Facebook founder leads Agenda Setters

Mark Zuckerberg, the 23-year-old founder and CEO of social networking site, Facebook, has been named the most influential person in tech for 2007.

Zuckerberg topped CNET.co.uk's sister site silicon.com's eighth annual 2007 Agenda Setters poll, which rates which tech leaders are making the biggest impact.

The Agenda Setters top 50 was thrashed out by a panel of industry experts who voted for their favourite individuals.

Facebook was launched just over three years ago and now has 42 million active users around the world. According to ComScore, the number of UK users has tripled to nine million during the past six months alone.

In 2006, the 'next generation' was ranked number two in the poll and it seems this year they have made a breakthrough.

Tony Hallett, editor and site director of silicon.com said it has been fascinating to watch the rapid changes that have taken place in the past year.

He said: "Up until 2004, CEOs, politicians and regulators topped the polls every year. Clearly, the technology industry has undergone a massive transformation since then, as a 23-year-old has taken the top slot as the CEO of one of the largest social networks in the world."

The vote saw social networking and blogging make a real impression with Rob Pardo (23) of World of Warcraft, Michael Arrington (35), founder of TechCrunch and Cory Doctorow (41), editor of BoingBoing all arriving in the top 50.

The 2007 list marks the first year a senior Microsoft figure hasn't made it into the top 20, with Kim Cameron the sole Redmond representative at number 33.

Reflecting the increasing role of web 2.0, the BBC's director of future media and technology, Ashley Highfield (5), rose three places, primarily for his work around the iPlayer online TV service.

Viviane Reding (10), the European commissioner for information society and media was a new entry for playing a leading role cutting mobile roaming rates in Europe this year.

But old favourites Steve Jobs (2), CEO of Apple; Eric Schmidt (3), CEO for Google and John Chambers (4) who heads Cisco, all made the sharp end of the list once again.

The only person to have appeared in every Agenda Setters poll since its inception in 2000 is Jeff Bezos who this year appears at number 15, up 28 places from 2006.