Let’s talk about the biggest influencers on software development over the past decade. Who might they be? There are so many choices. Where to begin?

This year, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the SD Times 100. The editors of SD Times examine what’s happened during the prior calendar year, and since 2003, we have published the SD Times 100 list of the top leaders and biggest innovators. Beginning in 2004, we added a specific category called “Influencers.” Our question is: Who are the biggest influencers of them all? Who has made the biggest impact over the past decade?

When we look at a deduped list of influencers from 2004 through 2011, we recognized 37 separate corporations, organizations, projects, individuals and even concepts. As you would expect by seeing such a relatively modest number chosen over an eight-year period, some were named to the list time and again. Others appeared only once. But that’s not to say that impact is directly related to repetition.

For example, which was more influential: Twitter, a relative newcomer, or the Apache Software Foundation? “The Bazaar” (as described in Eric S. Raymond’s seminal essay, “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”), or Sun Microsystems? How about Wal-Mart’s push toward RFID, or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ rules regarding standards-based document formats? The Eclipse Foundation or VMware? Apple or Google? The Software Freedom Law Center or Senators Sarbanes and Oxley?

This is where you come in: We invite you, as a subscriber to SD Times or SD Times News on Monday, to cast your vote. Or, rather, up to five votes for the Top Influencers of the Decade.

The ballot is at www.surveymonkey.com/s/GNFMZV5.

The deadline is Friday, May 11, 2012.

Come vote… and maybe you’ll even win a prize.

And for a total change of subject: We are in full swing for preparations for AnDevCon: The Android Developer Conference, which is on May 14-17, and are equally pumped up about our new WPDevCon: The Windows Phone Developer Conference, on Oct. 22-24. Most of the technical program for WPDevCon has been posted; we have more than 50 classes and workshops so far, and more are still being developed.

I’d like to remind you about registration discount cutoffs: April 27 for WPDevCon and May 4 for AnDevCon. Hope to see you at one (or both) of those conferences!

Alan Zeichick is editorial director of SD Times. Read his blog at ztrek.blogspot.com.