The digerati (or digirati) are the elite of digitalization, Social Media, content marketing, computer industry and online communities. The word is a portmanteau, derived from "digital" and "", and reminiscent of the earlier coinage glitterati (glitter + literati). Famous computer scientists, tech magazine writers, digital consultants with multi-year experiences and well-known bloggers are included among the digerati.
The word is used in several related but different ways. It can mean:
The first mention of the word Digerati on USENET occurred in 1992, and referred to an article by George Gilder in Upside magazine. According to the March 1, 1992 "On Language" column by William Safire in the New York Times Magazine, the term was coined by New York Times editor Tim Race in a January 1992 New York Times article. In Race's words:
Some people who have been named as members of the digerati, particularly in the first sense of the word, with their title in John Brockman's Digerati: Encounters With the Cyber Elite (1996) in parentheses when they have one, include: