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Top Influential Developers in AI, Cloud, Cybersecurity, IoT and VR / AR / MR

by | Feb 21, 2018 | Influencer Lists,

Software Developers invent technology that we use every day, but may take for granted, like checking our bank balance on our phones, booking a meeting in our personal calendars, listening to music or making a purchase. A software developer will have helped design all the applications that make those things possible for us. Because of this ‘Software Developer’ as an occupation is a rapidly expanding occupation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects more than 24% employment growth for software developers between 2016 and 2026, which is much faster than the average growth for all other occupations. It was also recently named Best Technology Job for 2018 according to US News, and in a recent list by CNNMoney of the top 100 best jobs, the job title ‘Mobile Developer’ was placed in the top position.

There are a number of benefits to be gained by brands from engaging with influential developers. Developers are very knowledgeable about the niche and can provide you with unfiltered, invaluable feedback on your product, without any inhibitions. Brands can learn a lot about their product and wider product category by reaching out to the developer communities. Developers hold the key to product adoption and innovation, and by engaging with them and promoting your tech broadly you will get visibility to groups that might not have otherwise paid attention to you. Some of them may even go on to become evangelists for your product, which will in turn increase your overall brand awareness. This is why brands like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Adobe and IBM are investing heavily in Developer Evangelism according to CMX.


WHICH BUSINESS LEADERS ARE ENGAGING AND INSPIRING THE TOP INFLUENTIAL DEVELOPERS?

As shown in the share of voice chart below, Elon Musk stands out as the most prominent CEO, receiving 595 mentions by developers throughout the year; 51% of the whole CEO conversation. SpaceX is at the forefront of conversations mentioning Elon, as developers express their excitement by describing the project ‘gnarly’ and sharing educational ‘cool facts’ around the project. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella follows shortly after with 220 mentions from developers, making him the second most mentioned. Developers are the least vocal about Salesforce’s Marc Benioff; primarily mentioning him in relation to his opinions on the role of AI in society.
Onalytica - Influential Developers in AI, Cloud, Cybersecurity, IoT, VR / AR / MR - CEO Share of Voice Chart

Despite favouring mentions of Elon Musk, the developers’ attention towards the Tesla CEO is seen to steadily decrease towards the end of the year. On the whole, he is viewed as a very positive figure in society; as developers share content on how to ‘be like Elon Musk’ and around his day to day life. Nonetheless, developers are also critical of his work, analysing the threats it could pose to other industries. While mentions of Satya Nadella are lower, these mentions stand out as they see a steady increase as the year goes on. Along with sharing news content around Microsoft event announcements, developers are particularly vocal about Satya’s book Hit Refresh; sharing very positive feedback on the CEO’s outlook and work ethic.


HOT TOPICS

We were really interested in seeing which topics received the most attention among the developer community, so we analysed all the conversations among the top influential developers from 18th February 2017 – 18th February 2018 and measured the frequencies of all the keywords used in order to create this word cloud:

Onalytica Influential Developers Word Cloud

We wanted to dig deeper into some of these top trending topics, so using our IRM software we identified which developers were driving the conversations around AI, Cloud, Cybersecurity, IoT, VR / AR / MR. What follows is a list of the most influential developers in each of those topic areas.


1. TOP INFLUENTIAL DEVELOPERS IN AI

Below is a list of the top 25 influential developers in Artificial Intelligence. If you want to see who ranks from 1-50 be sure to download the full report by clicking the download button below!

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NameInfluencer Score
1@meyerwebEric Meyer100
2@jennifermarsmanJennifer Marsman51.95
3@rasbtSebastian Raschka49.5
4@buzzBuzz Andersen44
5@altryneAlex Wolkov39.75
6@RickKing16Rick King41.09
7@richdizzRichard diZerega37.79
8@andrewconnellAndrew Connell37.97
9@scottguScott Guthrie36.94
10@waxpancakeAndy Baio34.13
11@codepo8Chris Heilmann33.96
12@pmedinaPierre Medina31.87
13@amuellermlAndreas Mueller31.68
14@jmasonJustin Mason25.25
15@EhickioyaEhi Kioya26.95
16@manekinekkoWassim Chegham24.81
17@chadfowlerChad Fowler26.29
18@markrussinovichMark Russinovich24.37
19@JavaFXpertJames Weaver23.72
20@davemcclureDave McClure25.17
21@zeldmanJeffrey Zeldman24.87
22@lukewLuke Wroblewski24.18
23@jessfrazJessie Frazelle23.5
24@math_rachelRachel Thomas22.88
25@thebeebsMartin Beeby22.63

 

2. TOP INFLUENTIAL DEVELOPERS IN CLOUD

Below is a list of the top 25 influential developers in Cloud. If you want to see who ranks from 1-50 be sure to download the full report.

RankTwitter HandleNameInfluencer Score
1@lemiorhanLemi Orhan Ergin100
2@polviAlex Polvi86.72
3@dasherswArmagan Amcalar86.24
4@scottguScott Guthrie65.39
5@janakirammJanakiram MSV47.85
6@markrussinovichMark Russinovich43.01
7@danielbryantukDaniel Bryant39.32
8@simonbrownSimon Brown39.16
9@reverentgeekDavid Neal35.47
10@martinfowlerMartin Fowler32.62
11@christianpostaChristian Posta31.75
12@randyshoupRandy Shoup31.11
13@lucasoft_co_ukLucasoft co.uk30.72
14@starbuxmanJosh Long29.32
15@gabrtvGabe Monroy29.04
16@CoreySandersWACorey Sanders28.95
17@kennybastaniKenny Bastani28.45
18@samjgeorgeSam George27.58
19@ewolffEberhard Wolff25.08
20@iRominRomin Irani24.66
21@mstineMatt Stine24.55
22@jessfrazjessie frazelle24.42
23@crichardsonChris Richardson23.67
24@wattersjamesJames Watters23.21
25@jbonerJonas Bonér23.19

 

MAPPING THE COMMUNITY

Below you can see a network map of the influential developers’ conversations. This map was created with our Influencer Relationship Management software (IRM). Be sure to click on the map to enjoy the full size network diagram in greater detail.

Onalytica Influential Developers in AI, Cloud, Cybersecurity, IoT, VR / AR / MR Network Map

3. TOP INFLUENTIAL DEVELOPERS IN CYBERSECURITY

Below is a list of the top 25 influential developers in Cloud. If you want to see who ranks from 1-50 be sure to download the full report by clicking the button below!

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RankTwitter HandleNameInfluencer Score
1@troyhuntTroy Hunt100
2@markrussinovichMark Russinovich30.12
3@steffenbauchSteffen Bauch29.51
4@larsklintLars Klint28.33
5@AjitGaddamAjit Gaddam28.07
6@bamitavAmitav Bhattacharjee25.23
7@ErrataRobRobert Graham22.85
8@aantonopAndreas M. Antonopoulos21.3
9@EhickioyaEhi Kioya20.42
10@davidfowlDavid Fowler19.05
11@davemcclureDave McClure19
12@techjunkiejhTech Junkie17.61
13@msuicheMatthieu Suiche16.07
14@davidwalshblogDavid Walsh16.02
15@lukewLuke Wroblewski16.37
16@jwgoerlichJ Wolfgang Goerlich14.94
17@adactioJeremy Keith15.2
18@BrockLAllenBrock Allen14.24
19@RickKing16Rick King15.05
20@SpacekatgalBrianna Wu14.44
21@thejThejesh GN13.48
22@wesbosWes Bos13.14
23@binitamshahBinni Shah12.69
24@jessfrazJessie Frazelle12.74
25@DavidPappDavid Papp12.73

 

 

 4. TOP INFLUENTIAL DEVELOPERS IN IOT

Below is a list of the top 25 influential developers in IoT. If you want to see who ranks from 1-50 be sure to download the full report.

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RankTwitter HandleNameInfluencer Score
1@janakirammJanakiram MSV100
2@samjgeorgeSam George95.22
3@troyhuntTroy Hunt79.92
4@kartbenBenjamin Cabé70.3
5@scottjensonScott Jenson62.03
6@riggarooRebecca Franks51.73
7@mccroryDave McCory48.76
8@StefferberStefan Ferber45.35
9@danielbryantukDaniel Bryant41.89
10@BrendanEichBrendanEich37.53
11@larsklintLars Klint36.09
12@ErrataRobRobert Graham34.7
13@jessfrazJessie Frazelle31.7
14@bamitavAmitav Bhattacharjee30.92
15@brjavamanBruno Souza29.67
16@ppatiernoPaolo Patierno29.29
17@blundell_appsPaul Blundell29.29
18@daviottenheimerDavi Ottenheimer29.02
19@crpietschmannChris Pietschmann28.83
20@vsengerVinicius Senger28.73
21@pmedinaPierre Medina28.56
22@mmilinkovMike Milinkovich26.7
23@LogicalDanDan Thyer26.44
24@RickKing16Rick King25.39
25@lisankeMike Lisanke25.09

 

5. TOP INFLUENTIAL DEVELOPERS IN VR / AR / MR

Below is a list of the top 25 influential developers in VR / AR / MR. If you want to see who ranks from 1-50 be sure to download the full report.

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Twitter HandleNameInfluencer Score
1@RickKing16Rick King100
2@DShankarDarshan Shankar79.67
3@jerome_etienneJerome Etienne71.12
4@rschuRené Schulte38.11
5@DaveVoylesDave Voyles37.15
6@mcbeniwalMahesh Chand36.31
7@auradeluxeTony Parisi34.12
8@LocalJoostJoost van Schaik33.84
9@chetfaliszekChet Faliszek31.91
10@mtaultyMike Taulty30.18
11@missliviroseLiv Erickson28.53
12@SkarredGhostAntony Vitillo28.29
13@vr_samSam Watts27.48
14@JoshuaFarkasJosh Farkas26.8
15@sehurlburtStephanie Hurlburt26.73
16@dotMortenMorten Nielsen26.39
17@Lady_Ada_KingAda Rose Cannon23.82
18@GrigortwGrigor Khachatryan22.48
19@LBugnionLaurent Bugnion21.11
20@joeludwigJoe Ludwig20.92
21@jesseschellJesseSchell20.16
22@lukewLuke Wroblewski20.16
23@fourzerotwoRobert Bowling18.05
24@ktp4lifeLeonard Wedderburn16.32
25@EhickioyaEhi Kioya16.16

At Onalytica we love building these lists and want to give back to our loyal readers as much as we can. If you’re interested in other topics (such as Virtual Reality, Digital HealthDigital Marketing) be sure to have a gander on our blog or why not propose some topics to us on twitter?

Effective influencer marketing starts with identifying relevant influencers for your brand. Onalytica’s new Discovery platform mines over 200 billion posts a year into a curated database of over 500K global social media influencers, including data from Twitter, Blogs, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn Profile Links + Demographic Data. Our software enables you to identify influencers by topic, demographic or content and includes real-time tracking and measurement reporting to scale your influencer relations.

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Disclaimer: As ever with these lists, it must be stressed that the ranking is by no means a definitive measurement of influence, as there is no such thing. The individuals listed are undoubtedly influential when it comes to driving discussion around AI, Cloud, Cybersecurity, IoT and VR / AR / MR.

The PageRank based methodology we use to extract influencers on a particular topic takes into account the number and quality of contextual references that a user receives. These calculations also take into account a user’s relevance (number of tweets on topic), reach (number of followers) and reference (how often they appear in Twitter lists). If you want to learn more, please read our article that outlines influencer identification.


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Top Influential Developers in:

AI, Cloud, Cybersecurity and VR / AR / MR

Download this free report which reveals the top influential developers in AI, Cloud, Cybersecurity and VR / AR / MR.