Top 10 Most Rock ‘n’ Roll People in the Web Industry

31 May 2006 Category: Features, Internet, Worldwide

Top 10 Most Rock ‘n’ Roll People in the Web Industry

With the web playing an ever-more influential role in our lives, it’s something of an inevitability that personalities will arise from the web whose opinions, lifestyle and talent command as much rabid fanaticism as your average Rolling Stone member. It is whilst eating a massive slice of humble pie that I compiled this list of 10 people in the web industry whom I consider to be “Rock ‘n’ Roll” - living the dream, taking names and kicking ass in regard to their work, their play…and sometimes their appearance.

Written by Jon

These 10 Web Rock Stars are featured in first-name alphabetical order…

Anand Sharma

April Zero is the home of Anand Sharma, a web designer working in California. Anand has a design portfolio containing various small-business sized projects and mockups and has attracted attention from the web for his recent article on the web design process. What is so Rock ‘n’ Roll about this? Anand is SIXTEEN years old. Given time, Anand will mature in both his entrepreneurial spirit and design skills, and when that time comes we will all be out of a job. I, for one, welcome our new adolescent overlords.

Bryan Veloso

Although Bryan is already something of a self-proclaimed rockstar (hint: look at his blog category names), I still think he deserves a mention in this list. As the man behind the influential blog Avalonstar, Bryan enjoys a certain amount of notoriety in the web design world. A bold mover, Bryan recently quit his day-job at popular community site Facebook and is in the process of starting something on his own. Bryan’s rock star status is also helped by the fact that despite being a spritely 23 years of age, he has a beautiful Mazda RX-8 sitting in his driveway.

Dan Cederholm

Dan Cederholm of Simplebits is Rock ‘n’ Roll simply because he commands admiration. Specialising in “simple, readable interfaces”, Dan is the man behind the clean, usable look of Rollyo, Odeo and many more common favourites. Dan also champions the consumption of alcohol as design enhancer, going so far as to create Corkd, a brand new wine review site with a pleasingly simple interface.

David Heinemeier Hansson

At a mere 27 years old, David is one of those people who you can’t help be anything but disgustingly jealous of. Winner of the first Google O’Reilly “Hacker of the Year” award in 2005 (the geek equivalent of the Medal of Honour) for being the mastermind behind the Ruby on Rails framework for web application development, David is something of a God amongst other, mere mortal geeks.

In Rails, David has made a huge contribution to the internet world, with RoR and its general philosophy (convention over configuration) being massively influential in the year preceding. This, coupled with the fact that his outward appearance very much defies the traditional geek stereotype (WIRED magazine likened him to a GAP model), means he is a worthy addition to this list.

Kevin Rose

Mention the name “Kevin Rose” to any news corporation CEO and they are likely to break into a cold sweat, crawl into the fetal position on the floor and start chanting in tongues. Shaking up how news is delivered and making traditional media giants quake in their boots is par for the course for floppy-haired, ex-TV presenter Kevin Rose. Kevin is co-founder of the immensely popular Digg.com website, where users vote for news items they like. He is also a member of the “Brat Pack 2.0″, a group of young individuals working in the web / tech startup industry in the US who regularly get together for conferences, drinking and photoblogging.

Kerb

When it comes to being Rock ‘n’ Roll for the sheer amount of sex ‘n’ violence-related work you do, surely there is no other web agency that can compete with Kerb on the same, gruesome level. Whether you want to knock the heads off skateboarders, fling rocks at cavemen or be solicited for personal info by a naked girl, Kerb seems to have carved themselves something of a niche in the world of controversial viral marketing and Flash game design.

Jakob Nielsen

To those who actually know who Jakob Nielsen is, you’re probably wondering what the hell he’s doing in this list, with a small percentage of you having simply exclaimed “WRONG” and thrown your computer out the window. But let me explain. Being “Rock ‘n’ Roll” doesn’t have to be about tattoos, or having venture capital thrown at you by frothy-mouthed investors with dollar signs for eyes. Being Rock ‘n’ Roll is also about doing what you believe in and sticking to it, even when everyone and their mother is telling you to give up. And for that I know no better example in the web world than Jakob Nielsen.

Jakob Nielsen is a usability expert who rocketed to notoriety during the dot com boom of the late 90s. Denouncing much of the then-current design trends (for example, heavy use of Flash) as “gimmicky” and unnecessary, Jakob made instant enemies of countless web designers the world over. His archetypically “wizened engineer” fuddy-duddy-like face was photoshopped, forums burned with hatred, and his name was a reason to snort with contempt. Jakob didn’t let any of that bother him though, forming the consultancy Neilsen Norman Group and writing a line of books.

And look where we are now. The web industry has done a 180 and everyone is in love with usability. The kind of articles Jakob was writing almost 10 years ago - that is our new gospel. Jakob Neilsen, you are Rock ‘n’ Roll just for being so chronically ahead of your time.

Joshua Davis

The father of Praystation.com and now the director of a successful and self-named new media agency, Joshua Davis was the first person I thought of when writing this list. Why? For the simple reason that Joshua Davis sports the kind of tattoos you would expect to see on a heavy metal guitarist or member of the Yakuza, not on someone who works with such big-name (and some would say conservative) clients as BMW and Merril Lynch. That isn’t to say Joshua doesn’t do grittier, more rock ‘n’ roll work too - having worked on projects for rap stars and metal bands.

Mark James

In some senses of the phrase, being “Rock ‘n’ Roll” can be measured simply by how crazy you are. For example, Ozzy Ozborne is Rock ‘n’ Roll because he bit the head off a live bat whilst performing at a concert. Mark James of FAMFAMFAM - although having probably never harmed any kind of airborne rodent with his teeth - is in web industry terms just as crazy. Mark is the creator of the popular Silk icon set. Sites that use FAMFAMFAM’s Silk icon set vary from personal blogs to money-making commercial websites, but Mark has been kind enough to let the world use them all for free. None of this is in any way crazy until you realise that Mark has created exactly ONE THOUSAND icons for Silk. I cannot imagine how much time Mark has invested into Silk, but he has created a vast pixel buffet and everyone is invited.

Xeni

Xeni is co-editor of BoingBoing, one of the most influential blogs on the internet. She has also made numerous television appearances and is a contributing writer for WIRED magazine. Xeni also seems to live something of a Rockstar lifestyle - her personal site is adorned with headshots and she even has her own IMDB page (complete with rockstar-like headshot). For her continuing contribution to BoingBoing - the site that sets the standard for what is cool, awesome or bizarre on the web, but also maintaining a conscience with its charity / politics-related articles - and for having a certain Gwen Stefani quality to her which I’m sure she hates hearing, Xeni is a must for this list.

29 Comments

  1. Two danes in the top 10, and the name “Dan Cederholm” sounds danish. Gotta love em!

    Posted by: Anders Kusk on May 31st, 2006 at 11:03 pm

  2. Being a person who at times enjoys the artist more than his/her art, I found this article highly satisfying.

    Posted by: Guig on May 31st, 2006 at 11:49 pm

  3. Xeni also loves Vosges chocolate…so if you want to get on her good side, send her lots of candy bars. ;-)

    Posted by: Kung Foodie on June 1st, 2006 at 2:44 pm

  4. I think those web designer sucks! I don’t even like their styles. TOOO boring!

    Posted by: Andrei on June 1st, 2006 at 6:31 pm

  5. Andrei > perhaps you missed the point. 3 of the 10 people aren’t even web designers.

    Posted by: Administrator on June 1st, 2006 at 6:39 pm

  6. kudos to the 16 year old; puts my little sister’s myspace to shame ;)

    Posted by: Claytonain on June 2nd, 2006 at 12:49 am

  7. Arg another Clayton! Avast! hehehe…

    Anyways… nice article as usual. I do come back for a reason.

    Posted by: Dranore on June 2nd, 2006 at 4:05 pm

  8. good to see TOP 10 rocking web star.

    Posted by: Paavani on June 2nd, 2006 at 7:42 pm

  9. Also, good call on not numbering them.

    Posted by: Dranore on June 3rd, 2006 at 1:12 am

  10. This is really embarrassing for you I know, but um…. you forgot to put me on there. I won’t take it any further if you amend the article tonight. Cheers.

    Posted by: Andy H on June 3rd, 2006 at 11:16 pm

  11. As far as web designers go the ones featured are pretty run of the mill, apart from Davis. Its all just the same old shiny pastic/gradients/diagonal stripes/web 2.0 look nonsense apart from Kerb which just appears to be a generic Flash game/viral focused developer look.

    Posted by: Lime on June 4th, 2006 at 3:54 am

  12. Lime > again (see above comment), the article isn’t about the best web designers. 3 of them don’t even have anything to do with web design, in a traditional sense.

    Posted by: Administrator on June 4th, 2006 at 12:49 pm

  13. Keegan Jones (keeganjones.com) is sixteen or seventeen and seems a lot more skilled than Anand Sharma.

    Posted by: scnd on June 16th, 2006 at 12:32 am

  14. this is a good start but I feel like I should add a few.

    erik natzke - awesome awesome designer/developer
    andre michelle, Darron Schall, Claus Wahlers - all for doing increadable flash 9 things way before anyone else.
    Blake Ross - firefox kid

    but really the coolest stuff out there is made by groups of people but I guess that woud be a different list.

    Posted by: tyler on June 19th, 2006 at 3:17 pm

  15. Being 16 makes it hard to get recognition :(

    Posted by: garrett on June 24th, 2006 at 6:18 am

  16. Well, you got one right; Joshua Davis. The rest I wouldn’t call “Rock n Roll,” but rather smooth jazz.

    Posted by: GUMBALL on July 7th, 2006 at 1:06 pm

  17. Very cool web designers. They don’t suck.

    Posted by: here on July 30th, 2006 at 3:34 pm

  18. [...] WOW! Niesamowite!? Kevin Rose - założyciel Digga, jedna z dziesięciu najbardziej rock’n’roll’owych postaci w branży internetowej, zarobił (a może raczej zrobił) $60 milionów dolców przez ostatnie 18 miesięcy… przyjamniej wg Business Week. [...]

    Posted by: yashke.com » Business Week dmucha bańkę on August 7th, 2006 at 5:26 pm

  19. Yeah, gotta a lot hard work and education to get into this 10.

    Posted by: Ján Varhol on August 28th, 2006 at 7:45 pm

  20. [...] It’s almost as cool as being one of the most rock ‘n’ roll people in the web industry. Heh. [...]

    Posted by: April Zero » Web Designer UK Mag on November 12th, 2006 at 2:40 am

  21. Luogo interessante, buon disegno, lo gradisco, signore! =)

    Posted by: firewall on December 20th, 2006 at 3:43 am

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    Posted by: Alexyuzqd on April 6th, 2007 at 6:03 pm

  23. [...] Top 10 Most Rock ‘n’ Roll People in the Web Industry I don’t know how “rock ‘n’ roll” some of these dudes are, but it’s a fun read. (tags: article top10 web web2.0 geeks) [...]

    Posted by: Tech.Chick.Blog » links for 2007-06-25 on June 25th, 2007 at 9:32 pm

  24. Huh ,So many rockers. Except Kevin Rose and xeni all were new to me.

    Posted by: dating sites page on November 1st, 2007 at 9:02 pm

  25. [...] note that inspiration has been coming frequently lately, and that’s a good thing. Celebrated designer Bryan Veloso also brightened our day last week, but Terrell beat me to the reply. Not content to [...]

    Posted by: Unit Structures – On Inspiration on August 24th, 2008 at 5:08 am

  26. Interesting list.

    Posted by: Facebook on November 23rd, 2010 at 12:44 am

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