The year 2010, unbelievably, is almost at its end. It certainly hasn’t been a quiet 12 months for the IT industry - and for Australia in general - but instead has seen change, reform and a little turmoil when necessary.

As we do get to final hurried months, we here at Computerworld Australia like to look back at what has happened since January and reflect on how the IT industry and indeed the nation has changed as a result of information and communications technology. In 2009, we tallied the top ten most influential people, technologies and trends of the year, judged by our editorial team and advisory panel, with the following results:

We also gave you, the readers, the chance to take your own pick of most influential. The results, though not surprising, gave an interesting insight into what you believed shaped the year.

This year, we’re doing it again. Starting today, we’ll be counting down from ten the most influential people, technologies and trends of 2010 as decided by our editorial team and advisory panel. We begin with the ultimate challenger smartphone platform - Google’s Android - which went from strength to strength both globally and in the Australian market on the back of new devices and a growing interest in the operating system from the enterprise. Each Friday, we’ll reveal another of our top ten as we head toward Christmas.

(See how we chose the top ten)

The top ten most influential of 2010

Like last year, we’re also running a Readers’ Choice award for the most influential, giving Computerworld Australia readers the chance to have their say on what made the year worthwhile or the worst yet, depending on your point of view. Starting Monday, 18 October, we’ll be running a poll to determine the top 10 as chosen by you.

Next: See how we chose the top ten most influential of 2010

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How we chose the top ten most influential of 2010

The top ten most influential of 2010 was chosen by a panel of 14 members comprising six members of the Computerworld Australia editorial team and eight members of our advisory panel, which includes IT managers, industry experts, analysts and consultants. Each member of the panel was given a list of suggested possible entries for inclusion in the final list. They were then encouraged to nominate 10 candidates and to add others if they thought them worthy of consideration.

To ensure the broadest possible range of products, people, trends, organisations and events were given a chance at being considered, no restrictions were imposed. In short, anything considered by a panel member to have been one of the biggest influences on the ICT industry and community throughout 2010 was acceptable.

The nominations (or votes) were then tallied by the editorial team and a shortlist created. The entry with the most votes was then selected as the most influential for 2010. Those entries with the same amount of votes then went through a count-back with a final decision made by the panel.

The Panel:

Computerworld Australia's Editorial Team:

Tim Lohman (Enterprise content editor) – See more stories from Tim.

James Hutchinson (Senior Journalist) – James Hutchinson is an award winning journalist with IDG Australia’s enterprise editorial team. He has a strong built a strong repertoire of reviews, features and news articles across both consumer electronics for PC World and enterprise technology at Computerworld Australia, CIO and Techworld. James hangs his hat quite literally on a plaque proclaiming him Best Technical Writer at the 2010 Consensus IT Writers Awards and boasts the unique accolade of finishing university with a Bachelor of Arts as well as an esteemed history serving customers in the Technology section at Officeworks.

Hamish Barwick (Journalist) – Hamish Barwick has been writing about technology for the past three and a half years on both sides of the Tasman. Prior to joining IDG Communications in September, he worked at Fairfax Business Group in New Zealand on Reseller News, CIO, Computerworld and PC World. Hamish has also built a strong reputation writing about food, wine and fashion but currently covers the unified communications and business and government beats for Computerworld Australia. His interests include reading, running, movies, travel, photography and painting. See more stories from Hamish.

Chloe Herrick (Journalist) – See more stories from Chloe.

Lisa Banks (Journalist) - Lisa Banks is a journalist with IDG Australia’s enterprise editorial team. She covers social media, Web 2.0, cloud computing, e-commerce and project management. Lisa has written for several publications and has worked as a video journalist in her home town of Adelaide and as a public relations consultant in the Northern Territory. She has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Media with honours from the University of Adelaide, with a specialty in citizen journalism and user generated content. She admits to a slight obsession with shoes and Battlestar Galactica, and is constantly teased by her colleagues for her fascination with Twitter. See more stories from Lisa.

Diana Nguyen (Editorial Assistant) - Following her graduation from the University of Sydney with an Arts and Science combined degree, Diana is now studying for her Masters in Journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney. Her vast knowledge on Durkheim, Freud and Maslow has obviously made her a suitable candidate for the position of editorial assistant at IDG Communications. She likes the smell of new books, is a Facebook fiend and hates (read: frothing at the mouth) being called Diane. See more stories from Diana.

Computerworld Australia's Advisory Panel:

Andrew Milroy (Vice President, ICT Practice, Frost Sullivan) - Andrew Milroy heads up Frost Sullivan’s ICT practice in Australia and New Zealand having joined the firm in 2006. Andrew has spent more than 15 years in the ICT industry, having held senior management roles at IDC and co-founded NelsonHall, a successful IT services advisory firm in the United States. Andrew’s recent roles have been focussed on the development of research and consulting activities in Europe, Australia and the Asia Pacific region. His research focus has been ICT services, in particular outsourcing. He has also led research and consulting projects in cloud computing and sustainable IT.

Paul Brooks (Layer10 founder) - Paul Brooks is the founder of Layer10 Advisory, a consultancy and advisory practice in the telecommunications industry specialising in broadband access, optical network design and service strategy. Paul currently heads up the NBN Project for industry body, Communications Alliance, working with industry to provide documentation and relevant information on technical aspects of the national project. Sometimes described as a "Serial CTO", Paul has direct experience in wide-scale residential NGN access network deployment and broadband video delivery through executive roles in several carriers and service providers including TransACT Communications, Global One/Sprint International, Vocus Communications and other start-ups.

Ian Birks (Australian Information Industry Association CEO) - Ian Birks was appointed as the Interim Chief Executive Officer for the AIIA in April 2008. Prior to this appointment Ian had been a National Board Member of the AIIA and has served in this capacity since 2004. During this time Ian was actively involved in industry workforce and skills issues as an advisor to the association’s initiatives in this area. Early in 2008, Ian stepped down as the Managing Director of ASX-listed IT research and advisory firm Ideas International Limited after 5 years at the helm and 15 prior years in senior roles building the company up from its foundation. He remains a non-executive director of Ideas International. Prior to Ideas, Ian worked in a number of senior roles for Prime Computer of Australia. Ian holds a BSc Tech (Hons) from the University of Manchester (UK) and is a member of AICD. He is married with three daughters and is based in Sydney.

Peter Williamson (Former IT manager, Barker College) - Peter Williamson specialises in the management and implementation of IT systems and infrastructure. He has spent the last 25 years in South Africa, Australia and abroad exploring the blind alleys and cul de sacs of technology in education and has shared his findings in papers presented at international conferences. Most recently he was architect, visionary and driving force behind Barker College’s Information Technology Strategic Plan - a plan which helped that school realise its goal of making full and appropriate use of technology.

Max Vit (National ICT Australia's IT Director) - NICTA (National ICT Australia) is Australia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Centre of Excellence. NICTA is an independent company in the business of research, commercialisation and research training. With over 700 people across six sites, NICTA is the largest organisation in Australia dedicated to ICT research. Max oversees all Information Systems at NICTA, with responsibility for both strategic and operational outputs. Part of Max’s role is to provide the flexibility and adaptability required by researchers and at the same time ensuring the governance, service expectations and accountability demanded by the company’s corporate structure; in other words, IT enables research within governance boundaries. NICTA is now geared to provide RD Services which brings a new set of services provided by IT.

James Turner (IT industry analyst, IBRS) - James Turner currently works with IBRS as an IT industry analyst covering security, WAN optimisation and data centres. Full bio to follow.

Peter Czeti (Program Director - Science Support, CSIRO) - Peter has over 25 years experience in government IT where he has held senior management and technical positions in both the public and private sector. Working in the areas of Defence, Intelligence, Immigration and Health both in Australia and overseas, Peter specialises in strategic planning and IT operations management. He has been an executive consultant, directed a wide variety of business units and technical teams and has post-graduate degrees in science and business administration. Peter currently directs strategic planning for IT infrastructure and science support at CSIRO.

Andi Luiskandl (Head of Systems Technology, The Smith Family) - Andi Luiskandl is currently the Head of Business Information Services (BIS) team at the Smith Family, comprising over 20 business and technology professionals who support the business information, process and technology needs of over 700 internal users and 6,500 volunteers. Andi reports directly to the chief executive officer and chief operating officer of the organisation.