Open source has revolutionized software, and now it’s doing the same for media. We are realizing the first, truly democratic, new world of Open Media, where every online user can create, share, and participate in media of all forms. And it’s just the beginning.
We used to think of “collaboration” in terms of bringing together the people we know, those pre-qualified to fit the task, to sit around a table and hash out, refine and execute ideas. The Internet has become the platform that enables learning and sharing amongst millions of people, escalating collaboration—and ultimately progress—to exponential levels.
AlwaysOn and Technorati call this phenomenon the Open Media Revolution. With the AO/Technorati Open Media 100 list, we are honoring those individuals who are driving the proliferation of Open Media and leveraging the power of community, not an individual or a corporation. The purpose of the list is to provide a framework of this emerging industry. It will include the key players who are proving the impact of Open Media and building the infrastructures to facilitate it.
We’d like to hear from you. Who are your nominations for key players driving the Open Media Revolution? Comment on this post and list your nominations, up to 5 per category. You can also tag your own blog posts with Technorati tag: AOTechnorati100. We’ll be closing our call for nominations on May 16, 2005 and we’ll be watching.
The final AlwaysOn/Technorati Open Media 100 will be published in the June issue of the AlwaysOn Blogozine, and of course I'll blog it here.
Here are the categories for nominations:
The Pioneers: industry luminaries who created the vision of open media and continue to shape it.
The Tool Smiths: web service entrepreneurs and companies building the open media tools (blogs, social software, wikis, RSS, analytic tools, etc.).
The Trendsetters: the influencers driving and evangelizing the adoption and applications of Open Media.
The Practitioners: the top bloggers in politics, business, technology, and media.
The Enablers: the venture capitalists and investors backing the Open Media Revolution.
The Open Media industry is rapidly emerging and changing. We've barely scratched the surface of what’s out there. This is our collective attempt at creating the framework and defining the key players driving Open Media at this point in time. The list will evolve and change just as quickly as the industry. We expect the 2006 Open Media 100 to look very different!
UPDATE: Sorry about the insensitivity, and good comments from all of you, I am asking the folks at AO to change the category name from "The Founding Fathers" to "The Founding Fathers and Mothers". Sorry about that!
SECOND UPDATE: Thanks to Ross Mayfield, I think that "The Pioneers" is a better category name. I'm changing it again. Thanks again for the criticism and feedback.
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