100 Years of Innovation

This retrospective Web site from Business Week Online is billed as "a photographic journey." But it's really much more: It's an informative and engaging tribute that places the innovative accomplishments of the twentieth century in context with the technology of today and tomorrow. There are five sections that cover innovation in transportation, energy, health care, the workplace, and the home. Each is organized around a timeline highlighting the century's significant technological achievements. Historic photographs are supported by explanatory text and links to additional sources of information. Each section has profiles of outstanding innovators and a collection of multimedia materials. Included are rare historical footage of the building and operation of the Hoover Dam and the atom bomb tests at Los Alamos, and video interviews with Harvard's Lewis Branscomb, MIT's Neil Gershenfeld, and Microsoft's Nathan Myhrvold. "If innovation reflects who we are as much as where we are going, then these closing days of the century provide an interesting if complex portrait," writes Business Week's Karen Pennar in the introduction. This site does an excellent job of bringing that portrait to life.