As a software engineer, who should I be following on Twitter?

Question

Who in the software engineering and software development fields uses Twitter to tweet about relevant happenings in the field?

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Try a few good suggestions, and if you start to feel like they just like to twit for the sake of twitting - quit. — Job, Nov 26 '10 at 16:12
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score 50 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 02 '10 at 11:55

50

I'll probably get flamed for this but...

140 characters is hardly the format to get any real pearls of programming wisdom. Most (but not all) programming concepts/thoughts/ideas require more space to be articulated. I would follow the blogs of the list of programmers that everyone is suggesting.

answered Sep 02 '10 at 11:55

Walter

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That's true, but I would suspect that these people would post some things of interest - either URLs, a blog post (theirs or someone else's) of interest, etc. – Thomas Owens Sep 02 '10 at 13:54
@Thomas: good point - what we really need is software that can take the recommendations *here*, pull the associated twitter feeds, follow the links contained therein, and aggregate the contents. – Shog9 Sep 07 '10 at 18:37
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I find tons of good links to programming content on twitter each day. Similarly I can't remember how many times I've mentioned a programming related problem I'm having and have somebody actually send me a solution. – Jaco Pretorius Sep 08 '10 at 21:12
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Twitter is also a good mechanism to be informed of those blog posts. Among other things. – Peter Ritchie Sep 09 '10 at 13:50
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So many people misunderstand Twitter & what the real power is behind it. Often you will find wisdom in 140 chars, but more frequently, you'll find relevant links and notice trends in the industry. You'll get a pulse for everything going on if you follow the right people. This isn't even taking into account the awesome friendships you gain with colleagues you could never meet without Twitter. Twitter Rocks. – John MacIntyre Sep 25 '10 at 03:01
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You know what else rocks about Twitter? You're reading @unclebobmartin's book, or @shanselman's book and you have a question ... you just ask them ... and they answer. Both have answered my questions, as has @jonskeet. – John MacIntyre Sep 25 '10 at 03:11
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It's sad how the internet has made the "I'll probably get flamed" disclaimer mandatory before expressing an unconventional viewpoint. Btw, +1. – talonx Sep 26 '10 at 05:35
140 characters is plenty of space to post a blurb and a link to detail – Steven A. Lowe Nov 19 '10 at 04:03
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Not interested. Twitter is not a substitute for thinking. Go on, mark me down. I'm amazed by the amount of time that can be wasted in a day following stuff that might be of interest, seems to me like a substitute for actually doing what many programmers are paid for. – quickly_now Jan 02 '11 at 09:18
Confusion of usage here..bigtime. Twitter provides time sensitive information immed. Scott Guthrie posted about MVC 3 training for FREE yesterday that lasts only 48 hours. ScottGu also has a blog if he needs to post more than 140 chars. – P.Brian.Mackey Feb 10 '11 at 22:59

score 24 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 09 '17 at 18:04

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I maintain a list of over 2300 StackOverflow (SO) twitter accounts sorted by reputation.

I mined the latest SO data dump for all users with twitter accounts, then calculated each user's top tags based on most votes, and finally sorted the lists by user reputation.

Here is a screenshot of what the SO list looks like:

I also mined the available Stack Exchange data dumps. The list of members for this site will also appear on the next data dump.

Here is a subset that is applicable to programmers:

edited Mar 09 '17 at 18:04

Community

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answered Sep 01 '10 at 20:40

Brian R. Bondy

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People who find this site might not be from Stack Overflow. In addition, people who are of interest might not be on Stack Overflow to have a profile there. – Thomas Owens Sep 01 '10 at 20:48
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@Thomas: Which is why I linked to stackoverflow itself. You don't need an account on stackoverflow to view peoples profiles and view tags. Viewing tags is nothing new if you are using this site as this site has tags too. – Brian R. Bondy Sep 01 '10 at 20:58
I'm just clarifying for other people who might read this question. Nothing against this answer - I gave you +1. – Thomas Owens Sep 01 '10 at 21:30
@Thomas: Which is why Brian's excellent answer is only *one* of the many other good answers provided here. – Macneil Jan 01 '11 at 19:31
links are broken. – Steven Evers Jul 13 '11 at 02:04

score 15 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 09 '10 at 19:26

15

John Carmack! @ID_AA_Carmack

answered Sep 09 '10 at 19:26

Soylent Graham

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Carmack is brilliant and his twitter feed is like a window into his mind. It's fascinating. – Matt Olenik Sep 12 '10 at 03:38

systempuntoout · Answer 4 · 2010-09-01T21:29:37.077

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For a quickstart, have a look to this list:
http://twitter.com/jvortmann/software-guru

You got:

Kent Beck
Martin Fowler
Chad Fowler
UncleBob
Erich Gamma ..

I would then search by name, starting from the book authors you are reading.
For example: i'm currently reading Professional Android Application development by Reto Meier; Googling his name + twitter i get his twitter account.

edited Sep 01 '10 at 21:29

answered Sep 01 '10 at 20:50

systempuntoout

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score 8 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 08 '10 at 21:00

8

Twitter Top 100 for Software Developers

answered Sep 08 '10 at 21:00

Daniel Grillo

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score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 10 '10 at 20:29

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If you're a .Net/Mono developer: Miguel de Icaza

answered Sep 10 '10 at 20:29

Maniero

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score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 09 '10 at 10:28

3

Ward Cunningham

answered Sep 09 '10 at 10:28

Maniero

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score 3 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 09 '10 at 19:24

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These are all developers or people who post on technical topics, ordered by amount of interesting programmer-related content. The list is Mac-centric.

answered Sep 09 '10 at 19:24

Dov

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score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 09 '10 at 10:29

2

UncleBob (Robert C. Martin)

answered Sep 09 '10 at 10:29

Maniero

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score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 07 '10 at 18:25

1

A few others no-one has mentioned yet

answered Sep 07 '10 at 18:25

Paddyslacker

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score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Sep 25 '10 at 03:07

I have a little list of Programming Elite ... take the name lightly, there maybe a few on the list whom I only thought were elite, and it's by no means got everybody.

Also, the best way to find smart people to follow is to look at programmers whom you highly respect, and look at who they are following.

And if you don't mind listening to a bit of babbling, you can always follow me. ;-)

Jim G. · Answer 12 · 2010-11-27T15:55:34.883

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Scott Guthrie - @scottgu

edited Nov 27 '10 at 15:55

answered Nov 26 '10 at 16:08

Jim G.

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score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Sep 09 '10 at 21:10

It depends. Each person has his/her own specialty.

I program in ASP.NET MVC, so I follow shanselman (Scott Hanselman), haacked (Phil Haack), scottgu (Scott Guhrie), and igoro (Igor Ostrovsky). I am really glad they share their knowledge. I learn a lot from them.

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Sep 12 '10 at 13:09

For Android, here are some fun ones:

Hackers, developers and tinkerers

Cyanogen - @cyanogen
XDA Developers - @xdadevelopers
simms22 - @simms22
Koush - code writer - @koush
Kmobs - @kmobs
Chris Soyars - @chrissoyars
Bignup412 - @bignup412
Franco Solari - @francoissmexy
Sumyunguy - @sumyunguy
CyanogenMod Source - @cmsrc
Ander Webbs - @anderwebs
CyanogenMod - @cyanogenmod
Prashant Somashekar, Droid Basement - @pershoot
San Mehat, Android Kernal Systems Dev - @sanmehat
Bart, Android freak - @amon_ra
Tord Fauksganger - @tordf
Greg Carron, developer - @pixeladdikt
Kyle Weller - @androidunleashd
Wes Garner - @wesgarner

Source on Engadget: Who should I follow on Twitter? Android edition

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Feb 11 '11 at 07:48

0

For Java Programming: Swapnil Bhattad.

answered Feb 11 '11 at 07:48

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Feb 11 '11 at 10:41

As a software engineer, you first need to group whom you'd like to follow 1. Technology specific (i.e if your a java programmer/ .NET programmer/ Ruby etc etc 2. Open Source (if you're interested) 3. Tech magazines for latest in the industry 4. CodingHorror, ScottGu (because I like them!) 5. Authors/Press for latest on books 6. Enterprise level communities 7. Other interests (add humor coz it always helps to have a laugh!)

Once you group them, you can use any of the above lists (they are exhaustive) and look at who they are following. Chances are, you'll find a few interesting ones there. This way, you'll slowly build up a nice set yourself. Try to keep the number around 100+.

Here's a nice article on How To Twitter - First Steps and a Twitter Glossary

But trust me, its an ocean of information out there. I spend at least an hour a day going through all the tweets.

score -4 · Answer 17 · answered Sep 02 '10 at 00:24

-4

Nobody at all. Stop browsing sites like twitter when you should be coding. Then watch your productivity improve.

answered Sep 02 '10 at 00:24

finnw

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That's a bit rich, @Finnw - what are you doing on here then? ;-) – Paddyslacker Sep 02 '10 at 05:45
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Do as I say not as I do :-) – finnw Sep 02 '10 at 10:23
@finnw - You must be a parent :) – Walter Sep 02 '10 at 12:15
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Who said anyone was browsing Twitter when coding? – Thomas Owens Sep 02 '10 at 13:53
Eh? So I shouldn't listen to anyone else, who might know more than I do? – Jeremy McGee Sep 14 '10 at 17:39
@Jeremy: Read blogs, not Twitter. – finnw Sep 14 '10 at 22:11
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@finnw - by following e.g. @newsycombinator I've found more blogs than I'd ever see any other way. – Jeremy McGee Sep 16 '10 at 05:33
You sound like a penny-pinching manager! "Stop browsing…when you should be coding." Do you expect developers to code 24/7? Even if you were willing to limit your attention expectations to working hours, you need to realize minds have to disengage from coding activity at least every 90 minutes to be more productive. – Huperniketes Oct 12 '10 at 09:02

As a software engineer, who should I be following on Twitter?

17 Answers17