Computer Weekly is celebrating its fortieth year with a “Top People Poll: Who are the most influential IT people of the past 40 years?”
To celebrate Computer Weekly’s 40th anniversary, we are asking our readers to choose the people, technologies and organizations hat have changed the face of IT irrevocably – hopefully for the better.
To make your choice, simply click on any of the four categories (people, organisations, hardware and software) on our webpage and select your top three from the list of 10 names. There’s also space to add your own choice if they are not on the list.
Online voters can choose three names from the list below:
• Bill Gates – His idea of information at your fingertips has revolutionised how we use computers in business today.
• Steve Jobs – With Pixar, NeXT and of course, Apple, Jobs has revolutionised entertainment and made computers friendly.
• Ted Codd – He created 12 rules on which every relational database is now built, an essential ingredient for building business computer systems.
• James Gosling – The father of Java had a simple idea: write once, run anywhere. Today, Java is embedded everywhere.
• Tim Berners Lee – He led the way to transforming a simple mechanism for sharing documents into the World Wide Web that we know today.
• Richard Stallman – The founder of the GNU Project, Stallman has written several popular tools, created the GNU licence and campaigns against software patents.
• Linus Torvalds – Even the might of Microsoft could not stop the buzz that Torvalds generated with his open source operating system.
• Steve Shirley – Dame Stephanie founded the company now known as Xansa, pioneered new work practices and in so doing created new opportunities for women in IT.
• Martha Lane Fox – Together with Brent Hoberman, Lane Fox created Lastminute.com in 1998 which quickly established itself as a showcase of UK internet entrepreneurship.
• Arthur C Clark – His vision of a central computer system with a personality has inspired many to push the frontiers of artificial intelligence.
Presumably, the results will be available sometime soon, as they are not instantly available after voting online.
Vote here. You know what to do.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “S.” for the heads up.]
This is obviously a bogus poll: How come Michael ‘Share Holder Value’ Dell isn’t in the top list?
Definitely Steve, Tim BL and Linus. If you vote for anyone else (axcept maybe Arthur C) then you are a witch and must be burned.
Rats! Looks like I’m ‘first post’. Hate when that happens. Makes me seem like a lifeless moron with nothing better to do than jump on the latest wire story from MDN.
Guess I’ll go play some video games on my Xbox in the basement now.
Yes, we know what to do.
Vote Tim Berners-Lee.
Sorry, but the WWW has transformed this world beyond anything Apple has ever done, methinks.
How about adding Douglas Engelbart?
Oh, I see. Three people!
That’d definitely be Tim Berners-Lee, Steve Jobs, and Linus Torvalds… in that order.
You vote for three individuals, Voyager. So, yes, we do know what to do.
Surely, Steve Jobs makes anyone’s top three of this list.
MDN MW: “choice.” (How do they do that?)
I added Woz. I’m sentimental.
Martha Lane Fox???
Gimme A Break.
Spot the political correctness quota choices. It’s not hard. In fact it is laughably easy. They are the people even serious geeks have never heard of.
Jobs, Stallman and Torvalds. Though it was close between Torvalds and Berners-Lee.
Why isn’t Steve Wozniak on that list. Common man, this guy really did more for computers as we know it than anyone else on that list. VOTE WOZ!
While Torvalds certainly contributed with Stallman to the concept of low cost or FOC software – the father of that particular business model was Philippe Khan – the founder of Borland. At the time he introduced Turbo Pascal to the world for less than $100 most other languages were over $500 and many much more expensive than that.
His low cost model to computer language pricing and later extended to application packages made it possible for many of todays so called big names to actually get started. It even forced M$ to drastically lower the cost of their own languages – despite their combined (with IBM) might in the marketplace.
I get suspicious of any – best of – or – greatest contribution – poll that presents a limited selection of candidates for voting. There should be a mechanism that allows nominations supported by evidence – of other candidates, otherwise it is just all c**p.
Throwing the doors open to all and subdry I would vote for Jobs and Woz (gotta keep them together), Philippe Khan, Chris Date (while Codd established the 12 rules for relational data bases he could not communicate well with the rest of us but Chris Date who worked closely with him could and did and most of what is now attributed to Codd was actually communicated and expanded by Date).
Cheers.
Gee, I can’t wait to read the results of another biased and unscientific poll tallying the opinions of historical consequence. Which company or which individual today wants to make history for the next forty years?
Where in de hell is Leno? He’s in IT. He passes information using the technology of television. What a bunch of crap!
Here’s my entry:
• Jay Sominex Leno – He transformed a powerful nightly mechanism for sharing laughter with de world into a butt-kissing soporific orgy that pushes de frontiers of artificiality.
Yeh-heh-hehehesssssssssssssssssss . . .
Ohhh, and strangely enough, if it were written accurately Bill Gates’ entry would read very much like Leno’s.
Take a look:
• Bill ‘Mr. Spock’ Gates – He transformed a powerful software giant that led de world into a butt-kissing soporific orgy that pushes de frontiers of mediocrity.
Yeh-heh-hehessssss.
Hey, I keed de wealthy yet microphallic.
AMD BUYING ATI !!!
http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/21/technology/amd_atitech.reut/index.htm?section=money_latest
Let’s me honest – the only wasted vote is a vote for Gates. All the other individuals have done so much for the computer field (though I will confess lessthan familiarity with some of the Brits, I’ll assume they are significant just by their inclusion in what seems to be a British poll).
it’s Clarke, with an E at the end… dorks
They could at -least- get the spelling right
Jobs: He’s the man
Apple: Of course
Personal Computer: Changed the world.
GUI: We’d be 20 years behind without it;
I get sick of all this revisionist history.
I had to go for Codd, Berners Lee and Jobs. The worlds economy relies on RDBs everywhere, the www as changed the way we communicate, and Jobs (as Woz) did the most to allow dummies like us access and use those tools.
Martha Lane Fox? Oh, come on. There are any number of people who should be on this list before her.
Oh, Triumph… I just can’t get enough of you!
You’re HOT!
How come Al Gore isn’t on the list? After all, he invented the internet.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />