The big trends behind the Agenda Setters 2008 list

Open source, green and AI join the party

Published: 7 October 2008 08:47 GMT by silicon.com

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Open source enthusiasts, green campaigners and future thinkers are among the groups to have increased their hold on the ninth annual silicon.com Agenda Setters poll.

Individuals making the grade as this year's Agenda Setters will have demonstrated their ability to be movers and shakers in a range of endeavours. The mark of an Agenda Setter is, if you took the individual out of their current position they would go on to other noteworthy endeavours and to set more agendas.

Showing that the technology world isn't too far out of step with popular opinion, 'green' has a significant impact this year, with a number of entries on the list reflecting a new interest in wiser use of energy, including environmental activist and writer Jonathon Porritt and Indian energy chief Ajay Mathur.

Software is an area of almost permanent innovation, so there's no surprise it's well represented in the list. Perhaps reflecting a broader move in the technology world, a number of open source enthusiasts also make this year's list, including Ubuntu project founder Mark Shuttleworth, Samba developer Jeremy Allison and KDE project developer Aaron Seigo.

It's interesting to see that last year's number one - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg - returns to the list but way down at number 47. Another social networking executive - LinkedIn CEO Dan Nye - comes in just below the Facebook wunderkind at 48, reflecting the way the buzz has moved on and social networking has now become a standard part of the business armoury.

Two Microsoft executives earn spots on this year's list after missing out last year: Ray Ozzie, Microsoft chief software architect and Craig Mundie, its research chief. But no room for Bill Gates or for Steve Ballmer, or for a number of other execs from a host of the biggest hardware and software companies - perhaps a reflection of how hard it is to innovate when you are at the top of established organisations.

The Agenda Setters list shows a renewed interest in some of the more arcane parts of the tech world, with AI prize sponsor Hugh Loebner making the grade as well as big thinker Ray Kurzweil.

That doesn't mean the world of hardware has been forgotten, with Asus, Arm and Intel all making the grade for various innovations.

A number of figures who regularly appear on the list occupy the top 10 yet again. This year's winner Sir Tim Berners-Lee has appeared on six out of the eight Agenda Setters polls, though this is his first time in the top spot.

In addition Steve Jobs, this year at number two, has appeared on the list seven times before; Eric Schmidt has made it into the top 10 five years in a row; and Jeff Bezos has earned a top 50 spot eight times.

Overall it's quite a lot of fresh faces for the 2008 Agenda Setters, though. Only 11 of this year's list also appeared in 2007.

See the full list of Agenda Setters here.