Putting aside my previous skepticism on the value of influence and reputation scores , whether it’s Kred, Klout, Peerindex or whatever, I was taken by surprise to see that I featured in the top 100 Knowledge Management Influencers list compiled by Mindtouch.

As it is, I’m halfway through a Social Network Analysis (SNA) course being run by Prof Lada Adamic at the University of Michigan, which I signed-up for to satisfy my thirst for knowledge on this topic, and I’m getting a much deeper appreciation on different types of networks, how they evolve and what influences their structures. Having analysed my own Facebook network (Twitter is next) I was a somewhat surprised to see how closely the quantitative analysis matched my qualitative perspective on who my influencers were.

I don’t know exactly how Mindtouch created the KM Influencers list, though it will have been based on some aspect of SNA, e.g. number of influencers that follow a particular person, but the stand-out thing for me is that nearly all of the people on the list are the people that I follow and listen to on the topic of ‘KM”. Some of them are definitely my influencers, and I guess I must also be influencing some of them. Leaving aside the potential for strong reciprocation within the network, it probably does give a view of who might be worth following if you’re interested in knowledge management (and I’m not saying that because I want more followers).  Like the other people in this list, I would soon drop out of the reckoning if I consistently spouted rubbish or untruths. I value my reputation (online and offline) and – though some may laugh – I’m quite proud to have bene featured in this list, and will display the badge with some pride!