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Trevor Baylis, inventor
Position: 50 Last year: Not ranked
Why? For putting Africa on the tech map
Agree with panel rating?
Baylis is most famous as the inventor of the wind-up radio and for his efforts to get the idea off the ground and over to Africa. The panel felt his work has been extremely influential in the creation of the $100 laptop for use in developing countries.
Baylis took his vision to get tech and information to places without electricity and made it a reality. The panel agreed this was very much an agenda-setting activity.
If Baylis hadn't raised the possibility of helping Africa by using technology such as his hand-cranked radio, it could be argued that number 6 in the Agenda Setter list, Nicholas Negroponte, might not have come up with the idea of the $100 laptop, which uses clockwork based on Baylis's invention.
Baylis has now set up trevorbaylisbrands.com, which provides support and advice - about routes to market and how to make money - for other aspiring inventors wanting to commercialise their products.
Take a walk down memory lane - and find out who made the Agenda Setters poll in years past:
"Blogging's definitely got to the point where there're enough mainstream consumers watching it for the top bloggers to be regarded as agenda setters."
Michael Smith,
Agenda Setters panellist
"Open source gets more important rather than being something that will get squeezed out of the enterprise."
Simon Briskman,
Agenda Setters panellist
The world's 50 most innovative companies BusinessWeek
The world's 100 most powerful women Forbes.com
Chron 500 - The San Francisco Bay Area's top public companies San Francisco Chronicle
100 fastest growing tech companies Business 2.0
Content featuring Trevor Baylis
Trevor Baylis is best known as the man who brought the wind-up radio to the world, especially the Third World where lack of communication has profound effects on health. I was at an event yesterday for CIOs, IT directors and sundry other heads of...
Inventor Trevor Baylis, who sprung to fame in the nineties following his invention of the clockwork radio, is set to float his commercial venture Baylis Brands. Baylis Brands is an organisation which encourages members of the 'inventor community...
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