.com21. Brewster Kahle
Director, Internet Archive22. Ray Ozzie
Chief software architect, Microsoft23. Markos Moulitsas Zuniga
Blogger, Daily Kos24. Jeff Bezos
CEO, Amazon25. Robert Scoble
Vice president of media development, PodTech.net26. John Battelle
Entrepreneur and chairman, Federated Media Publishing27. Lawrence Lessig
CEO, Creative Commons28. Meg Whitman
CEO, eBay29. Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator, Oregon30. Michael Arrington
Blogger/publisher, TechCrunch31. Bruce Schneier
Cryptographer32. Kevin Rose
Founder, Digg33. David Farber
Founder, Interesting-People.org34. John Hinderaker, Scott Johnson, and Paul Mirengoff
Authors, PowerLine35. Vinton G. Cerf
Chairman, ICANN Board of Directors, and vice president and chief Internet evangelist, Google36. Tim O’Reilly
Founder and CEO, O’Reilly Media37. Drew Curtis
Founder, Fark.com38. Gabe Rivera
Creator, Techmeme39. Dave Winer
Blogger and author of RSS 2.040. Mike Schroepfer
Vice president of engineering, Mozilla41. Perez Hilton
Hollywood blogger42. Paul Graham, Trevor Blackwell, Robert Morris, and Jessica Livingston
Founders, Y Combinator43. Mikko H. Hypponen
Director of antivirus research, F-Secure44. Rob Malda
Founder, Slashdot.org45. Nick Denton
Founder, Gawker Media46. Sir Tim Berners-Lee
Director, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)47. Leo Laporte
Creator, This Week in Tech (TWiT) podcast48. Mohammed and Omar Fadhil
Blogging voice of Iraq49. Jesse James Garrett
President, Adaptive Path50. Tila Tequila
MySpace Personality