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Top Virtualization Twitter Names to Follow

PostDateIcon January 4th, 2009 | PostAuthorIcon Author: Rich Brambley

twitterA conversation of tweets over the weekend about which virtualization related accounts should you follow on Twitter caught my attention. Scott Lowe started it off by pondering “who are the top 10 people to follow for virtualization?” I thought about this, started to respond in 140 characters (the Twitter limit), thought about it again, and then decided to write this post. I decided that you can’t follow virtualization on Twitter like you can with News sites or blogs. Twitter is too dynamic and random. Sure there are plenty of virtualization related links and discussions, but those are generally well hidden between the “I’m making spaghetti” or “My cat just fell in the toilet” tweets.

Don’t get me wrong. You should follow virtualization on Twitter, and you will benefit both personally and professionally. I’m just warning you that Twitter is a social network first and foremost. I believe you will find out more about an individual’s personality then their technology or expertise – which is still a great benefit in my opinion. You also may get the opportunity to get a quick answer, opinion, or even advice from a large community of professionals not only on virtualization but on blogging, web site administration, how to make a meal or keep your pet out of the bathroom.

So who should you follow? How do you come up with a Top 10 or Top 20 list?

I would recommend searching Twitter profiles for people who include the keywords “virtualization or virtualisation”. For example Twello.com lists them by number of subscribers. (if you’ve got a Twitter profile without “virtualization” as a keyword then what’s up?!!). This list is the closest thing to a ranking I could think of. Let me know if you have a better idea.

How about matching Twitter accounts to Eric Seibert’s Top 10 Virtualization lists at vmware-land.com. Use his VMware Launchpad to go to all the web sites and blogs listed. Most sites have a sidebar widget with their Twitter account name and their last few tweets. Go to John Troyer’s Planet v12n and do the same for all the blogs and sites aggregated there. Go to Microsoft’s Virtualizationfeed.com and do the same again.

Of course, you can always just look at Twitter accounts like mine to see who I am following. There are plenty of virtualization folks that do not show up on any of the lists I’ve already mentioned. You’ll need to log on with your account to be able to look at the names that any person on Twitter is following.

Now, if you haven’t caught the Twitter bug yet and still don’t have an account there is still an alternative for you. If you follow VM /ETC then I assume you read blogs or RSS feeds on a regular basis, and you can go to http://search.twitter.com and get an RSS feed for any of the Twitter names you find from the methods above. So, use your favorite RSS reader to monitor the fun, and then jump in when you are ready with your own account.

Finally, here’s the tweet conversation that motivated me for this post. I want to point out that Scott’s tweet with the link about the balance between tweeting and blogging is a very good read that helps provide a perspective on the value and difference between blogs and Twitter.

The Conversation:

don’t forget

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PostCategoryIcon Posted in vmetc.com | PostTagIcon Tags: , , ,
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  • Hi Rich -

    Glad you liked the post regarding why professionals should continue to blog. I'm not a part of the virtualization world, but I like this post. It's great to see non-social media, non-marketing folks benefiting from using Twitter. I've seen examples in politics and accounting. Now I know about virtualization as well. Cool.

    Hutch
  • There are so many names one could list here. To come up with a "top 10" would be like asking me to rate my kids. And then there's the criteria aspect. Do you go by quality? Quantity? A mixture of both? There are some big brains on twitter that only post once every few weeks, if that even. If virtualization insight were food, you'd die of starvation many times over waiting for the virtualization oracles of Twitter to tweet their thoughts. On the other hand, it seems a bit unfair to go with a name that talks a lot on twitter but maybe only 10-20% of the talk is virtualization related. Therein lies the nuance of twitter: There are no rules and most people go by their own rules for tweeting. I've unfollowed Twitteres that are just way too chatty for my tastes and scroll my screen. Likewise, I'm sure I've lost followers for the same reason. These are the days I ponder getting out of Twittertown but with the crowd I'm following, I feel it's still one of the best tools for the most up to date information.

    ie.:
    @vmguru
    @jasemccarty
    @sbeaver
    @tom_howarth
    @douglasabrown
    @brianmadden
    @vmwarefusion
    @govirtual
    I could go on and on.
  • I picked up a bunch more additional people to follow on Twitter by searching profiles for vmware

    http://www.twellow.com/
  • Hutch,

    Thanks for writing a great post and thanks for stopping by VM /ETC

    Jason,

    Well said. I too have unfollowed because I felt like I was eavesdropping on a few IM conversations at times. Then there is the whole timezone difference too. Some tweets happen in the middle of the night, or while at a client, and I miss the good virtualization content. That's where sites like search.twitter.com have helped me fill in the missing tweets.
    Great list of Twitter names you added too!
  • Thanks for including me in the cut :) Didn't think I was 'that' cool.

    -Cody
  • I'd have to say, thanks for including me (@jasonboche), as I wouldn't think I'm one to follow either...

    -Jase
  • Rich,

    Here is another list of Virtualization twitters along with a Powershell script that auto-follows them all for you! :)

    http://teckinfo.blogspot.com/2009/01/virtual-tw...

    Check it out.
    Carlo.
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