Time's well-deserved nod

San Jose Mercury: From the 10 best films to the 50 most beautiful people, magazines routinely anoint people and things with lofty titles that are little more than eye candy for readers. Time magazine's thoughtful and sometimes surprising selections for its Person, or Persons, of the Year is among the few exceptions and a reason the legendary feature has endured since its launch in 1927.
For the fourth time in its history, Time's choice this year touched the tech industry. The magazine editors picked Bill and Melinda Gates, along with Irish rocker Bono. Tellingly, the honor was for the Gateses' work not at Microsoft but in philanthropy.
It was a shrewd and deserving choice.
The tech industry has changed almost everything: The way we live and learn, the way we work and shop, the way we communicate and play. Previous tech honorees have reflected those transformations. There was the personal computer -- Machine of the Year -- in 1982, for giving birth to the digital revolution; Intel's Andy Grove in 1997, for his central role in leading it; and Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos in 1999, for changing the face of commerce. Gateses' Microsoft would not be out of place among those honorees.
Ambitious goals
But how can we compare tech's life-changing innovations to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's most ambitious goals: Saving millions of lives around the world each year by wiping out malaria, HIV/AIDS and other deadly diseases. While far short of achieving those goals, the foundation's work is said to have saved already 700,000 lives in poor countries through vaccinations. The payoff in lives saved could be many times that large if the foundation's generous funding leads to a breakthrough in vaccine research.
At the same time, the Gateses' work and their partnership with Bono have placed the plight of the world's poorest and sickest at the forefront of many agendas. It has inspired governments and international institutions to contribute heavily to the once-invisible cause of global health.
Many philanthropists before Gates -- including tech luminaries such as the Hewletts and the Packards -- have been inspired to do good. But none have done philanthropy on such a scale, with such determination and sweeping goals. With $29 billion in assets, the Gates Foundation is the world's richest charity and is giving away its money faster than any in history -- all in the hopes of alleviating world suffering.