By Gregory Piatetsky, Dec 24, 2013.

Although 200 Leaders sounds like too many, here is the AnalyticsWeek list of top 200 Thought Leaders in the field of Big Data and Analytics.

Their methodology was based on looking at thought leaders via Kred, Klout and PeekYou. Then, they searched for certain keywords in twitter and captured twitter suggestions for accounts on those specific keywords. This lead to a consolidated list of 5,000 active twitter accounts. After eliminating business (why?) and non-English accounts, they reduced the count to ~2,000. Afterwards, they looked for accounts that are leaders in more than 1 keyword area and gave them a higher score. Finally, some ad hoc data mining, produced top 200 accounts. The analysis was done by Deeksha Joshi, @d3eksha.

My random sampling of the list finds that most are indeed either experts in Analytics and Big Data, or work for companies in the field, with addition of people from adjacent fields, like Data Quality or MDM.

For other such lists see kdnuggets Voted the Best Big Data Twitter Account, Big Data Republic.

Here is the AnalyticsWeek list, in alphabetical order.

• Daniel Kehrer, @140Main
• Adrian Bridgwater, @ABridgwater
• Alistair Croll, @acroll
• Anindya Ghose, @aghose
• Ali Rebaie, @AliRebaie
• Andres Carceller, @AndresCarceller
• Andrew Brust, @andrewbrust
• Anna OBrien, @AnnaOBrien
• John Appleby, @applebyj
• Tony Hollingsworth, @AskTonyIT
• Atanu Basu, @atanubasu
• Avinash Kaushik, @avinash
• Ben Bergeret, @benberg
• Ben Cotton, @BenCotton
• Ben Kerschberg, @BenKerschberg
• Bernard Marr, @BernardMarr
• Ben Lorica, @bigdata
• Paul Zikopoulos, @BigData_paulz
• Lillian Pierson, @BigDataGal
• Purrsilla, @BigDataKitty
• Sushil Pramanick, @BigDataSpeaker
• Kurt J. Bilafer, @Bilafer
• Bill Franks, @billfranksga
• Marly Cho, @BITechWatch
• Brian Kardon, @bkardon
• Steve Jackson, @blackbeak
• Bob E. Hayes, PhD, @bobehayes
• Bob Evans, @bobevansIT
• Bob Violino, @BobViolino
• Brad Brown, @BradfordBrown
• Brian Eastwood, @Brian_Eastwood
• Bruno Walther, @brunowalther
• Casey Lucas, @CaseyCrl
• Catherine Reynolds, @CatRey
• Christian Verstraete, @christianve
• Claudia Imhoff, @Claudia_Imhoff
• Colin White, @ColinJWhite
• Colin Strong, @Colinstrong
• Craig Mullins, @craigmullins
• Dana Gardner, @Dana_Gardner
• Dan Vesset, @DanVesset
• Darryl McDonald, @Darryl_McDonald
• Carla Gentry, @data_nerd
• Krish Krishnan, @datagenius
• David Amerland, @DavidAmerland
• david edelman, @davidedelman
• DavidLinthicum, @DavidLinthicum
• Dave Capuano, @dcapuan0
• Dean Taplin, @deantaplin
• Dean Wampler, @deanwampler
• Dale Roberts, @DecisionHacker
• Derek Showerman, @derekshowerman
• Derrick Harris, @derrickharris
• Doug Henschen, @DHenschen
• Arun Sundararajan, @digitalarun
• Greg Satell, @Digitaltonto
• DJ Patil, @dpatil
• Doug Laney, @Doug_Laney
• Daniel Tunkelang, @dtunkelang
• Delaney Turner, @DTurnerBlogs
• Dave Vellante, @dvellante
• Edd Dumbill, @edd
• Ellis Booker, @ellisbooker
• Rob Enderle, @Enderle
• Erick Swaine, @erickswaine
• Erik Brynjolfsson, @erikbryn
• fredtrotter, @fredtrotter
• Gary G MacFadden, @GGMacFadden
• George K. Mathew, @gkm1
• Gerd Leonhard, @gleonhard
• J. Graeme Noseworthy, @graemeknows
• Grace Simrall, @Greendrv
• Steen Kjong Paulsen, @gruset
• John Ching, @HadoopNews
• Chris Hale, @HaleChris
• Wen Dombrowski MD, @HealthcareWen
• Holger Kisker, @hkisker
• Harish Kotadia Ph.D., @HKotadia
• Henrik L. Sorensen, @hlsdk
• Hugo Sarrazin, @HugoSarrazin
• Leslie Ament, @Hypatia_LeslieA
• Manish Bhatt, @imbigdata
• Theo, @ITredux
• jahendler, @jahendler
• Jaime Fitzgerald, @jaimefitzgerald
• jameskobielus, @jameskobielus
• James Maguire, @JamesMaguire
• James Taylor, @jamet123
• Janice McCallum, @janicemccallum
• jasonaverbook, @jasonaverbook
• Jeff Bertolucci, @jbertolucci
• John Burn-Murdoch, @jburnmurdoch
• Jeff Kelly, @jeffreyfkelly
• Jen Stirrup, @jenstirrup
• Jeroen Tjepkema, @jeroentjepkema
• John Foley, @jfoley09
• jfxberns, @jfxberns
• J.W. Heinlein, @Jhaymee
• Judith Hurwitz, @jhurwitz
• Jill Dyche, @jilldyche
• Jim Adler, @jim_adler
• Jim Sterne, @jimsterne
• Joab Jackson, @Joab_Jackson
• John Foreman, @John4man
• John de Voogd, @JohndeVoogd
• johnlmyers44, @johnlmyers44
• John Lovett, @johnlovett
• Jonathan Levitt, @jonathanlevitt
• Jeff Vance, @JWVance
• Gregory Piatetsky, @kdnuggets
• Keegan Larson, @KeeganLarson
• Kelly Sommers, @kellabyte
• Kevin Weil, @kevinweil
• kimdossey, @kimdossey
• Kirk Borne, @KirkDBorne
• Kenneth Cukier, @kncukier
• Lara Shackelford, @LaraShackelford
• lauriemccabe, @lauriemccabe
• Lisa Arthur, @lisaarthur
• lizzadwoskin, @lizzadwoskin
• Laurianne McLaughlin, @lmclaughlin
• Sally McGee Barlow, @lonestarsally
• Mandi Bishop, @MandiBPro
• Marcus Borba, @marcusborba
• Mariana Oliveira, @marianarrpp
• MaribelLopez, @MaribelLopez
• Mark Matiszik, @MarkMatiszik
• Mark Smith, @marksmithvr
• Matt Aslett, @maslett
• Bill Max, @maximumexp
• Michael Chui, @mchui
• Prash Chan, @MDMGeek
• Michael E. Driscoll, @medriscoll
• Michael Nadeau, @menadeau
• Merv Adrian, @merv
• Mike Gualtieri, @mgualtieri
• Michael Wu Ph.D., @mich8elwu
• Michel Ballings, @MichelBallings
• Mike Ferguson, @mikeferguson1
• Mike Olson, @mikeolson
• Artem Mikhlin, @mikhlin
• Matt Asay, @mjasay
• Michael Cavaretta, @mjcavaretta
• mark sullivan, @mmsindallas
• Michael H, @mphnyc
• Mansour Raad, @mraad
• Nancy Kopp- Hensley, @nancykoppdw
• Natasha Bishop, @Natasha_D_G
• Neil Raden, @NeilRaden
• Nic Smith, @nicfish
• Nick Holzherr, @nickholzherr
• Nicholas Longo, @NickLongo
• Nitin Borwankar, @nitin
• Steve Lucas, @nstevenlucas
• Isaac Sacolick, @nyike
• Jim Harris, @ocdqblog
• Osanda Cooray, @osandacooray
• paco nathan, @pacoid
• Paul Allen, @paulballen
• Paul Miller, @PaulMiller
• Peter Vander Auwera, @petervan
• Phil Simon, @philsimon
• Pinal Dave, @pinaldave
• Brian Hopkins, @practicingEA
• Brandon Prebynski, @prebynski
• Philip Russom, @prussom
• Raffael Marty, @raffaelmarty
• Rahul Bhatia, @rahuulbhatia
• Rajasekar Nonburaj, @rajasekarn
• Ryan Calo, @rcalo
• David Smith, @revodavid
• Robert Kirkpatrick, @rgkirkpatrick
• Rebecca Wissinger, @rjwissin
• Rob Bell, @robbell
• Roy Morejon, @RoyMorejon
• Ruben Knudsen, @Ruben_Knudsen
• Sam Charrington, @samcharrington
• Seth Grimes, @SethGrimes
• Susan Etlinger, @setlinger
• Stephane Hamel, @SHamelCP
• Shannon Yelland, @Shannonyelland
• Sharon Machlis, @sharon000
• Shawn Rogers, @shawnrog
• Amanda McGuckinHager, @shoogie
• SimonPorter, @simonlporter
• Sinan Aral, @sinanaral
• Shane O'Neill, @smoneill
• Sanjay Poonen, @spoonen
• Steve Lohr, @SteveLohr
• Surendra Reddy, @sureddy
• Bryan Eisenberg, @TheGrok
• Timo Elliott, @timoelliott
• Tony Baer, @TonyBaer
• Vish Agashe, @VishAgashe
• Vishal Kumar, @VishalTx
• Lars Johansson, @webanalystsinfo
• Norbert Doetsch, @wildwasser
• William McKnight, @williammcknight
• Wyatt Kash, @WyattKash
• Yves Mulkers, @YvesMulkersee