Forbes 20: Gee, I’m Connected

Taylor Buley pulled some data out of Google Buzz, and figured out who the folks at Forbes magazine  are talking to. Surprise! I am connected!

I think it might be a bit much to say that this group represents the ‘most media-connected’ in our crazy media connected world, but that’s what Buley thinks.

- Taylor Buley, Google Buzz Reveals Tech’s Twenty Most Media-Connected People

The result: many dozens of people left the list of whom they follow and their likely Gmail contacts public. So I plugged the numbers into a spreadsheet and created a list. I work for Forbes. Lists are in our corporate DNA.

This survey is not scientific. The sample size is small and biased toward press who prefer to use personal Gmail accounts over professional addresses. But it’s an interesting window into how these people do their everyday job, and who their likely influencers might be.

Here’s how the ranking was determined: Each person a journalist or blogger follows received a score of one over the total number of people that writer was following as of late Wednesday. That gives weight to people who are among a precious few likely sources to any given journalist.

For example, Ryan Block only followed 25 people, so Dave Morin being among them was worth more points than if Block were following a hundred people. Members of the press who were following many hundreds of people, such as Robert Scoble, were thrown out of the sample; connections to apparent employers and colleagues were ignored.

Overall scores were calculated across all members of the media surveyed. That total surfaced the people who are likely in the closest contact with the most members of the press. The 20 people with the highest scores are listed below.

1. Mrinal Desai   
Co-founder/Advisor, Crossloop (software company)
Followed by: Brian Stelter, Erick Schonfeld, Adam Ostrow, Leena Rao, Nick O’Neill, Doug MacMillan, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Zee Kane, Jason Hiner

2. Anil Dash   
Founder/Director, Expert Labs (non-profit)
Followed by: Gina Tripani, Erick Schonfeld, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Joel Johnson, Ryan Block, Rafat Ali

3. Dave McClure   
Angel investor, Founders Fund (venture capital firm)
Followed by: Danny Sullivan, Erick Schonfeld, Ben Parr, Nick O’Neill, Harry McCracken, Matthew Ingram

4. Atul Arora   
Product Management Director, Vimo (health insurance comparison shopping website)
Followed by: Leena Rao, Zee Kane, Matthew Ingram

5. Bradley Horowitz   
Product Management VP, Google (oversees Google Apps: Gmail, Voice, Talk, etc.)
Followed by: Danny Sullivan, MG Siegler, Quentin Hardy, Steve Gillmor

6. Jason Calacanis   
Founder/CEO, Mahalo (curated search)
Followed by: Ryan Block, Rafat Ali

7. Ouriel Ohayon   
Co-founder/CEO, Appsfire (iPhone application picks)
Followed by: Marshall Kirkpatrick, Om Malik

8. Tara Hunt   
Co-founder/CEO, Shwowp (shopping)
Followed by: Danny Sullivan, Chris Pirillo, Matthew Ingram

9. Frank Gruber   
Consultant, Shiny Heart Ventures
Followed by: Danny Sullivan, Ben Parr, Caroline McCarthy

10. Dave Morin   
Followed by: Ryan Block

11. Matt Galligan   
Co-Founder/CEO, SimpleGeo
Followed by: Jolie O’Dell, Caroline McCarthy

12. Drew Olanoff   
Community Director, GOGII (iPhone software)
Followed by: MG Siegler, Adam Ostrow, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Veronica Belmont

13. Stowe Boyd   
Consultant
Followed by: Adam Ostrow, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Rafat Ali

14. Harry Heymann   
Developer, Foursquare
Followed by: Caroline McCarthy, John Carney

15. Orli Yakuel   
Consultant
Followed by: Erick Schonfeld, Nick O’Neill, Marshall Kirkpatrick

16. Paul Buchheit  
Angel investor
Followed by: MG Siegler, Erick Schonfeld, Matthew Ingram, Steve Gillmor

17. Ben Metcalfe   
Consultant
Followed by:  Jolie O’Dell, Marshall Kirkpatrick

18. Kevin Marks  
Web Services VP, BT
Followed by: Danny Sullivan, Erick Schonfeld, Marshall Kirkpatrick

19. Jacob Mullins (tie)   
Marketer, Microsoft
Followed by: MG Siegler, Caroline McCarthy

19. Andrew Mager (tie)   
Developer, Ning
Followed by: MG Siegler, Caroline McCarthy

It makes me sad that Caroline McCarthy isn’t following me, either. Of course, this is just Buzz, which is really about email, so it’s not that much of an indicator, really.