And the winners are…

It’s June 15, the day when SD Times announces the 2009 SD Times 100. Well, this year we did something different and “leaked” the winners last Thursday using Twitter. (Look for the hashtag #sdtimes100.) But today’s the official announcement.

The SD Times 100 judging process literally begins in January, when the editors start their deliberations about which companies and organizations were the most innovative, and demonstrated the most industry leadership, of the past year. The process continues through the winter, fueled by caffeine, passionate debate, large quantities of sarcasm, and frantic research. We’re helped by valuable input from readers (who have an opportunity to submit their own nominations).

Finally, it’s over. You can read the entire list of winners here.

Every year, we tweak and tune the categories to reflect the areas of broad innovation. This year, new categories included Cloud Computing, Rich Internet Applications and Mashups. We also dropped some categories that appeared in the 2008 SD Times 100. Easy come, easy go.

My favorite category in the SD Times 100 is the Influencers. There are companies and organizations whose influence extended far, far beyond a single category to have a broad effect on the software development industry. Whether pushing platforms or standards, the Influencers stand apart. Most are household names. Some aren’t, but their effects are widely felt.

Every year, I always wander back down Memory Lane to the debut 2003 SD Times 100. While many of the winners there stood the test of time, others did not. You’ll get a kick out of seeing some long-gone names on that list. (Yes, yes, someday we’ll get around to doing a better job of formatting that old article.)

It’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of fun too. Enjoy the 2009 SD Times 100.