I’ve got a copy of the October issue of the WHIR magazine sitting on my desk, which means it ought to start hitting mailboxes this week or next. It seemed like now would be a good time to give you an idea of what to expect from this issue.
This one is a bit of a departure from some of our past tendencies. That is, we tend to cover events (the things that happen in the Web hosting business) and trends (the over-arching ideas that direct the industry’s progress).
With this “Who’s Who” issue, we follow those thoughts upstream a little bit, to the companies whose efforts produce those trends and events, and the individuals whose ideas and actions drive the efforts of those companies.
It’s pretty rare in the hosting business that a particular individual is recognized as being a great individual influence on the hosting business, but it does happen. And we set out to profile some of the most notable characters in the hosting business, illustrating some of its biggest personalities, brightest ideas and most interesting stories.
Some of the personalities we profile in this issue include former EV1 Servers CEO Robert Marsh, former Communitech CEO and current Aplus.Net chief Gabriel Murphy, Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons, Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt, and former Dialtone Internet CEO Alvaro Albarracin.
Obviously there are other notable individuals, but since we’re operating with a limited amount of space we set out to put together some quality work on these specific stories, rather than fit in everything under the sun. So if you happen to think somebody is “notable” but you don’t find them mentioned on these pages, you’re not necessarily wrong. In fact, I might go so far as to say you’re necessarily right, since you would appear to have noted them yourself.
I’m looking forward to hearing some feedback on this issue, as it’s a bit different from many of the things we’ve done in the past. If you happen to be at ISPCON in two weeks, might I suggest that particular venue as a good opportunity to both pick up a copy of the new issue – that is, if you’re not already a subscriber (it’s free) – and to let me know what you think face-to-face.
