BBC's Highfield beats Jobs as top man in tech

For working to bring about a 100 per cent digital Britain and innovating in the space that merges new media and television, Ashley Highfield, BBC's director of technology, has beaten tech stalwarts such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to be named silicon.com's number one Agenda Setter for 2004.

Jobs, after winning it in 2003, came in a close second. Gates saw more pressure than ever, ending up in a tie at number 7 with Linux creator Linus Torvalds - the first time ever two Agenda Setters have tied.

A panel of experts decided the annual poll by voting on three factors - global influence, decision-making prowess and longevity. Past winners include Sir Christopher Gent (2000), Steve Case (2001) and Rupert Murdoch (2002).

Unlike past years, where the billionaires and media bigwigs dominated the list, this year's top 50 saw plenty of lesser-known names.

More individuals involved in open source and free software made the list than ever before. Along with Torvalds at 7, we have MySQL CEO Marten Mickos making his debut at 12, Open Source Risk Management's Daniel Egger at 37, Red Hat engineer Mark J Cox at 40 and free software advocate Richard Stallman at 44. (A full analysis of their growing influence can be found here.)

The battle between governments using technology to keep tabs on citizens and those citizens' right to privacy emerged as a new theme. Representing the former were UK Home Secretary David Blunkett (at number 5) and the US Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge (4). And for the latter was privacy advocate Simon Davies who just made it at number 50. (Read the full analysis here.)

Offshoring was yet again a presence on the list but instead of choosing the Indian Prime Minister (like last year), the panel picked five leaders at homegrown Indian outsourcing companies including S Ramadorai, CEO of Tata Consulting Services, at number 20 and Wipro's Vivek Paul at 26. (Read more on offshoring here.)

Finally, the telecoms world saw an upset with Niklas Zennstrom, CEO of Skype and founder of Kazaa, coming in at number 3 for challenging the traditional telcos with voice over IP.

For the full list of 2004 Agenda Setters, extended analysis and biographies, plus details on those experts who chose the winners, see this special microsite.