Turns out, the answer ranges from the extremely technical to the surprisingly common (because even Internet pioneers contend with the mundane challenges of modern life).
1. feedly
Craig Newmark, who was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in the inaugural 2012 class, is perhaps best known as the founder of the classifieds advertisement behemoth Craiglist.com, but anyone who follows him on Twitter knows he’s also an avid news consumer and advocate for quality journalism. So it’s no surprise that his favorite website is feedly.com, an app that allows you to compile, organize and share content from your favorite sites, including news sites and blogs. Says Craig: “I use feedly pretty compulsively. It’s a great way to track and follow my favorite news and related feeds. For example, I use it to follow Political Wire, which summarizes political news really well, and also Dilbert and Doonesbury.”
He’s pretty serious about following Dilbert, which—as he wrote on his site craigconnects.com in September of 2014 in a blog entitled “La Vida Craigbert”—is really more about a way of life: “During my IBM and Charles Schwab years (1976-95) I lived La Vida Dilbert, seriously hardcore. Dilbert really captures the truth of much corporate life, and does so perfectly from the software worker’s perspective. It’s also a brilliant commentary on organizational behavior…Anyway, Scott Adams lives in the Bay Area, not far away, and I tremendously appreciate what he does. I read Dilbert each and every day, not only new strips, online, but on paper.” (Knowing what a fan he is, Scott Adams created the “Craigbert” sketch accompanying this post.)
2. Cloudcheck (by ASSIA)
John Cioffi, known as the ‘Father of DSL’, was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2013 for his contributions to the development of digital subscriber lines. He designed the world’s first Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) and Very-high-speed Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL) modems, which today account for about 98% of the world’s more than 500 million DSL connections. Like Craig Newmark, John Cioffi’s favorite application is consistent with his particular area of expertise: “My favorite application is Cloudcheck, which accurately measures Internet speed and runs from any smartphone/tablet/laptop, providing the only reliable indication of Wi-Fi speed on the connection from Access Point to device, as well as speeds on fixed network path, and to individual application servers,” John tells the Internet Hall of Fame. “It really allows an Internet user to know their speed reliably, and if there is an issue, when and where is it.”
John says ASSIA’s Wi-fi Sweetspots sub-app allows one to locate difficult spatial points reliably and move access points and install other access points/repeaters more reliably. Meanwhile, for supported access points (like ASUS), the Smartifi sub-app allows one to optimize Wi-Fi speed to a specific device or devices so the connection is better, which—John points out— is “very helpful on video.”
3. Waze
While Craig Newmark monitors information in a crowded world, and John Cioffi monitors the speed at which that information flows in the crowded world, Leonard Kleinrock is trying to navigate the crowded world itself. His favorite application is Waze, which is described as the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation app. Using information from other drivers in your area, Waze shares real-time traffic and road information in order to help you save commuting time (and gas money). Of course, Leonard doesn’t just love it for its practicality; as an Internet pioneer, he also appreciates its technological functionality: “I use it every day and it’s great for many reasons: great user interface; hugely useful; fast response; accurate and intelligent; and excellent use of crowd data.”
