In 1975, the never-modest Barry Manilow sang, “I write the songs that make the whole world sing.” The 100 companies, organizations and projects recognized in the 2011 SD Times 100 may not be particularly musical (well, Amazon and Apple make billions selling tunes), but they write the code that makes the whole software-development industry succeed.
Since 2003, we’ve selected the top leaders and innovators, looking back at their achievements in the previous calendar year. We carefully considered each company’s offerings and reputation. We also listened for the “buzz”—how much attention and conversation we’ve heard around the company and its products and technologies—as a sign of leadership within the industry.
Judging the SD Times 100 takes months—nominations, research, debate, more research, more debate. The greatest challenge is to whittle the list down to merely 100; many organizations end up on the cutting-room floor. However, to offer up the SD Times 105 or SD Times 116 would be a cop out.
Part of the tradition is to divide the SD Times 100 into categories. Each year, we change the categories to reflect how the winners cluster, and also how the industry has changed and evolved. For the 2010 awards, we had 12 categories; this year, we have eight. Next year... who knows?
What do you think about the 2011 SD Times 100?
Did we include an organization that you consider unworthy?
Did we miss a top leader or innovator? Write us at feedback@bzmedia.com, or join the Twitter conversation with hashtag #sdtimes100.
By the way, if you count up all the entries, you will see that it comes to 113, not 100. Why is that? Because a few of the 2011 SD Times 100 are recognized for their leadership in multiple categories. |