At this very moment, Linus Torvalds has a massive 42 vote lead on the next closest contender for the Twenty Top Software People in the World. Unfortunately, that next closest contender is Alan Turing. Blasphemy! This is just wrong on so many levels. I have a ton of respect for Linus and all but come on people, if you go to this site and don't use a vote on Turing you need to get your head examined. The closest Linus should come to Turing is a tie: if every single visitor to the site votes for both.
The whole thing is stupid, really. What might be more interesting would be to allow readers to submit names (not select them) with a short one or two paragraph justification for the submission. Then, show all the names and let people read the justifications.