Author and internet personality Cory Doctorow has once again made Forbes.com‘s list of the top 25 “Web Celeb”s, this year clocking in at #5.
As Forbes.com says, “Cory Doctorow is a prominent activist for digital rights, and serves as a fellow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He’s one of the editors of Boing Boing, a hugely influential and popular blog about technology, culture and politics. And he’s also a science fiction novelist, particularly famous on the Web, where he gives his novels away for free… In 2007, Doctorow raised his profile with a new short story collection, Overclocked, numerous columns and articles around the Web (including on Forbes.com) and participation in Boing Boing’s new podcasts and videocasts.”
Doctorow notes that “I’m in great company—two of my Boing Boing co-editors, Mark Frauenfelder and Xeni Jardin, are also on the list!”
Forbes.com noted a big turnover in this, the second year of the list, with nearly half of last year’s Celebs dropping off the list this year. However, they also say their top 25 were chosen from a pool of 200 Internet personalities who were ranked and rated in six critera. Additionally, those 200 are people “famous primarily for creating or appearing in Internet-based content, and for being highly recognizable to a Web-based audience. That definition excludes people who were significantly famous before they hit the Web.” Number one on this year’s list is gossip columnist Perez Hilton. Last year’s number one, fictitious diarist LonelyGirl15, completely dropped off the list. For the full story (and the full list), see the article on this page.