List of the top 100 Twitter influencers in Australia

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One of the key facets of the rise of the reputation economy is that reputation and influence can increasingly be measured. The rise of tools that measure people’s influence in social media channels, such as PeerIndex, Klout, and Twitter Grader, is just the beginning of a far broader shift to metrics of influence and reputation.

We have compiled a list of the most influential people in Australia on Twitter as measured by PeerIndex, which is based on a combination of authority, activity, and audience. Follow the link for the original list, or you can see the top 100 as of today below. Problogger Darren Rowse is at the top, and our Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 100th place. I come in second place on the list, driven in particular by the measurement of my authority. Of course the list could be quite different as judged by other influence engines.

Note that the list does NOT include entertainment related profiles (such as Justin Bieber fan JDBaustralia and Melbourne-based Filipino TV star Jasmine Curtis-Smith), corporate accounts, or media accounts such as ABCNews.
[NOTE:] If you are in Australia, have a PeerIndex score of 50 or more, and are not on the Australia list on PeerIndex, email us at oztwitter [AT] ahtgroup [DOT] com and we’ll add you to the list (or even easier, click on ‘Suggest someone’ on the top right of the PeerIndex page).

The full list is below.
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Awesome 3D visual mapping on Sydney Opera House

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Last Friday I was at the opening party for the Vivid Sydney festival, on East Circular Quay directly opposite the Opera House. The opening speeches concluded by triggering an absolutely awesome light show on the Opera House, called Lighting the Sails. The Opera House has been lit up for the last two festival, but this far transcends those. It was absolutely stunning. The projections will continue over the next two weeks of the festival.

A while ago I blogged about how amazing new 3D video projection can bring buildings to life, including some videos of great examples – well worth a look. In essence, the technologies used draw on a detailed 3D mapping of the building’s surface, enabling projections to take full advantage of the contours of the building.

The group selected to use the extraordinary canvas of the Opera House was French group SuperBien. It’s hard to imagine any video could do justice to the show. However here are few samplers. The first video is a teaser created by SuperBien before the event.

Teaser Vivid Festival 2011 à Sydney from SUPERBIEN on Vimeo.

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Launch of Digital Sydney: Ideas, energy, success stories, and massive potential

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I am at the launch of Digital Sydney, part of the Vivid Sydney and Creative Sydney festivals.

The reality is that for much of the last decade and more, the New South Wales government has been among the least supportive of the Australia states for the digital and creative industries, with in contrast Victoria, Queensland, and Tasmania in particular having considerably better developed initiatives to support these industries.
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SkyNews interview on future of tech: Cloud, Privacy, Big data, Reputation, Death of newspapers

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Last week just before I flew to China I did an interview on SkyNews Tech Report about the future of today’s technology.

Topics we discussed in the interview include:
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6 critical issues: Why the super injunction story represents a major social turning point

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Much ink and many pixels had already been shed on Britain’s super injunction laws before the last week, but the Ryan Giggs case has pushed this into the stratosphere.

In case you’ve been hiding in a closet, Manchester United star Ryan Giggs was awarded a “super injunction” from British courts, forbidding the press to report that he was alleged to have had an affair with Big Brother contestant Imogen Thomas, or even that they had been forbidden to report on it. Some 75,000 tweets and 1 use of parliamentary privilege later, everyone knows anyway.

This is one of those seemingly small incidents on which major social turning points hinge. So many fundamental issues of society, media, and our future are tied into this that it is difficult to disentangle. Here are a few compact thoughts and critical issues on what is at the heart of this extraordinary situation.

– The current super injunction law was created to respond to excesses of the press
The British tabloids have a tradition as world-leaders in muck-racking and invasion of privacy. Their excesses led to what were probably at the time reasonable laws to limit negative social impact from their activities. However the media landscape of today is barely recognizable from when these laws were enacted in 1990.
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The role of a futurist is to help people gain perspective and transcend boundaries

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Yesterday I was interviewed by fellow futurist Eric Garland for a podcast series which was also featured on the World Future Society website. You can listen to the podcast on those sites or below (note that I have had some problems with the plug-in).

Our discussion ranged across global demographics, shifts in manufacturing, robotics, and far more. What I thought was worth pulling out of the conversation were my comments on the role of futurists and futures thinking.

The first point is that I am completely comfortable with the term futurist, even if some perceive it as lacking credibility. I’ve long been meaning to write about my views on the word ‘futurist’. I’ll be back soon on that point.
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Music videos are the new journalism: learn about fracking!

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After watching the documentary Gasland my wife Victoria has become incensed about the practice of fracking, as hydraulic fracturing is commonly known. The issue has received global attention, but is also being practised close to home for us near Sydney’s water supplies. Victoria has been wondering why people don’t seem to be paying attention to what seems like a major environmental issue on our doorstep.

The US public interest news group ProPublica recently teamed up with New York University’s Jay Rosen to create ‘explanatory journalism’.

ProPublica has an existing three-year running project reporting on fracking and drinking water contamination. However their latest initiative may get more attention than the rest combined. The team has created a great music video which explains fracking in graphics and music in 2 1/2 minutes.


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Scoop: Corporate directors understand change and embrace governance for transformation

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I gave my keynote on How Technology is Transforming Business for Australian Institute of Company Directors this morning here in Beijing.

Based on the responses of the 500+ company directors in the audience, they absolutely understand the need for change. Here are their answers on audience response units to questions I posed during my presentation.


One of my key messages was that social and technological change are inextricable – they drive each other and cannot be understood separately. What is interesting is that directors felt that social drivers are more important than technology drivers. Certainly I believe that social change is moving at least as fast as technological change, and responding to this is fundamental to the success of organizations.
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Notes from the Australian Institute of Company Directors in Beijing

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I am at the annual conference of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, held this year in Beijing. It is fantastic that Australian company directors are choosing to meet here rather than at home, broadening vistas and opportunities. The Grand Ballroom at China World Hotel is full, with around 500 people here.

While I don’t have access to Twitter from my iPad (I haven’t had time to try to set up a VPN on my laptop yet) I can at least blog, so I might be doing more of that while I am in Beijing this week.

For now, here are my presentation slides for my keynote on How Technology is Transforming Business this morning. These are just a slightly different version of the presentation I shared last week. You can also find a pdf version of the Transformation of Business framework on which the presentation is based.

Transformation of Business – AICD on Prezi

A story about Connected: The Film and why you must see it

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I saw Connected: The Film by Tiffany Shlain last night at its Australian premiere, organized by Annalie Killian.

The first thing I have to say is that the film is absolutely fantastic. It nails how we as humans live an intensely interdependent world, and how our recognition of and response to that will determine our future. I think the more people that see it the better, so I dearly hope it will get a healthy – or even massive – audience.

I have to say I am not an independent reviewer, and that in itself is a highly relevant story.
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