Technology industry giants have been ranked according to their philanthropy endeavours in a top 10 list compiled by PeekScore. The list of “Tech’s Biggest Philanthropists” included some predictable industry giants, but it is who it failed to rank that’s generated online buzz.
Developed by PeekYou, PeekScore keeps track of a person’s web presence, ranking their online ubiquity from 1 to 10, with ten correlating to fame and one to online invisibility.
Nowadays a philanthropist by occupation Bill Gates definitely made PeekScore’s list, and although scored a perfect 10, he did not take the top spot.
That coveted position was taken by IT prodigy Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and The Social Network fame. Zuckerberg also scored a perfect 10, with his appointment as tech’s biggest philanthropist a bit of a shock. In comparison, Gates has given away more in a single US$10 billion donation than half of Zuckerberg’s promised US$3.4 billion.
Ironically, Zuckerberg was motivated to donate half of his wealth by runner up Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, after the two formed “The Giving Pledge.” The charitable initiative is said to encourage forty of America’s billionaires to donate more than half of their fortune to charity.
Noticeably absent from the list was former Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. Although Jobs’ PeekScore is an impressive 8.26, his charitable contributions weren’t enough to crack the top ten.
Other heavyweights that made the list include Oracle’s Larry Ellison (third), Salesforce’s Marc Benioff (fourth), eBay’s Pierre Omidyar (fifth), Microsoft’s Paul Allen (sixth) Steve Kirsch of Mouse Systems (seventh), Intel’s Gordon Moore (eighth), Ming Hsieh of Cognent Systems (ninth) and Qualcomm’s Irwin Jacobs.
