I sometimes ramble and post totally random stuff on this blog (though sometimes I like to think that I post some interesting stuff) so first off as part of Good People Day , I’d like to just thank everyone who might be reading this in their RSS reader or browser. So thanks for stopping by, and if you subscribe to my RSS feed, well then thanks for sticking around! And for those of you who follow me on twitter , well you guys see quite a bit of me some days so thanks for continuing to tune in!

So I’m going to attempt a list of sorts of great people that should be followed, subscribed to and connected with. Of course I think my family is pretty great and I would say that they are unlikely to read this, but it seems that my relatives have just recently discovered my blog. So thanks to them for leaving cozy comments like these over the last few weeks.

These are the Good People across the internet I think you should follow closely because they are really pretty great!:

• Nick Trusty is a long-time friend of mine who is now out in NYC. If you ever need a contact in the talent agency business, touch base with him and he’ll know who to talk to.
• Michelle Compton happens to be Nick’s significant other and also a good friend of mine who focuses on international women’s and children’s non-profit organizations. (and she is incidentally looking for a job, so if you know of anything, be sure to give her a shout). She also reminded me that today is more than just GPD08.
• Lisa Young is my manager at Outrider and she has a great blog geared towards moms and has been tapped into social media since the beginning so she is a great source of knowledge if you ever need anything.
• I also work with Reem Abeidoh and Tanner Hobin , both of whom know just about everything you could know about social media and online communities.
• Sam Harrelson might be one of the smartest guys out there on the internet. I’ve tuned into his podcast more than a few times and his twitter feed is really insightful to the world of the internet and marketing. Not only that, but the guy is getting a PhD in Assyriology. Impressed? Of course you are.
• Jeremiah Owyang is an analyst with Forrester and he also runs a popular web strategy blog. It just so happens that I once left a comment on this blog and ended up getting my current job from it. Jeremiah is always available for questions and guidance and he frequently offers great insights to the industry as a whole so be sure to check him out.
• Matt Dickman is a great blogger out of Cleavland who has awesome videos breaking down new sites and web concepts as well as regular posts that offer a great look at how brands should be interacting with their customers.
• Another blogger/new media evangelist is Jonathan Coffman who specializes in the new media evangelism and convergence journalism. He has some interesting projects in the pipeline built on Adobe Air that harness social media for traditional media outlets.
• Nick O’Neill runs the Social Times and AllFacebook.com and he does a great job with both. I don’t think I could ever blog quite as much as Nick does, but he offers great quick insights to developments in the social networking space.
• Connie Bensen is a community manager at ACDSee and does great work as well on the Web Strategy facebook group which is really a great knowledge base. As well, her blog is a great resource for both newcomers and veterans of the social space. And as a side note, she is from my native land of Minnesota, so she has to be awesome, right?
• David Gillespie is a marketing specialist and blogger over in Australia who also happens to play a little bit of music on the side that I happen to think is awesome. So check out his blog and pick up his album while you’re at it!
• Garret Pendergraft is a Philosophy PhD student out in California who once upon a time was my TA in both Ethics and Logic. Honest to God, because of those classes I think I understand the world in a very different context than I did before. Or at least I am able to more effectively articulate it. So in my opinion, Pen is for sure worth tuning into. He is also new to twitter so go follow him .
• Of course I have to say Gary Vaynerchuk is pretty awesome because this entire movement was his brainchild! Gary has an awesoem blog that really puts things into perspective sometimes. If you aren’t watching him, you better start.

I’m sure I’ve left as few people off on this first pass so I will come up with my second list later tonight! But these are all great people and I appreciate all that I’ve learned from each of them and I’m sure you will too, so go check them out!

Also, to see the entire internet coming together in this meme, check out the blog I built last night at GoodPeopleDay2008.com .

#GPD08