Would ‘World of Warcraft’ be in your software top seven?

Weblog: Exhibition about software that changed the world opens in California

If you were to make a list of software that has changed the world, what would be included? The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, has committed to a top seven that, perhaps controversially, includes World of Warcraft.

The other six, in no particular order, are: the MP3, Photoshop, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), the car-crash simulator, Wikipedia, and the oh-so-humble but world-changing SMS or text message. The magnificent seven of software are the subject of a new exhibition called Make Software: Change the World!, which opened last weekend and celebrates coding.

Tekla Perry, blogging for Spectrum, a publication of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the world's largest organisation for tech professionals, said the final seven had been whittled down from an original list of 100, adding that "staff members note that in particular they've had a lot of pushback about the inclusion of World of Warcraft".

See computerhistory.org/exhibits/makesoftware.