The Big Orange Poker Room

In the last three days, I've been asked what "Digerati" means no less than 5 times. For those with curious minds... here ya go:

The digerati are the elite of the computer industry and online communities. The word is a portmanteau, derived from "digital" and "literati," and reminiscent of the earlier coinage glitterati (glitter + literati). Famous computer scientists, tech magazine writers and well-known bloggers are included among the digerati.

The word is used in several related but different ways. It can mean:

Opinion leaders who, through their writings, promoted a vision of digital technology and the Internet as a transformational element in society;
People regarded as celebrities within the Silicon Valley computer subculture, particularly during the dot-com boom years;
Anyone regarded as influential within the digital technology community.
The first mention of the word Digerati on USENET occurred in 1992, and referred to an article by George Gilder in Upside magazine. Some sources say that the term was coined by New York Times editor Tim Race. In Race's words:

Actually the first use of "digerati" was in a Jan. 29, 1992 New York Times article, "Pools of Memory, Waves of Dispute," by John Markoff, into which the term was edited. The article was about a controversy engendered by a George Gilder article that had recently appeared in Upside magazine. In a March 1, 1992 "On Language" column in The New York Times Magazine, William Safire noted the coinage and defined it:

Digerati, n.pl. -- people highly skilled in the processing and manipulation of digital information; wealthy or scholarly techno-geeks.

So while I'm NOT a member of the elite "Digerati" club (yet), I've always been looked at by my peers as the geek to go to when they needed something done that involved technical systems. Several years ago someone mentioned going to the Digerati for help... and it stuck. Voila!