According to InformationWeek. They’re right! We not only get huge value from the likes of James Governor – but we also benefit from the conversation they ignite in the market. On any given day they can account for around 5% of our web traffic. We’re no Sun or IBM, but that’s a ton of clicks.

A new breed of IT analysts is sharing insights over the Internet, leaving traditional research firms trying to catch up using the same methods….

…E-pundits such as Vinnie Mirchandani, Dennis Howlett, James Governor, and Stephen O’Grady use the Web to promote their perspectives on topics that suit their different areas of expertise. Through blogs, they open up dialogues in which ideas are exchanged with IT pros, bloggers, and fellow analysts. And they rely on their years of experience to give them credibility and win client contracts that fund their online efforts: Mirchandani was with Gartner, Howlett spent 30 years in finance and accounting, and Governor and O’Grady were analysts at Illuminata.

…”Analysis isn’t and shouldn’t be a one-way conversation,” McGovern says. “Blogging allows meaningful dialogue to emerge and allows others to gain additional insights in a highly transparent way. I don’t get the opportunity to read blogs while at work, but at home, I passionately follow James Governor of RedMonk (MonkChips), Brenda Michelson of Seybold (Elemental Links), and Dan Blum of the Burton Group (Identerati) as they are highly relevant to not only work but personal interests.”

One thing they don’t touch on is the ability of these firms to touch the long tail of tech. By this I mean start-ups. This is a woefully under served segment of the tech market – by media and analysts. These analysts aren’t tied to focusing on the basis of extremely large paying customers. In addition, they aren’t tied by conventional products – as a start-up I can only afford one set of written insight and certainly can’t afford to pay per inquiry or briefing. With these new generation analysts the value comes from the conversation and forward looking insight. They aren’t as much rear window facing (basing comment on client insight) they are aggregating conversations from across the “network” to form opinions and views.

Now that is worth paying for.