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The Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years-Computer Science

SUSIE GHARIB: NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year by counting down the top 30 innovations of the last 30 years. You submitted thousands of ideas and a panel of judges from the Wharton School judged and compiled our list. Tonight, Scott Gurvey kicks off our look at the top 30 innovations of the last 30 years with advances in computing and computer science.

SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: A computer on every desktop -- that's standard today, almost as standard, an Internet connection in every pocket. But 30 years ago, information technology meant was quite different. Thirty years ago, most computers were huge. They filled entire rooms and were as costly as they were large. The microprocessor had been around for nearly a decade, but personal computers were mainly for hobbyists. Then a couple of Steves -- Jobs and Wozniak -- begun selling a computer they called the Apple. The Apple II was announced in 1977. And in 1981, IBM jumped on the bandwagon with its personal computer. "PC magazine's" Lance Ulanoff says that was the big bang.

LANCE ULANOFF, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, PC MAGAZINE.COM: The pace of change, the pace of innovation goes faster and faster with each passing year. So, we used to see major changes every three to four to five years. Now, we're seeing major changes every six to 12 months.

GURVEY: The microprocessor is high on our list of innovations; also, the personal computers they make possible. Flash memory and liquid crystal displays are on the list. Also the programs which control the machines: productivity products like spreadsheets and word processors; programming paradigms like open source software and services. Many of the innovations fall in the category of connectivity: the Internet, broadband and the worldwide web, mobile phones and electronic mail. Professor of computer science Edmond Schonberg calls this connectivity revolutionary.

EDMOND SCHONBERG, PROFESSOR EMERITUS, COMPUTER SCIENCE, NYU: The fact that information is instantaneously distributed is a change in the way we live, that is as profound as the invention of the printing press.

GURVEY: Along with the connectivity has come a major change in the way we interact with our machines: the graphical user interface, with its windows on the screen and mouse in the hand, is also on our list. Today, the interface is moving toward touch and even motion sensing control -- what is called a gesture-based interface. Tomorrow, we may finally get voice recognition for command and control. But there is an irony in the information technology revolution. John White of the Association for Computing Machinery says as the technology becomes second- nature, people lose sight of the opportunities for future innovation.

JOHN WHITE, CEO, ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY: We need a steady stream of the best and the brightest kids coming out of high school who look at the future and understanding that computing is going to underpin everything and the more that they look at studying computer science and computation, the better prepared they're going to be for having an impact on almost any dimension of business, government or society.

GURVEY: Scott Gurvey, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.