Every year, we at time digital choose the 12 men and women who are doing the most to shape the future of technology. And every year, it gets a little harder. When this magazine was first launched, most technology actually was "digital." Now it's organic, prosthetic, aesthetic, pharmaceutical, suborbital and goodness knows what else. In this month's installment, we profile a fashion designer, a space-travel impresario and a high-tech philanthropist. And in 2027, who knows? It's still up in the air.

PEARL ROCOCO
Founder, Rococo Digital Enterprises

For decades, there's been talk of privatizing the space effort — but it took one of America's best-known socialites to make it happen.

Of course, Pearl Rococo is much more than a party maven. An Internet mogul, content producer and renowned philanthropist, she first caught the public eye as a prime mover in the Urban Renaissance that revitalized America's inner cities in the first decade of this century. What would she do for an encore? "Everybody kind of snickered when Pearl's 40 Acres Initiative bought that rusty real estate in Canaveral, Fla.," recalls society doyenne Courtney Pulitzer. "But the project really took off."

Rebuilding the decrepit Kennedy Space Center was relatively easy; new magnetic launch tracks instantly made civilian space travel a smooth, nonpolluting ride. But the trick was turning an old, disused orbiting space station into America's ultimate entertainment destination. And that's where Rococo's matchless talents as a hostess came into play.

Each year, the Divine Nine Cotillion hosts ranking members of all nine African-American fraternities and sororities. For the last decade, this event — which also determines America's social trends for the year — has been held at New York's Colonel Guion Bluford Pavilion. But last year, Rococo had another idea: to turn the Divine Nine into history's first outer-space party.

It wasn't easy. Her proposal brought stiff protests from the Earl Graves Foundation, which is affiliated with the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and owns Bluford Pavilion. "Ms. Rococo's initiative is an affront to Colonel Bluford's memory, to a cherished tradition, and, in particular, to Omega Psi Phi," declared Earl Graves III, Omega Psi Phi's representative to the Cotillion Planning Committee. Rococo smoothed these ruffled feathers by arranging generous donations to the Graves Foundation from the United Sisters of Zeta Phi Beta, Alpha Kappa Alpha and Sigma Gamma Rho. The party was on, and since that unforgettable night vacationers and conventioneers have been clamoring for tickets into space.

As a result of the cotillion's success, Rococo persuaded the prestigious Winfrey-Cosby Institute to establish Satellite University, an internationally accredited post-graduate center for higher learning, which attracts the cream of the Divine Nine pledges, as well as other elite students from around the world. " Satellite University has become an international portal, providing people of all nations with access to data, education and other resources," says Zeca Moreno, chief coordinator of the Winfrey-Cosby Institute. "In a nation that often seems lethargic, spoiled and obsessed with trivia, Pearl Rococo has become a symbol of hope, of striving ambition — and the standard-bearer of a high-tech revolution for all."