Meet Forrester’s Social Computing Analyst Team

I’m writing this from 30,000 feet as I fly back from Chicago to SF, it took nearly 2 hours to clean out my inbox, and that’s not even my personal one.

Thank you for all the wonderful suggestions and kudos for hitting my one year mark, without a doubt the demand for social computing research, inquiry (client calls) and vendor briefings is increasing.

If you can’t tell, we’re working overtime to make sure our clients are happy and we’re completing research. Frankly, I’m a bit behind on where I need to be, and am putting in extra hours to get caught up on the wave report, take excellent care of my clients (I really love helping folks), being part of the conversation, and watching –and commenting on the industry.

You’ve probaly noticed a decrease in my blogging and believe me, I’m learning so much and have a lot to share, but things are getting pretty busy, I’m getting close to the burn out stage.

Some vendors are getting impatient with me as my briefings dates are getting pushed back to Nov, travel has been heavy, and I go to Japan, then Dallas this month for Forrester’s Consumer Forum.

So, to be upfront, I want the market to know I’m not the only guy, in fact, Forrester takes this space very seriously, (learn about our first team meetup), and with the recent acquisition of Jupiter Research, and I’d like to introduce to our other analysts focused on this space:

Josh Bernoff: Do I really need to introduce him? He’s one of my favorite people at Forrester, and we’ve become friends, if you’re looking for the strategic view, he’s the guy, and has a long background in media. Like me, Josh serves Interactive Marketing professionals

David Card: Hailing from Jupiter, David has a strong background in media, and when we had drinks a few weeks ago, it was quickly apparent he’s very quick and will speak his mind –as an analyst should.

Laura Ramos: With a strong focus on B2B Marketing, Laura gets how companies (esp tech) need to approaching social computing in a strategic web, we’ve done a few projects together, and have more to come.

Emily Riley: The reports I was the most impressed with from Jupiter were Emily’s, she and I have covered quite a few of the same topics but our insight and recommendations were very similar.

Steven Noble (APAC): Having recently joined the Forrester team, Steven is in Australia and covers the Asia Pacific space, covering marketing, and has a strong focus on social computing. Also like me, he serves the Interactive Marketing professionals

Oliver Young: Is one of the top minds when it comes to Enterprise 2.0, and we frequently talk in the Foster City office. He’s a strong analytical mind, and can spot weaknesses quickly, if you’ve enterprise focused products, talk to him esp if your a Vendor Strategy Professional.

Rob Koplowitz: Also covers the Enterprise 2.0 space, and has a strong background in serving the Information & Knowledge Management professionals

Gil Yehuda: Also new to Forrester, Gil has impressed me with his passion for enterprise 2.0 and how it impacts internall communications. He practices what he preaches and coordinates many of our internal discussions on the topic of social computing. Gil serves Information and Knowledge Management professional.

Mary Beth Kemp (EMEA): Her coverage succint, her wit and charm impressive, Mary Beth has a strong focus on serving Marketing Leadership professionals.

Rebecca Jennings (EMEA): Has done quite a bit of social computing research from a European aspect –and has quite the cool accent. She serves the Interactive Marketing professionals

Nate Elliott (EMEA): Although I’ve never met Nate, we chatter on Yammer, Twitter, and the occasional email. He’s an expert at marketing and advertising, and has a strong nose for social media, Nate’s based in Germany as I last recall.

Suresh Vittal: Although he serves the direct marketer, Suresh is now picking up the brand monitoring space, which would of course include companies that are measuring, monitoring, and reporting on social media.

Barry Parr: When I have questions about media, I’ll turn to bay area local Barry, as a former media executive, Barry knows how media –and technology are intersecting. I hear he also cooks an award winning cheesecake.

Mike Gualtieri: Mike and I started Forrester at the same time, and as an analyst serving the Application Development & Program Management professional, he’s published research on Software, Mashups, SOA, and website infrastructure. I remember our white board talks on AJAX when we were in training, I’d turn to him first if I had questions on the technology side of the space.

Many other analysts: I’ve noticed that the social computing topic is crossing over to other analysts that cover other roles, most recently, I was impressed with Sarah Rotman Epps report on the intersection of social media and traditional media companies. It doesn’t stop with her, there are over 300 reports with the keyword social computing, and over 600 reports with the keywords web 2.0.

There’s a ton of other folks that I didn’t mention, such as researchers, consultants, and our management team, inquiry team, briefing team, marketing, pr, and of course helpdesk!

Also, did you know our CEO George Colony is blogging? He’s on Twitter too, and as I’ve mentioned before, we’ve hired a community manager, John Cass, find him on Twitter.

Hmm who did I miss? I’m sure a quite a few others.

Some have commented to me that I link a lot to Forrester (I recently learned that I’m the fourth top referrer to Forrester.com) , but I link to many other firms too, and point to any research that’s relevant in my space.

Key takeaways: I’m doing all that I can to serve the industry, but I’m just one guy, that’s having a hard time scaling. While I may be very visible, Forrester takes this space seriously and has the all-star team that’s watching this space, get to know us!