Tim Berners-Lee tops "tech influencer" chart… but more importantly, Jobs beats Gates!
The widely acknowledged founder of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has been named as the most influential person in technology over the past 150 years for his impact on society and groundbreaking technology.
Intel invited a panel of experts to vote on the world’s 45 most influential technologists, and came up with some interesting results.
Following Sir Tim come the two founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, in second and third places. In fourth place is Gugilelmo Marconi, inventor of the radiotelegraph system, and in fifth place, Jack Kilby, inventor of the integrated circuit and calculator.
In sixth and eighth places are the two cofounders of Intel, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, politely sandwiching Alan Turing, in seventh, who played a major role in deciphering German code during World War II.
William Shockley, co-inventor of the transistor, made it to ninth place, while Don Estridge, lead dveloper of the IBM computer, rounded out the top ten.
The 45 are listed at the end of the article, but what’s really interesting — in the interests of petty point-scoring at least — is that Steve Jobs in 14th place trounces Bill Gates in 31st place. Ahh, the satisfaction.
Perhaps it’s not surprising that, given the 150 year range, rising stars such as the creators of well-known entities such as Facebook, MySpace, and Second Life, don’t figure — yet. Give it a few years, though.
The 45 most influential people in technology:
1. Tim Berners-Lee
2. Sergey Brin
3. Larry Page
4. Guglielmo Marconi
5. Jack Kilby
6. Gordon Moore
7. Alan Turing
8. Robert Noyce
9. William Shockley
10. Don Estridge
11. Doug Engelbert
12. Robert Metcalfe
13. Vint Cerf
14. Steve Jobs
15. Andrew Grove
16. Seymour Cray
17. Pierre Omidyar
18. Shawn Fanning
19. Dennis Ritchie
20. Ted Hoff
21. Linus Torvalds
22. Shuji Nakamura
23. Dave Packard
24. Jean Hoerni
25. William Hewlett
26. John Logie Baird
27. George Boole
28. Martin Cooper
29. John Pinkerton
30. Grace Hopper
31. Bill Gates
32. Herman Hollerith
33. Thomas Watson
34. Jeff Bezos
35. Meg Whitman
36. Ada Lovelace
37. Nolan Bushnell
38. Claude Shannon
39. Charles Babbage
40. John Chambers
41. Philo Farnsworth
42. Steve Wozniak
43. Larry Ellison
44. Michael Dell
45. Maurice Wilkes
