The Internet will entertain us in fantastic new ways. When cyber moviemaking hits its stride, using broadband technology to become truly interactive, this year's Hollywood blockbuster will look as benighted as the first fumblings of the Lumière brothers in fin-de-siècle Paris. When e-commerce is perfected, shopping malls and mail-order catalogs will have the antiquarian feel of the Greek agora. As we have seen this year with the introduction of new wireless protocols and devices, the Net is becoming increasingly portable. Old-style notions of geography—being out of touch or off the grid—will seem like a relic from another age.

Moore's Law famously holds that every 18 months, the power of the microchip doubles. But the people we have chosen for this month's chapter of innovators—six Internet pioneers who toil in fields as far flung as the sociology of identity and the delivery of ice cream by bicycle—demonstrate that there's a human corollary: our ability to harness technology in creative ways is something that increases just as rapidly.