Twitter continues to go from strength to strength, with more people using it to communicate with the world with every passing month. Sure, there are many people who enthusiastically join Twitter after being cajoled into doing so by their friends, only to then not have a clue what they're meant to be doing, and so disappear not having tweeted, followed anyone, or been followed themselves.
However, countering the nobodies who don't show up are the countless people on Twitter who add something to the conversation. I previously listed 8 technology journalists you should be following on Twitter, and now it's time for an associated but separate group of individuals to be promoted here on MakeUseOf. These are the best of the best tech influencers, whose words of wisdom are guaranteed to prompt someone, somewhere to sit up and take notice.
Dave Winer @davewiner
Zynga reportedly lays off more than 100 employees, shutters two games.
— Dave Winer ? (@davewiner) October 23, 2012
Dave Winer has more strings to his bow than most of us have Twitter followers. He's a software developer, entrepreneur, and writer who can claim to have had a hand in creating RSS, inventing podcasting, and popularizing blogging. You may have read his thoughts on technology and more besides at Scripting News, which has been around since 1997.
Sphere Of Influence: Bloggers, podcasters, developers, and those with a sense of history.
Ben Parr @benparr
iPad Pico: It gets injected into your brain so you can have an iPad wherever you go! Buy it today!
Ben Parr was the editor-at-large for Mashable until 2011, having worked his way up the ladder from a humble writer. He's now an entrepreneur in his own right as well as keeping his hand in as a columnist at CNET. His particular field of interest is Internet technology and social media firms, but he also tweets about hardware, startups, and (ugh) sports.
Sphere Of Influence: Silicon Valley power brokers and big tech journalists.
Bill Gross @bill_gross
Long battery life, half the weight, hold it in 1 hand, HD front-facing camera, LTE, $329. iPad mini is a BIG deal.
— Bill Gross (@Bill_Gross) October 23, 2012
Bill Gross is a lifelong and serial entrepreneur, founding his first company while still at college. In the 30 years that have passed since he's started over 100 more companies. He's the CEO of tech incubator Idealab, which has spawned Picasa (acquired by Google) and Overture (acquired by Yahoo), amongst others.
Sphere Of Influence: Fellow entrepreneurs and those looking to invest in budding startups.
Pete Cashmore @mashable
How Kids Pics Are Going From Social Networks to Porn Sites - on.mash.to/S6hoQP
— Pete Cashmore (@mashable) October 25, 2012
Pete Cashmore founded Mashable in 2005 at the tender age of 19. It then grew to become one of the biggest technology websites in the world, and Cashmore's influence grew with it. This Twitter account is essentially a feed of all the content that makes it on to Mashable, but that means following it ensures you'll hear every piece of tech news that breaks.
Sphere Of Influence: Anyone with an interest in technology, particularly social media.
Tim O'Reilly @timoreilly
Online file sharers buy 30% more music than those who don't share bit.ly/P85GpM "Pirates" are the music industry's best customers!
— Tim O'Reilly (@timoreilly) October 16, 2012
Tim O'Reilly is another person on this list who has more than one finger in more than one pie. He's primarily the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, which publishes books, magazines, and websites on all manner of tech-related topics. But he's also involved in various conferences, is a venture capitalist, and a technologist and futurologist.
Sphere Of Influence: Those interested in the future direction technology is headed.
Dan Lyons @realdanlyons
Headline from the future: "Zynga's new hit, MethVille, challenges Facebook users to cook, peddle real drugs."
— realdanlyons (@realdanlyons) October 24, 2012
Dan Lyons is a technology writer, journalist, and editor who made a name for himself blogging as Fake Steve Jobs. The death of the real Jobs meant Lyons retired the parody, and he's now keeping busy as editor-in-chief of ReadWrite. Before that he was a senior editor at Forbes and a writer at Newsweek, bringing a wry analysis of tech companies to both publications.
Sphere Of Influence: Those who occasionally enjoy casting a cynical eye over the industry.
Michael Gartenberg @gartenberg
Time to work on a piece about what Apple must deliver in iPad 6, MSFT in Surface 4 and RIM in BB13. Never too early
— Michael Gartenberg (@Gartenberg) October 24, 2012
Michael Gartenberg is primarily a tech writer, with his columns appearing on Computerworld and Engadget, amongst others. He is also an analyst for Gartner Research, a public speaker, and a former employee of Microsoft where he lasted just three weeks as an evangelist for Windows Vista. He has a strong, knowledgeable style that demands you absorb every word.
Sphere Of Influence: Those who like sharp, analytical takes on the tech news of the day.
Robert Scoble @scobleizer
Bummed to hear that Bill Hill, inventor of font-smoothing technology called Cleartype, has died. Here's my thank you: soundcloud.com/scobleizer/rip…
— Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) October 18, 2012
Robert Scoble is a writer, blogger, video podcaster, and tech evangelist with a day job at Rackspace. Having grown up in Silicon Valley his love for technology was cemented at an early age. He worked with Dave Winer for a time, before landing a job at Microsoft. He is now best known for running the Scobleizer blog, as well as writing opinion pieces on Google+.
Sphere Of Influence: He has met everybody in the industry, so his reach is far and wide.
Conclusions
If you're into technology in any way, shape, or form (and the fact you're a MakeUseOf reader would suggest you are) then you'd do well to follow these individuals on Twitter.
I promise by doing so you'll learn something new, whether it be a fact or figure about hardware, the emergence of a new startup, the latest update from one of the big companies, or the name of a new website or app. In other words they do what we here at MakeUseOf also do. Making us, them, and you natural bedfellows.
As with previous lists of people to follow on Twitter, this is just a selection that is by no means comprehensive. One big name failed to appear after I discovered he had blocked me, meaning I couldn't embed any of his tweets.
If you have any more top technology influencers on Twitter to recommend, or anything else to add to the conversation, then please feel free to comment below.