Futurist > Futurist Influence Rankings

 

Futurist Influence Rankings

We have created this widget to provide a rough view of how influential futurists are on the web and social media.

A few important notes:

  • To be included on the list people need to self-describe as futurists and/or primarily work in thinking and communicating about the future. We are not making judgments on who is worthy of the description “futurist”.
  • The inputs to this list are Followerwonk Social Authority, Alexa ranking and Twitter followers. As such to be included people must have a Twitter account and a personal website. Since this is a measure of individual influence, we cannot use the website of an institution, as this would not be reflective of their individual impact. In a few cases we have used the website of a small consulting organization. As we can only include people if we have the necessary data for the algorithm, some prominent futurists do not appear on the list, since this data is not available.
  • Given the limited inputs, this is ONLY a measure of online influence, it does not reflect “real-world” influence.
  • This is not intended to be a rigorous list, but to provide an interesting, fun and potentially useful insight into the online influence of leading futurists.

Click here for a detailed description of the methodology used for this analysis.

If you would like to suggest somebody who works primarily as a futurist and should be included in the list, please click here.

Please refresh this page in your browser if the ranking screen below does not appear after a brief delay.

Embed This Widget

To embed the Influence Ranker as an HTML widget, copy/paste the following code into the web-page HTML:


Influence Rankings Methodology

The social media and web influence of each futurist is assessed using three indicators, each of which is given a different percentage weighting. A brief explanation is provided below.

[NOTE:] The algorithm described below is an initial version, the intention is to improve it over time. Please let us know any suggestions!

Alexa Points

The Alexa global site rank is scaled to a number between 0–10 to determine the Alexa points. The formula used for scaling is listed below:

Alexa Points

For more information on Alexa Global Site Rank, visit: www.alexa.com/siteinfo

Social Authority Points

Social Authority points are calculated using the following formula:

Social Authority Points

For more information on Followerwonk Social Authority, visit: www.followerwonk.com/social-authority

Twitter Points

The number of followers on Twitter are used to determine Twitter points which is a number between 0-10. The formula used for calculating this parameter is similar to the one used for calculating Alexa points:

Twitter Points

Net Influence Points

The system then uses the points calculated above to assign net influence points to each futurist. The following formula is used to calculate the net influence points, which is a number between 0-10:

Net Influence Points

w1, w2, & w3 are weighing parameters so that w1 + w2 + w3 = 100. Currently, w1=5, w2=40 & w3=55.

Suggest a Futurist

If you would like to suggest somebody who works as a futurist and should be included in the above list, please complete the form below. Please note that we will need a link to the Futurist’s personal website in order to provide a meaningful influence analysis.