The TIME Digital 50

Years from now, reading our e-history books in the comfort of our networked pods, we might hazily recall 1999's rollicking bull market or whizzy new cell phones. Will we remember, though, the people who changed everything — the entrepreneurs, artists and inventors who made the digital world a practical, cool and fascinating place to be? In TIME Digital's third annual ranking of technology's 50 most important faces (click here for the Class of 1998), we tell you who had the most impact on your wired life this year.

We make no claims of scientific objectivity — we wrote down the names of any people we could think of on index cards, tossed them on a table in a conference room, argued, cooled down, argued some more... and voilà! the Digital 50 was born. Disagree? Vote in the online poll or let us know at letters@timedigital.com. MORE>>