#3 Rachel Sterne

Rachel Sterne is the founder of Ground Reports, a hyper-local platform for citizen journalists that stands out for its editorial standards and accuracy, she calls it as “ participatory news”, the site relies on advertising, syndication and partnerships for revenue and attracts new readers through search and syndication to Google News, Huffington Post, Lexis-Nexis and others.

Ground Report is a place where regular people can be a part of the news-gathering and -distribution process. It’s a place where anyone can report their own stories, which are then scrutinized by community editors. The catch is that the best stuff earns money based on traffic.

Sterne, the city's first chief digital officer oversees digital strategy for Mayor Bloomberg and focuses on open government initiatives for the Big Apple.

#2 Baratunde Rafiq Thurston

Baratunde Rafiq Thurston is an American comedian, graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Philosophy. He is the author of three self published books-- Better than Crying: Poking Fun At Politics, the press and Pop Culture, Keep Jerry Falwell Away from My Oreo Cookies (2005), Thank You Congressional Pages (For Being So Damn Sexy!) (2006). Thurston, as part of Laughing Liberally, participated in YearlyKos conventions.

Thurston is currently the Director of Digital at The Onion, is an active tweeter and co-founded the black political blog JackAndJillPolitics.com. The name of the blog builds on the name of the African American children's social organization, Jack and Jill of America. Thurston also performs stand-up comedy and recently wrote his first book: How To Be Black.

#1 Dave Winer

Dave Winer is an American software developer, entrepreneur and writer. He is famous for his contributions to outliners, scripting, content management and web services, and as well as blogging and podcasting

He is the founder of the software companies Living Videotext and Userland Software, a former contributing editor for the Web magazine Hot Wired and authored the book the Scripting News weblog.